Thursday 20 December 2012

The Ban Cars, Not Guns Argument

The POTUS has some tough decisions to make regarding gun control in the USA but whenever doing something about all the guns over there is mentioned a few facts are wheeled pout, on of them being that more people die in car accidents than by guns so they should ban cars.
Yep, an argument as weak as British beer but it gets an airing nevertheless so it is probably a bit of mischievous timing that the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention announce that while motor vehicle deaths have been declining over the years, gun fatalities have increased and by 2015 the average American citizen is more likely to die by gunshot than by car accident.
The CDCP research states shooting deaths will likely rise to 33,000 in 2015 and surpass the number of traffic fatalities, which are predicted to be around 32,000 that year.
Even though gun deaths increased, the rise is mostly attributed to homicides, suicides, and accidents. On average, 85 Americans are shot dead daily, 53 of which are suicides and more than 200 people end up in an emergency room each day to get treated for gunshot wounds.
So we will continue to hear that argument, and the one about introducing even more guns to the equation, but not for much longer.

7 comments:

Nog said...

The ban cars not guns argument is a sophistic response to a variety of sophistic or nonsensical propositions.

The question for any policy ought to be "do the costs outweigh the benefits"?

Instead, we've got one side saying "if we can save just one child, it is worth any price" and another side saying "this is about freedom."

Anonymous said...

Nog, i have a different spin.

one side fears being murdered (and thinks getting rid of guns will fix it - NOT). the other side fears not being able to prevent being murdered (and thinks a gun will save them - MIGHT).

passive versus assertive.

you know, there were no murders before guns...

q

haveaniceday said...

When you have to arm teachers and turn infant schools into fortresses, you need to have a long hard look at your society America.

Anonymous said...

haveaniceday,

if it were any freedom other than the second amendment the left would tell us it is the price of a free society...

q

haveaniceday said...

Can you name me one other country in the free world that wants to arm its teachers for fear of their fellow citizens killing them in their classroom? If Americans have to arm themselves to the teeth to defend themselves against their own people, then you have a very sick society.

Anonymous said...

haveaniceday,

i'm not saying our society isn't sick, but...

first, arming the class rooms is addressing the symptom not the root cause.

second, projecting the actions of a dozen people, the last 10 years, onto a population of 300 million is very weak logic

third, america has used armed guards at schools in its large cities for many decades – way before people were calling our society sick

observations:
in 1970 at my high school, and many others in texas, the students had guns in their pickup trucks, in gun racks, in plain sight, with the windows down, with the keys in the ignition, and we had no shootings. It is still that way in parts of America.

Speculations about what might have changed our society for the worse since 1970:
• drugs have proliferated, and we are now legalizing marijuana
• pornography has proliferated
• words and materials considered x rated in 1970 is now on mainstream TV
• women entered the work force - family structures and life radically changed
• divorce rates would exceed 65%, but only half of americans bother to get married
• 50% of americans were born out of wedlock last year
• Most teens can now get free birth control without parental knowledge or approval
• We are trying really hard to change the 3,000 year old meaning of marriage
• Don’t ask don’t tell
• Illegal immigration is now a meaningless phrase
• Men’s institutions (ie Augusta National) must be open to women
• Schools and colleges must spend as much money on women’s sports as men’s
• If anybody is offended by the words or actions of any other person, it is a hostile environment and leadership must engage and correct – no intent or motive is required; no standard of hostile exists.
• christian phrases and tenets can be taken as hostile, so they have been and are being systematically removed from our society
• can’t have firemen, policemen, mailmen anymore – firefighter, mail carrier, etc
• we hid people with disabilities (mental and physical), now we put them front and center
• hip hop and rap music are misogynistic and misanthropic
• white males have been, and are, under assault – too violent, too aggressive, unfair to women, and unfair to minorities. They were not really responsible for the good in society – must rewrite history to know the true impact of women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and others
• Long distant transgressions (as far back as 1700’s and 1800’s) committed by long dead americans are now being reincarnated and used to attack the extablishment
• When someone commits a transgression we look into their past to find who to blame
• The press has competition now (WWW), so they have shifted en masse to sensationalism and emotion
• 60% of american women have a prescription drug for depression
• 60% of american women have a prescription muscle relaxant
• america is much more urban than rural now – in fact 50% now live in a city
• we have gone from 20% of households getting government aid to 50%
• we have gone from 20% of working americans being employed by the government to 50% (city, state, and federal)
• we have gone from 80% of households paying income tax to 50%
• we treat endangered species (including “albino crickets” and snail darters) with reverence

Wow, that is a lot of change and I’ve left out so much. Most of it was sponsored by the left and far left to insure personal freedom, fairness, and humanity…

The left wanted change and got it. Now you say our society is sick. Are you saying the changes made it sick? Or was it sick and it is almost well we just have to make a few more changes? What are you saying?

Anonymous said...

i never advocated banning cars. i said that if you use the same logic cars need to be elimanted. plus cars contribute a lot more to your global warming than guns.

q