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Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Breaking News:

"HN User 'mindcrime' Says Mayor Bloomberg Is A F%@#ng Idiot"

Seriously, what is the deal with this guy? The terrorists kill FAR, FAR fewer people in this country every year than lightning strikes, slips & falls in the bathroom, accidental drownings in one's own swimming pool, automobile accidents, cancer, heart disease, etc., etc., etc.

But because of a few anomalous events, as tragic as they may be, we're supposed to compromise the most basic, fundamental principles that define us as a nation? I don't think so.

Anyway, our government is far more of a threat to our freedom than any terrorist organization will be.

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When a gun is used to kill people he wants to ban guns. Strangely, he's not proposing a ban on pressure cookers.

Government will use fear to slowly strip us of our rights. Why? Because it works really well.

He has already made the leap to assume we "Interpret" the US Constitution. It's a pretty clear document that needs little interpretation. We're supposed to amend it, not change are mind on what they really meant.

When the number of deaths by pressure cookers exceeds the number of death by guns, maybe then.

The number of guns versus number of (reported) gun related crimes is pretty low. Pretty low for pressure cookers too I would imagine. Not sure what the OSHA guidelines are.

There's roughly 270 million guns in the USA and every day about 270 shootings. A ratio of one in a million.

I'm not sure how many pressure cookers there are in the US, probably in the tens of millions at most. I can't find any data on how many injuries are caused by them, but there'd have to be 10-20 incidents per day for it to measure up to guns in terms of injuries per object.

The most common injury from a pressure cooker is a burn. There are about 100 burns requiring medical attention in the US daily (http://www.ameriburn.org/resources_factsheet.php) and it's unlikely that 25% of these are caused by pressure cookers given the wide number of causes of burns.

Sounds to me like pressure cookers are quite the danger. I say we implement rigorous background checks before allowing their purchase, keep a database of all purchased pressure cookers, require mandatory training and a seven day waiting period before purchase, and require mandatory lid locks. Also, any pressure cooker with a pistol grip or bayonet lug is clearly an assault cooker and must be banned.

Kinder Surprise was presumably banned because of the assault variants flooding the market.

The number of deaths by cigarettes, cars, fatty food, etc. etc. already far outnumbers the deaths by guns.

Are you suggesting we should ban those too?

The risks of everything except cars and guns are opt-in, and cars are heavily regulated.

> we're supposed to compromise the most basic, fundamental principles that define us as a nation?

It's time to admit they are no longer the basic, fundamental principles that define the nation, as they are continually being changed or taken away (i.e. Patriot Act)

An Internet tax will just make everyone a tax evader...everyone knows it won't help the economy!

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