Hacker News Reader

Comment by abstractbarista | Hacker News Reader

As an American, I'm lovin' it! Guns are everywhere, yet shootings are very rare. I feel very safe knowing I and others around me all want and enjoy safety, and we have strong law enforcement to keep it that way.

(Although I agree that our 4th amendment has been horrifically raped in modern times.)

The vast majority of gun deaths are consentual (suicide), and of the homicidal remainder, the vast majority are within organized crime. Stay away from gang activity and don't flagrantly disobey police officers, and I guarantee you'll be completely fine.

If you disagree with all this, it's probably just not the country for you. You make a good decision staying out.

View on HN

If the guns were removed, you'd be more safe, as if there are no guns your chance of shooting goes down from "very rare" to 0.

That is patently false.. By definition criminals do not follow the letter of the law, a good example being that murder is already illegal. Strangely enough though, it still happens. Weird right? So would it also make sense that even if guns are illegal that maybe some bad actors would still have and use them in an illegal manner? Disarming law abiding citizens is all you're doing. Full stop.

Hunt, catch, and disarm the criminals too, like murderers. Then when we catch the criminals with them, we take the guns and destroy them. Illegal things happen but over time with proper enforcement they happen less. Such effort requires sustained unified community effort and political commitment without playing games for votes and lobby dollars, which is the most unrealistic and impossible thing of this whole scenario.

If we can keep nuclear weapons out of criminal's hands we can keep anything out of criminal's hands, it's just a matter of doing it correctly.

My sentiment exactly! To me, the essence of America is captured in the New Hampshire state motto: "Live free or die".

There are some people who don't vibe with this sort of philosophy. But thank God the USA exists for those of us that do!

> The vast majority of gun deaths are consentual (suicide),

~2/3 is a majority, but certainly not a vast majority.

> and don't flagrantly disobey police officers, and I guarantee you'll be completely fine.

Plenty of people are shot by police without flagrantly disobeying police orders. It may reduce your risk, but it does not eliminate it.

> If you disagree with all this, it's probably just not the country for you. You make a good decision staying out.

As a country founded on pluralism, The USA has plenty of room and hospitality to offer those who disagree with you.

2/3 = 66% So if I ate 66% of a cake you just ordered, and handed you back the rest would that not be considered a vast majority of your cake?

Nope, 'vast' means more than very large and its closest synonyms are 'immense' or 'boundless'. I would consider a vast majority to require at LEAST an order of magnitude difference, so 90%+ as a bare minimum and I would probably not use it myself until more like 95% and I would still consider that rather hyperbolic up until 99%. You could call 66% a strong majority or a clear majority, but 'vast' is far too strong in my opinion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com