Comment by HonestOp001 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by HonestOp001 | Hacker News Reader

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1. Self protection. When the police are minutes away, what can you do for yourself in seconds.

2. Force projection. When someone who is stronger is trying to rape you, how can you stop them.

3. Overthrowing the yoke. If you do not think it can be done, you are NGMI. How many people in drug cartel countries are powerless because of a lack of weapons.

4. The government is providing the guns to everyone else. Fast & Furious gave guns to criminals and the California Representative or Senator who was pushing for gun control while working to smuggle in weapons. The Christchurch massacre was done by an officer of the government.

We have a mental health crisis whenever someone thinks it is a good idea to commit these acts. Every time it is about taking away guns and not looking at root causes, why did the government bury information about concerns with an individual: look at the Miami incident, the Texas Air Force base, and countless other incidents. We look the other way when people are doing things that seem bad, until they pick up a gun, then we blame the gun for the outcome, not the fact that government agencies looked the other way instead of intervention.

> 2. Force projection. When someone who is stronger is trying to rape you, how can you stop them.

I understand the point your trying to make, but this is a bad example. Most rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. By the time the victim knows they are in danger of being raped, the perpetrator is already too close, and the gun is much more likely to be used to gain compliance than in a successful self defense.

> We look the other way when people are doing things that seem bad, until they pick up a gun, then we blame the gun for the outcome, not the fact that government agencies looked the other way instead of intervention.

This always struck me as silly excuse. The gun nuts are pretty obsessed with personal liberty. Taking their guns is already beyond the pale, so I have a hard time believing they're going to accept being thrown in a sanitarium whenever they do something antisocial like show up at a school board meeting foaming at the mouth about vaccines...

Is there some connection between opinions about vaccines and school shootings, or are you just demonizing people you disagree with?

Any reasonable person would object to throwing people in a sanitarium just for their opinions, however misguided.

Precisely. How do you keep crazy people from having guns when the only suitable definition of crazy is somebody that has done something terrible (which obviously is too late).

There are ways to intervene short of throwing someone in a sanitarium, and better causes for intervention than holding a fringe opinion.

> The Secret Service found that when youth plan targeted violence, they often tell at least one person about their plans [and] offer specifics before the event

> most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused concern or indicated a need for help

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/preventi...

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