06.06.2025 21:34
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So what do you define as normal, since this is an objective fact?
Worldwide gun ownership median is around 6.2 guns per 100 people. Can we agree that’s a good norm to start with?
Calls self Maple Moose but is clearly not Canadian. Opinion about opinion discarded.
I’m well aware.
I haven’t performed any hate nor asked everyone to rely on them. Whatever you see is in your head.
Show me where I say that’s what I want.
I said that’s what I SEE and that’s why you can’t talk guns without talking about police.
Nor did I say I hate cops. Cops have helped me and also terrified me. They’re people, some of them deeply troubled and some trying to do their best.
If we reworked your own catchphrase, we could say “Cancer is normal and normal people get cancer.”
Do we have to therefore accept cancer? I understand that guns are more fun than cancer and kill fewer people, but my personal experience is that they don’t enrich our lives or our society.
I’m certainly no expert on guns but I have lost a friend to gun violence and have also had a gun pointed at me by a police officer. It seems that your current expertise is in normalizing a lethal weapon that is only “normal” in America, the only country where guns outnumber people.
Just because plenty of people have been writing about Trump doesn’t excuse an article about current American politics from mentioning his impact.
In my world, the only time I see a gun is on the hip of a police officer.
I’m just as curious why you’re so interested in omitting a key component of gun usage in America? Is there any other single profession in the country that accounts for more gun deaths every year?
That is one person, but when surveys include DGUs when someone used their gun because they suspected harm, I have to wonder how many incidents didn’t need to happen. Which brings us back to lethal force by police, also not really explored by RAND’s explainer.
It seems like a good explainer of the inexplicable, an exploration of the almost impossible task of estimating DGUs.
I have met gun owners who swear they need a gun for self-defense despite never having been personally threatened or assaulted but had used their gun to intimidate an unarmed man.
Nice gun pun.
I wish the article had aimed for a single target rather than trying to hit 5 with one bullet. Maybe that wasn’t the assignment but that’s part and parcel of the problem with news media.
Undeniably true and the context you gave for the rarity of gun violence makes a good point: most gun owners are not dangerous. However, even more rare are the times when guns are truly needed for self-defense, despite what people believe by watching sensationalized news and media.
Sure, it's hard to make a listicle of one of the most divisive issues of our times... I mean, can you imagine a headline reading "5 observations to understand America’s culture of abortion"?
But I wish there was a little more context and thought put into such a deadly topic.
5. Guns are paradoxical
"guns are not inherently anything. They take on different meanings according to the various purposes to which people put them."
Yes, and we could say the same for nuclear weapons.
"🍺 and target shooting on Bikini Atoll this weekend, Bob?"
"Hell yeah, brother! 💥 🍄 ☁️"
4. Guns are lethal tools
"although the U.S. is not exceedingly violent or criminal... its criminal violence is more deadly because these lethal tools are more frequently involved."
This section, while astute, completely forgets to mention lethal and often unnecessary police violence.
3. Gun ownership is diverse
"1 in 4 Black Americans, as well as 1 in 5 Latinos and 1 in 4 women, personally own a gun. 20% of gun owners consider themselves politically liberal."
But the rate of ownership is 1 in 3 Americans so some other demographic is skewing super hard to bring that average up.
2. Gun culture 2.0
The article says Americans used to own guns for practical reasons and even basic survival but now "Americans increasingly own guns for self-defense" but without context of whether what needs defending against is real or imaginary.
1. Guns are normal
Yamane says firearms are "the weapon of choice in all but the most isolated communities" but doesn't mention how weird it is that America is the only country with more guns than people.
He also says gun ownership is "enshrined in the U.S. Constitution", which is highly dubious.
I’m a big fan of @us.theconversation.com but not a fan of the @davidyamane.bsky.social piece on guns they published today. I’m no sniper but I bet we can shoot some holes in this article.
Which makes me wonder why spend so much time on vampires, aside from the fun factor?
Wish list for Sinners 2: humans and vamps team up against George Wallace and Bull Connor!
Did the KKK scene play any better the second time? Everyone loves seeing bad guys get their due but it just felt kinda weak sauce coming on the heels of what we’d just been through.
Saw this at an inappropriately young age and it scarred me but boy… Morgana.
I mean, they could have been 260 VERY large pamphlets…
Annnnnnd the verdict is… ?
French is indeed the path of the devil as well as excellent but overlong bread.
Le français est en effet le chemin du diable ainsi qu'un pain excellent mais trop long.
If only I could have afforded it back then! I think I went twice in two years.
I used to live across the street from that mural on Lapidge and 18th! So beautiful
I’m 382nd in line for it on Libby (via the LA Public Library)! Excited to read it in 13 weeks 😂
