re: #200 lostlakehiker

Well, there are several legitimate uses of guns.

(1) To threaten maiming or killing, or exhibit the capacity to do so, thus quelling violent impulses: cops carry guns mostly for that purpose.

(2) To outright maim or kill those who cannot be stopped from arson, murder, etc. any other way.

(3) To kill game animals for meat.

(4) To kill pest animals because they’re pests.

(5) To kill trophy animals for sport. (The moral legitimacy of this is arguable, but it’s fully legal and some very successful conservation efforts are built around hunting and the revenue from hunting.)

(6) Maybe I missed some.

But the point is, Giffords and Kelly aren’t trying to shut down gun ownership. Nothing they propose would mess up any of the above.

It’s disheartening the kinds of things so many (a majority) of the weasels are posting as comments. It takes a real sicko to write that stuff.

I didn’t say guns were illegitimate but nearly all you bring up involves killing or the threat of killing. That’s different than a car or any of the other things I’ve seen said to be just as dangerous as guns. And you’re right they’re not proposing any of that which makes the hatred directed at them that more pathetic and unreasonable.