General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm still trying to wrap my head around so many staunchly pro-gun folks on DU [View all]Recursion
(56,582 posts)I don't own guns and haven't for years, I don't post gun porn, I don't particularly like guns (I associate them with hours of tedious cleaning, and I hate cleaning). I'm not particularly interested in people's "rights" as far as guns go; I think the Federal and State governments have pretty significant leeway to do whatever the hell they want (Heller didn't actually say what its proponents or opponents seem to think it did).
I also think attempts to ban small, easily produced, easily transported, easily concealed things that people want have always gone badly in this country, and that disarming the portion of the population that's willing to be disarmed won't help very much.
So why is it when there are so many compelling studies, statistics, and medical research on gun ownership correlation with gun injuries and death
When people stop harping on about centerfire rifles (1% of homicides) and focus on handguns (75% of homicides, including the majority of mass shootings) we can start looking at stats. Basing policy on double-outliers (mass shootings that use rifles) is a few too many sigmas for me to support.
But, ultimately, yes, it's not something you're going to wrap your head around any time soon. It's a culture war thing. It's tribalism. "Our side" doesn't like guns, "their side" does. But tribalism isn't particularly accurate when you start interacting with individuals.