Guns suck!

Hi. It’s me again.

I’m fighting with someone on Facebook.  And it’s the weirdest argument ever.  He wrote something I didn’t like about gun control.  So I responded.

Him:  Timothy McVey did worse with fertilizer and a truck… This is a terrible shame, but guns aren’t the issue.

Me:  And as long as we have people like Paul saying guns aren’t the issue then NOTHING is going to change. GUNS are the issue. They have always been the issue. Will always be the issue. Timothy McVeigh didn’t come close to killing the numbers of people that guns have killed. It’s this ridiculous idea that people will always be violent. Yes they will but have you tried to buy a large quantity of fertilizer since the OKC bombing. They regulated it. No one wants to take away guns but my god is it so bad to regulate them. Is it so bad to actually do a background check. I go through more of a hassle to buy alcohol than most people do to buy a gun. Seriously. Stop saying guns aren’t the problem! It’s an insult to EVERYONE who’s been killed by a gun which numbers about 10,000 people this year in the US.

I countered him, made my point.  This is his reply:

Him:  Jeff, I’d love to debate this, but I’d ask you to keep it topical, factual and respectful.

I’m confused.  What’s not topical?  What’s not factual?  What’s not respectful?  Seriously.  Can someone help me here?

These are the responses:

Her: HE DID

Him:  I feel he attacks the general principle without substantiating his position, then uses a mild ad hominem attack instead of fact. But you disagree with me, so I know what I say won’t really matter to you Bonnie

Me:  Seriously? The general principle is that guns kill people. This is the best argument I’ve had used against me EVER. You don’t like what I say so you say I’m off topic, not factual nor respectful. Here’s a news story this year about gun deaths. You are absolutely right. I was not factual. There are NOT 10,000 deaths a year by guns. The actual number of deaths is more than 30,000. My apologies. I stand corrected.

He responds:

Him:  My first question Jeff, what do you think the process is to legally purchase a gun? What specific level of regulation are you calling for and what specifically do you find flawed in the current system?
Also, your comparison of McVey vs every crime committed by every other criminal using a gun isn’t a logical comparison.

Me:  You are the one who brought up McVeigh. Not me. Seriously dude. Seriously.

Him:  Jeff, you’re very condescending. You compared the act of one man to every other person in America. That’s an illogical comparison.

My point in bringing up McVey was to illustrate that bad people don’t need guns to commit atrocities. Society needs to stop blaming itself for crimes and start holding individuals accountable. Bad people will do bad things. Anti-gun legislation is a knee jerk by people who feel bad and have a loss of a sense of control. They want to recapture that feeling of control by changing something… but it won’t work.

Maybe this discussion would be better in person, but since starting to talk about this, you’ve been inflammatory and demeaning in your tone, so I’m going to take my leave. You’ve failed to change my mind towards your position because your arguments are weak and mostly based on emotion and personal attack.

My final respons:

ME:  LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Seriously dude. You might try holding a conversation with someone other than a first grader. You are absolutely right. People don’t need guns to kill people. But NO ONE has died at the hands of fertilizer since OKC. 30,000 people die each year from guns and we don’t do anything because well bad people will always do bad things. These are right wing talking points and don’t hold a lot of water. When the kid you are holding in your photos becomes the victim of gun violence you might start talking like the father of the reporter killed in Virginia this week. Know this though, if you do own guns and you have them in your house, your daughter runs a VERY high risk of being the victim of gun violence. I’m not making this up. Do the research.

Why can’t we do something about guns.  Yes.  People who REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to kill someone will find a way.  But those people who are angry in the moment won’t have access and will cool down and will be thankful that they didn’t have a way to do what they wanted to do. In the meantime 30,000 people a year are killed in the U.S. and we are supposed to ignore it, or pretend that a little mental healthcare will fix it, or that your right to own a gun trumps my right to be a live.  IT FUCKING PISSES ME OFF.