I fully support bans on AR-15s and such. I do own a .22 caliber rifle that I got for my 16th birthday, and used to shoot rabbits that were destroying crops at my grandparents' property.
You guys make me a bit angry sometimes, but mostly it's hilarious because nothing any of us says has the slightest effect on anything ever. We are doing nothing useful with this time. We are failing as people right now in this thread. It's really kind of sad, all things considered. EDIT: removed trollbait.
So let me get this right. You're actually postulating that there are sane people, who are not mentally ill or have mental instability, actually want to shoot up malls and kill people. Because I seriously want to make sure that is actual point you're trying to get across here before I start laughing at you.
Yes, I truly believe that there are people who see nothing wrong with shooting up a mall, and I don't think that all of them are clinically "insane". At some point, social norms and values have to enter this conversation as a nation, but it is too complex, so instead we get "guns good" and "guns bad" flame wars.
mental illness does not equal insane. as for the 'guns good' 'guns bad' argument, I think the only people really arguing that are people who are in favor of keeping guns laws as they are. I've never said "guns bad" and in fact have talked about mental illness in this thread and the other. there might be other people who have used the sayings you are talking about, but I don't think they speak for everyone who is in favor of limiting the accessibility of certain guns. Because look at yourself, you just said you were in favor of banning certain guns, yet you're not "guns bad!", are you?
You have put "mental illness" under some big umbrella, and I don't find it relevant in terms of having an actual discussion. I offered a solution ... screen everybody, and if you show tendencies toward any mental illness, you are put into a separate category. I'll let people like you decide how to treat those people, in terms of what they can and cannot do in society compared to those deemed sane, or mentally healthy.
What about just making guns as hard to get as driver's licenses/owning a car? So, like, a gun license, with a written exam on safety and proper usage, a practical test of same, a trial period where you can only shoot in the presence of a licensed owner, proof of insurance required, etc.?
Kingspeed's game attendance and HCP's game thread jinxes aside? Yeah, the fatalism around that board sometimes creeps in too, especially when we're bad.