Spoonman and CO Liberal monopolize gun dungeon!!

[terryg11]

HOLY shit!! what's been going on down here anyway? Ahh well, that's democracy and freedom at work. God Bless America.

[Iluvleiberman]

1. It sure seems that way. n/t

[Aaron]

2. I know I'm new but I'd swear there used to be a 'gentleman's agreement'

that the pro-rkba posters and the anti-rkba posters - or however folks want to call themselves - wouldn't post those everyday stories about either someone getting shot or using a gun in self-defense. Maybe something happened to it or maybe I'm just imagining things?

[Man_in_the_Moon]

3. Not really

It seems to go in cycles.

Every 6 weeks or so we get into these silly 'I can post every pro/anti-gun story I find in the news' spats.

I usually make a comment or two about people 'wallowing in blood' when the silliness starts, then ignore all the posts unless they get 15-20 posts.

These things tend to die out fairly quickly though.

[CO Liberal]

4. Once I've Made My Point, I Stop For a While

:-)

I repeat the practice every few weeks, as more people join the board, and disruptors are identified and tombstoned.

But I'm sure you've noticed that the stories I posted are more abundant than the ones Spoonman posted.

[JayS]

5. I think the difference in the abundance of stories is due to the...

...nature of the news. If I were to repel a burglar tonight, the story would not make the papers unless there was something to make the story interesting...say the burglar was dressed as Elvis or something. Now "blood and guts" stories the media will take. That is why, in general, only stories where the gun is actually fired in self defense make the news, otherwise all you get is a "plane lands safely at airport" story and that won't sell papers.

[CO Liberal]

7. Or Maybe There Just Aren't As Many Defensive Gun Uses......

....as the pro-gunners want us to believe.

[JayS]

9. Who knows what the number is. I personally know of some in...

...my area that never made the papers. Unless someone gets shot it isn't much of a story and even then it has to be sensational.

[Spoonman]

8. Oh please.....

A well-managed safety program at any company is a prime analogy.

Safety is an intangible asset to the company because the accidents are prevented before they happen, thus the focus on an accident is never needed. Hence, the accident never makes the "news".

A well-managed safety program reports everything to include near misses. Near miss reporting allows some indication of how effective the program is in accident prevention. If the only thing to ever be reported were the accidents, the program would appear to be failing.

Self-defense is the same thing. A crime prevented because a gun owner drew a firearm is not "news worthy" cause no one was killed. The vast majority of these "near-misses" never even get reported to the police.
News reports therefore focus almost exclusively on criminal misuse of firearms, and create the false impression that firearms and crime are directly linked.

Many CEO's tend to over look the benefit of a safety program because they cannot see it on a spreadsheet. They only tend to notice its necessity only after an accident, and attempt to manage by reaction. Rarely does this approach address the root cause.

In the same manner, gun-o-phobes cannot "see" the crimes that are prevented, so they disregard the preventative instrument. They then attempt to solve the problem by knee jerk reactions (manage by reaction) that never address the root cause.

Just in case your still interested, here are some more current ones.

I will assume current by reasonable standards would be within the last 30 days.

http://www.thenewmexicochannel.com/news/2422751/detail.html

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2003/08/05/48661.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/news/081403_NW_atmrobber.html

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/080903/new_20030809015.shtml


http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=59620

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/6485706.htm

http://www.click10.com/news/2373119/detail.html

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2043526

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1392944&nav=0RaPHLMO

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/todays_editorial/article/0,1426,MCA_537_2152471,00.html

[CO Liberal]

10. How Many in the Last 24 Hours, Spoonman?

Hmmmmmmm?????

[Spoonman]

11. Hmmmmm

Approximately 6,849

[MrBenchley]

12. Including the imaginary ones?

LOL!

[Spoonman]

13. Only if

we included all your "numbers".

[Terran]

14. I believe he has a point there, CO

However, on both sides, that was an exercise in anecdotalism--neither of you proved anything by randomly digging up news stories. Time to put the toys away now and get back to "serious" discussion.

Dirk

[CO Liberal]

15. OK, Dirk

But let the record show that the pro-guner claim of all these defensive uses of guns could NOT be substantiated by searching currently posted news stories through Google.

While the pro-control claim of many instances of innocent people falling victim to guns could.

(I probably won't be posting much the next few days - stuff to do around the house. A good time for things to simmer down.......)

[Chico Rog]

6. Cheap shot at lawyers

Kinda reminds me of the lawyer joke:
“Your honor, for every witness the prosecution presents that says they saw my client do this act, I have 5 witness that will testify they did not see him do this dastardly deed.”
:evilgrin: