Hlootoo's Art

sharky-head:

xaqalibre:

cataharian:

The gun control debate in the United States is such a weird thing to me because HOW CAN YOU ARGUE ABOUT IT? GUNS KILL PEOPLE. THEIR SOLE PURPOSE IS TO TAKE AWAY SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE. WHY DO YOU WANT MORE OF THOSE THINGS? IT MAKES NO SENSE

First things first, SCHOOL SHOOTINGS. You guys are literally the only country in the planet where it is a common thing for a random person to just go and shoot children in a school. Like, doesn’t it seem weird to you all that the country where everyone can have their own gun is also the country where children get routinely shot and killed?

I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m not american and I’m from a quite different culture, but I really can’t get in the mind of a pro-gun person. I can’t possibly process that some people believe everyone should be allowed to posses a machine that was solely built for murder.

“HOW CAN YOU ARGUE ABOUT IT?”

Easily; we look at the subject in an objective, logical manner rather than a disoriented, emotionally-fueled one.

“GUNS KILL PEOPLE. THEIR SOLE PURPOSE etc. etc.”

No, no they do not. The gun does not commit the murder; the person using the gun does. Take the person out of the equation, and all that gun is going to do is sit there, not causing any trouble.

To look at it another way:
Alan hypnotizes, or by some other way takes full physical control of, Barry. Alan has Barry, while under his complete control, kill Carol. Barry is unable to prevent himself from doing this despite his best efforts.

By the “guns kill people” logic, Barry is guilty of Carol’s murder. By the “people kill people” logic that those of us in favor of gun rights espouse, Alan is guilty of Carol’s murder and Barry is simply the instrument Alan used to commit it.

“maybe it’s because I’m not american and I’m from a quite different culture”

Yes, that probably has quite a lot to do with it. You don’t live in a country that was born in a violent breakaway from the most powerful nation on Earth at its time and, as a result, decided to ensure that being taken by such a nation ever again would not happen.

You also, most likely, don’t live in a country that shares a large, nigh-impossible to fully patrol border with a string of countries stretching across an entire continent filled to the brim with criminal enterprises like the Central/South American cartels. As such, you probably don’t live in a country where illegal goods are a multi-billion-dollar industry nationwide and, thus, where criminal activity is so widespread.

Why does this second point matter? Because quite a lot of us live in areas where gang activity, and other shit connected to that criminal industry, is commonplace. Whether the law allows us to have guns or not, quite often they do.

We live in a part of the world where, for many of us, having access to equal force is necessary to stay safe. Not as a “shoot them first” measure preferably, but more as a deterrent; to put it in the criminal’s minds that, if they try to mess with someone, it will cost them their life, and as such make them not want to mess with us.

This, sadly, is part of the reason why school shootings, and shootings in “gun-free zones” are such a thing in the news; not only do they make sensational headlines (which in turn often inspire other shootings, which spawn more headlines…), but by marking itself as a place where guns are not allowed, schools and such mark themselves as defenseless, easy prey.

Stuff like this is why I, and others like me, find gun control to be a terrible idea: it doesn’t work over here.

We tried outlawing alcohol in the 20′s. The intended result was the whole country going sober. The actual result was moonshiners, speakeasies, and the mafia turning booze into a nationwide criminal empire. We gave up on the idea, made booze legal again, and the criminal empire evaporated, replaced by legitimate business.

We tried outlawing marijuana in the 60′s and 70′s. The intended result was to make the whole nation drug-free. The actual result was a nationwide criminal business empire of drug dealers fueling the cartels and otherwise good people getting meaningless criminal records simply because the poison they choose to put in their body (cannabis) isn’t a government-approved poison (nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, etc.). Recently, some states like Washington, Colorado, and Alaska have given up on the idea of outlawing marijuana, and the results have been huge: crime rates plummet, tens of millions in revenue for the states, and people who would otherwise have been left to a life of crime finding legitimate work.

The same story plays out with gun control. Look at cities with the toughest gun laws in the country, like Detroit, Washington DC, and Chicago. The intended result is to make those cities safe. The actual result is some of the highest gun murder rates in the nation. Then look at cities like Kennesaw, Georgia, where gun laws actually mandate keeping one in the home. One of the lowest crime rates in the nation. 

The evidence is overwhelmingly clear: banning things of any sort in this country not only fails, but backfires horribly. Trying to take away people’s right to bear arms is not the answer.

You want to tackle things in this country, there are 3 key points in criminal activity you can go after:
-MEANS: The way to commit a crime. This is what gun control seeks to do…and it’s the easiest of the 3 to work around by simply going after a different means. Can’t buy a gun legally? Either stab ‘em, beat them with a hammer, or buy a gun off the black market and shoot ‘em anyway. Bam, method thwarted.

-OPPORTUNITY: The chance to commit a crime. This is what a police state would prevent, and…uhh, yeah, fuck that idea.

-MOTIVE: The reason to commit a crime. This is the best of the three to go after. Tackle unemployment, education, racism, sexism, the imbalance of justice between the wealthy and the non-wealthy, the fueling of evil deeds by the media as I mentioned earlier…basically, go after everything that makes people want to commit crime in the first place. Then, it won’t matter if we have guns or not, because we won’t have any reason to use them.

Take the arms from an armed man who hates, you protect those around him for a day. Take the hate from an armed man who hates, you protect those around him forever.

God damn OP was blown outta the water