33,000 gun deaths each year and nothing is done...

[HipChick]

Link to tweet

[Stuart G]

1. Many people try to do something, but the gun lobby has incrdible political power.

Through contributions, through other kinds of influence, and wacky interpretation of the 2nd Amendment

[Baconator]

3. That's all secondary to actual voters...

... who show up and vote on their issue.

[flamin lib]

5. No, it's the lobby and the $$.

Case in point; how many voters would show up to vote to facilitate an opioid crisis? Yet the Congress stripped the DEA of authority to monitor drug distributors which allowed the shipment of 9,000,000 Oxycontin tablets to a pharmacy serving a community of 379 people. There were no nay votes.

Nope, it's not the votes.

[Baconator]

9. They honestly don't spend that much...

Opensecrets had them at 4 million a year...

That's a drop in the bucket compared to most lobbying organizations.

The reality is that politicians in a significant number of areas in the country know that they will be out on their ass if they cross the line.

Gun rights drive votes...

[flamin lib]

11. Nope. According to an NPR/IPSOS poll nearly 80%

of Republicans favor more gun control. Including a ban on military style assault rifles.

Even more Dems and Independents.

Nope, it's not the gun nut vote, it's the lobby and the year after year after year $$.

But keep celebrating your imagined potency.

[Hortensis]

18. It's a valuable wedge issue used to divide and conquer.

You're right, and people who imagine this is all about gun ownership need to understand:

The issue itself is useful in keeping the electorate divided and turned on itself.

We don't have proper gun control because it would remove that tool of manipulation.

[Baconator]

32. I saw the same poll...

... And you are willfully, and I suspect intentionally, misrepresenting it.

[flamin lib]

33. Oh, please enlighten me! Nt

[Baconator]

36. You link it and I'll discuss it...

[flamin lib]

40. Deflect much? You said you saw the poll. You said I misrepresented it.

You even impugned my integrity.

Defend your statements, Sir or Madam. Link to the poll YOU saw that I supposedly misrepresented.

[Baconator]

43. There's a fun game...

This the one? Nope

How about this? Nuh uh..

This one? Nyet...

[flamin lib]

46. So you're going to just call me a liar and refuse to back it up?

Yeah, that's what gunners do.

I saw the poll. You said you saw the poll. You said I misrepresented it, probably intentionally, hence I lied.

I accept your refusal to actually show me wrong as proof that 1)I am not a liar and 2)nearly 80% of Republicans in the IPSOS poll support a ban on "assault rifles".

Bye now.

[Amishman]

22. No, the NRA membership is if anything even more extreme than the leadership

This was exposed recently after the Vegas shooting.

The NRA came out and made a statement tepidly endorsing the idea of restricting bump stocks.

Their membership went nuts and flooded the NRA with demands that they take it back and for no new gun restrictions of any kind.

The NRA walked it back and redefined their original statement to be the most narrow and toothless interpretation, and stopped talking about it.

There are millions of them and they are far more engaged than any other special interest base. politicians are used to supporters who vaguely like an idea but are too busy with their lives to really push. The gun rights crowd has a massive core of zealots who hammer the issue.

[ileus]

24. Yup the power behind the NRA is 2A progressives

that aren't members but never fail to vote.




Hard to keep power and get reelected if you piss off 70% of your voters....and nothing gets voters motivated like losing their rights.

[spanone]

2. K&R...

[ChoppinBroccoli]

4. An Illustrative Way To Frame This

If you said, "If a 9/11 attack happened EVERY MONTH, you'd do something to stop it, wouldn't you?" that helps drive home the point. 33,000 dead every year is like having 9/11 happen every single month.

[SHRED]

6. Good point

[SoCalMusicLover]

15. Would Be Ignored

And then they would go back to watching Faux "News"

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Add to that the 64,070 (in 2016) drug overdose deaths annually . . . . . .

. . . . . for another case of of a CRISIS that remains largely unaddressed in this country.

So yeah. Let's make it harder for a bunch of people to get into the country because ONE CRAZY PERSON committed a horrible crime.

source: https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

[HipChick]

10. Good point!

[Motownman78]

8. Problem with that figure

is 22,000 of those are suicides.

[flamin lib]

12. So suicide by gun isn't violent and they aren't dead? Google gun suicide images and

try making that point.

