Via Dave Hardy we have a view from the other side.
I haven’t read the entire thing yet but I found this interesting (page 4):
Ironically, the surge in gun purchases coincided with an ammunition shortage in the U.S. in 2009. Industry experts estimate that close to 12 billion rounds of ammunition were sold that year, up from average annual sales figures that lie somewhere between 7 billion and 10 billion.
First off, I don’t see anything ironic about ammo sales increasing dramatically at the same time as gun sales go up.
But more importantly–think about those numbers. 12 billion rounds of ammunition is almost enough for two rounds for every person on the planet!
If it were true, as some bigots claim, that guns and bullets (or some knives) are only good for killing people then nearly all those bullets must have been defective. Or as Eric Shelton says, “If handguns cause crime, mine’s defective”. The violent crime rate did not go up in proportion to the gun or ammunition sales. Hence it cannot be truthfully claimed that “gun availability” increase violent crime.
That reminds me of the opening quote from Lord of War:
I think it would be better if there were more like 12 billion firearms and six trillion rounds.
“The violent crime rate did not go up in proportion to the gun or ammunition sales.”
Joe, you are not only the master of the comparison, but of the carefully worded proposition that can be argued indefinitely. That sentence is a work of art, your art.
I have several firearms, and several types of ammunition are required for them. Therefore I have an “arsenal” of weapons and a “cache” of ammunition.
Or I have a few interesting guns and the ammo to use in them.
Either way, the same guns and the same amount of ammo are in my house.
All those rounds when used end up hitting in the end the dirt behind the target. Or maybe other surfaces for those few people that have a wood backdrop or use steel plates. Or get stuck in whatever random garbage people drag out to shoot at.
“Joe, you are not only the master of the comparison, but of the carefully worded proposition that can be argued indefinitely.”
Yet no argument was presented. Nor does your response actually seem true. I suspect you just didn’t understand what Joe said.
Maybe you need to take some English night courses, Mikey!
MikeB302000,
Last night when I read your comment, even before Weer’d posted his, I thought, “I must have a 50 point IQ advantage on him. I don’t know if I can explain things at a level he could understand them.”
After spending considerable time thinking about it last night I am still at a loss. I think you are beyond my help.
Sorry, but you are a waste of my time.
Joe, your IQ is only 130?
I don’t really know what my IQ is. I know the IQ of people I recognize as being smarter than me and those I think are about the same. From this I extrapolated to MikeB302000 being about 50 points lower than me. It is at a level that makes communication with him very difficult because of the lack of common concepts.