I don't think mass shootings are the best way to look at the whole gun control issue, frankly. By their very nature, they are one off extreme events, and if anything gun control will have the least impact on those, as such people are more likely to be sufficiently motivated to get their guns by other means. Of course, that's not entirely the point, as risk minimisation is the key (the logic being less guns = less likely), but there's more than a hint of black swan about using this as the key argument to justify gun control one way or another.
Really the thing I'm more interested in when it comes to gun control rate are the more menial gun crime/gun-related homocide rate, and it should come as no surprise that the per-capita rates in the US are miles above any other comparable nation. Though I believe they've been falling gradually for a while. Not a sociologist, don't ask me why (I've heard all kinds of theories thrown around explaining the drop, including the introduction of unleaded petrol. Seriously, what a cunt Thomas Midgely was).
EDIT: (Oh, and games, which is surely irony on a cosmic scale)
Really the thing I'm more interested in when it comes to gun control rate are the more menial gun crime/gun-related homocide rate, and it should come as no surprise that the per-capita rates in the US are miles above any other comparable nation. Though I believe they've been falling gradually for a while. Not a sociologist, don't ask me why (I've heard all kinds of theories thrown around explaining the drop, including the introduction of unleaded petrol. Seriously, what a cunt Thomas Midgely was).
EDIT: (Oh, and games, which is surely irony on a cosmic scale)
Last edited by Spark (2012-07-26 06:28:40)
The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
~ Richard Feynman