US Connecticut Shooting

[das_nut]

Don't you find it telling that so many of these guys end up shooting themselves when their assault weapons or their semi automatics jam, even though they have other *lesser* guns along?

It's the allure of the specific model of gun. People are going to rank one gun above others, and when they fantasize about their future attack, that will be the gun they use. When that gun fails, they'll stop.

If one model of gun isn't available, then they'll just fantasize about a different model.

Oddly, pure killing power doesn't seem to play as big of a role as you'd think. The AR-15, which was the gun used in the Connecticut shooting, is considered by many to be underpowered. It's a .223 cartridge. In my state, up until rather recently, it was illegal to use such a round to hunt deer (it wasn't considered to have enough killing power). Now, it's the bare minimum needed, and a lot of hunters don't like it.

 

[mlp]

If one model of gun isn't available, then they'll just fantasize about a different model.

It would be nice if they stopped fantasizing about guns altogether.

I think we can all do our part by refusing to add to this concept that there's something sacrosanct about guns.

And now I'm going to stay out of this thread for a while at least, because I'm at a low point and I find this thread depressing. I had just come back to post quotes from those two pieces because they nicely summarized statistics to which I had made reference earlier in the discussion.