[ansible]

14. The problem is why they're killing themselves to begin with

[Motownman78]

17. Trying to include gun

suicides into the number of people killed by guns each year makes as much sense as including deaths by hanging and trying to ban rope.

[Lee-Lee]

19. The point is you dont stop or address suicide by focusing on one method

Because the method doesn’t cause it.

Look at Japan’s suicide rate compared to ours and then how accessible guns are.

Saying that suicides with guns are a gun problem or one that is solved by regulating guns is unrealistic.

It’s a mental health issue.

If you want to reduce it, you treat and focus on the cause, not the means.

Of course that is true of most violence committed with crime. If we were actually serious about addressing it the focus, effort and spending should be on the underlying cause of the violence, not on one item used in it.

[Decoy of Fenris]

21. What you suggest requires time and effort. Why do that when you can just ban guns?

The entirety of the gun control movement can be encompassed in one simple word; lazy. They want what's easiest and laziest rather than addressing actual issues.

[Orrex]

23. Guns facilitate suicide and have a greater chance of resulting in death

When access to guns is restricted, suicide rates plummet. Other methods are dramatically less effective, resulting in failed attempts and--contrary to what NRA literature insists--many attempted suicides are impulsive, so the person won't simpy "try again."

The NRA and its allies love to pass the buck and dismiss suicide (and gun murders) as "a mental health issue," but that's merely a deflection.

It is a mental health issue. It is also a gun issue. As long as gun advocates pretend that this is not the case, there will be no improvement.

[SoCalMusicLover]

16. Yeah....Gun Suicides Don't Count nt

[HAB911]

25. Just thinning the herd, right?

[sarisataka]

27. Some folks believe that's a good thing

As for me, I subscribe to the "thin the herd" philosophy. The more gun owner's toddlers kill their parents and themselves, the fewer nuts of breeding age are left and the higher the average IQ of the nation will rise.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1649445

[HAB911]

28. LOL!!!

Gee, I can't argue with that guy!

[Marengo]

30. If not a joke, thats thoroughly repulsive. Not that I should be surprised though considering...

The source.

[ileus]

20. Fuck the NRA.

[Hoyt]

26. How about others that support guns? The NRA is a relatively small group, but there are lots of

gunners adamantly opposed to restrictions and actively supporting relaxing of already lax gun laws that will put more guns on the street.

[crazycatlady]

29. The right to carry an AR-15 wherever you go is more important than people's lives

If the murder of 20 first graders didn't change the narrative then nothing will. Sad but true. Since Newtown, things have only gotten worse.

[jmg257]

31. A decline in gun homicides by 50% in 20 years

Though the number of guns has sky-rocketed.

Something is working.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/03/weve-had-a-massive-decline-in-gun-violence-in-the-united-states-heres-why/?utm_term=.4d0ad601d4d2

[maxsolomon]

39. hoarders can't shoot all their guns at once

so that helps.

[Kaleva]

41. Gun ownership is declining

Percentage of the adult population who own 1 or more guns continues to decline

[Kaleva]

42. Percentage of households with a gun is at the lowest it has been in 40 years

Back in 1978, 51% of households had at least one gun. In 2016, it was down to 36%. Fewer people with guns may be a major reason for the decline in the homicide rate.

[jmg257]

47. So there ya go...lets hope the trends continue!

[Kaleva]

48. But that brings up an interesting question

While the percentage of households with at least one gun continues to decline, the actual number of guns owned by civilians has skyrocketed. Does this mean there is a small percentage that own many, many guns? The increase in population since 1978 would account for some of the increase in number of guns even if overall ownership has declined

[DFW]

34. There is no National Rented Pickup Truck Association. n/t

[maxsolomon]

35. did he actually get in on the Diversity Visa program?

Last edited Thu Nov 2, 2017, 02:33 PM - Edit history (1)

or is that just the Dotard spouting off?

[Baconator]

37. Back in 2010...

Excellent odds he self-radicalized after his arrival.

[maxsolomon]

38. so it's been conclusively established, then?

or was he part of "Chain Migration"?

[Baconator]

44. Which part?

He definitely came in on the program and I'm using professional judgment on the guess about radicalization post arrival.

[maxsolomon]

45. i'm mostly mocking the Dotard

for his "Chain Migration" blathering.

OK, thanks for the info.