• Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    What do you use it for?

    I think the idea trying to be conveyed is that guns are indeed meant to kill. People use guns for good, like defense, but it is undeniable that the purpose of a gun is to cause death.

    Can you tell me what an assault weapons purpose is that isn’t killing people? Edit: just killing, damage.

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They are useful for defending a medium sized area, versus pistols which are useful only for defending a small area. They are simply more effective defense machines.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I explained it well enough already. But since you want to be pedantic about it, defense would be using the rifle to eliminate threats to your life or the lives of others.

          • Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            My question was to illustrate that the positive use of guns, defense, is done through the use of destruction.

            I am not trying to fight you.

            Guns are built for the purpose of destroying a target. There is no positive impact on society.

            Saying that guns kill people that want to hurt society is the benefit of guns is still saying that death is the benefit. What if society didn’t isolate and disenfranchise the people? Our world, overflowing with resources, is choosing guns to defend their stuff and ignoring how we wouldn’t have to defend ourselves from our neighbors if we actually shared.

            Not even thinking of “forgotten money” which is money that people dont even think about because they don’t have to, how much money is sitting in bank accounts as emergency funds because a hospital can destroy your life? The money sitting around could help a homeless family get their apartment deposit. Will you get equal returm from ot? Maybe. Our world is our home. Isn’t it our duty to see our whole family is taken care of?

            But society says you’re on your own (usa) if you’re in trouble. No wonder people don’t share wealth. One broken ankle can lose your home. Must make sure to have money in case i am hurt, because my society will not help.

            • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              We are all doing fine as for me and mine, so you have no need to worry about us. The overall society is something I have zero control or influence over, so it’s basically none of my concern.

              You seem to be looking at the big picture like you’re meditating on it from Cloud 9 and imagining the way things could be if you had the powers of a magical genie to reform everything into a peaceful Zen tranquility. That’s simply not reality, it’s wishful thinking.

              • Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                1 year ago

                Flying was wishful thinking. Being able to stay underwater for 3 hours was wishful thinking. Talking to your friend when they are 300 miles away was wishful thinking.

                Wishful thinking is what improves society.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I explained it well enough already. But since you want to be pedantic about it, defense would be using the rifle to eliminate threats to your life or the lives of others.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Target shooting? Pretty sure more ammo is spent putting holes in paper every day than ammo spent trying to kill someone. So yea…common use says, target practice.

      • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        more ammo is spent putting holes in paper every day than ammo spent trying to kill someone

        That’s probably true, but what percentage of that shooting range ammo is used in preparation for shooting people (whether offensively or defensively)?

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Hold on I did some similar math to this the other day…

          How many gun owners become mass shooters? Lets see, 333,287,557 people, 50% (generous, it isn’t quite 50 but for easy math) ownership for 166,643,778.5 people owning guns, and I’ll be generous and include gang shootings (because I know the number) at 547 for the year, turns out, 547 is 0.00032824507756826% of 166643778.5, meaning 0.00032824507756826% of gun owners are likely to pull off a mass shooting in any given year.

          S’not exactly what you asked but we have almost no way to ever figure out the answer you seek. We’d need to know how many range trips they make and count their ammo off video surveillance, assuming we can get the angle, and they never shot off camera on private land or something. Or look at their ammo purchases, find a roundcount from their shooting, find out what’s at home, and the difference is the estimation. That stuff just isn’t tracked like that.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            How many drunk drivers end up killing people? Considering how often I see the parking lots of bars full, I’d say the vast, vast majority don’t. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make drunk driving illegal.

            I don’t think guns should be illegal, but that’s not a good argument.

            • krayj@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Your making this into an argument about what the legal status of guns should be, and that is a good and separate argument to have, but the entire point of my original comment was just pointing that the article’s use of the words “sole purpose” is opinionated and inflamatory (and objectively wrong). “Sole” means “one and only” and so that’s obviously ludicrous given that the vast majority of gun owners aren’t using them for their supposed “sole purpose”.

            • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              Of course, murder is illegal, I wasn’t suggesting we legalize it. I’m saying we don’t need to ban alcohol simply because some people drive drunk, and we don’t need to ban guns because .0003% of people who have them “mass shoot.”

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                And I’m saying we regulate cars and part of that regulation is taking away people’s right to use a car when they do reckless things with it. That is becoming less true of guns with virtually every high court ruling. I would say that most Americans do not want guns completely banned, we want them to be out of the hands of people who would go out and kill innocent people with them. And that can be mitigated with regulation.

                • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  And we also take people’s guns for doing reckless things with them. Hell, if you are reckless enough with your car to get a felony they’ll take your guns about it, and they don’t take your car if you have a negligent discharge with your gun.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    And yet we keep having stories about reckless people getting ahold of guns, even if they have been diagnosed as mentally ill.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Way way way less than .00000001%

          People don’t practice suicide at the range

          Cops who on average kill 1k civs a year also practice very little

          And gangs and drug violence is the same… you’re not seeing them go to the range.

      • Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        More paper is used for practicing sketches than the paper used for museum displayed art.

        Target shooting is valid in its own way. It is a sport of accuracy. So is archery. And basketball. And video game. And corn hole.

        Lawn darts were banned due to danger.

        Dangerous things should be banned/regulated/controlled to minimize any danger.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Better ban alcohol then, it kills more people than rifles of any kind used in homicides by around 5xs the numbers…knives as well, since they kill around 2 times what rifles of any kind do… hilarious that you bring up lawn darts though…do you want to wrap everyone in bubble wrap? Let’s keep all drugs banned as well since they kill basically more people than anything else.

          Living life to it’s fullest can be dangerous…if you want to live in a nanny way, do it to yourself but leave the adults the fuck alone.

          • Star@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            I am trying to have a conversation and you are insulting me for talking about gun safety.

            Edit: Oops. This post got cut off weird. But I see no need to remain in this conversation. I tire of conversations where the goal against me is submission. I won’t bend. Bye.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I shoot long range mainly, it’s a lot of fun trying to hit a small target at hundreds of yards. It’s not easy at all. It’s a hobby, people shoot bows for hobby as well, or slingshots or air rifles.

          I also hunt and own a farm. I keep an AR10 in the utv Incase of wild boar, which are fucking scary… I’d rather face a bunch of pissed off coyotes than a single wild bore.