The rubber bath duck argument is ridiculous. Death by small arms statistics proves irrefutably that increased availability correlates with increased number of deaths. Look up the numbers for the deaths of children in the US due to negligent discharge. I am an honorably discharged combat veteran. There have to be better limits to the availability of weapons designed to kill at range. The book On Killing should be required reading for anyone with a vested interest on the gun debate. Simply spouting the faulty logic of the gun lobby is a sign to me that you don't value the independence of thought that made the US the pinnacle of democracy.
If your opinion on human nature is so poor, would you not agree that the gun is just the tool used? If there was not a gun there would be a knife. If there was not a knife there would be a stick. The entire anti gun argument is senseless.
iEx, Your argument is senseless. A stick is demonstrably less dangerous than an AR-15. Why was I sent into Iraq with an M16A2 Service Rifle instead of a pointed length of cedar? Because I was trained to saw a bravo target in half at 500 yards with the rifle.
Ninja, you can't say my argument is ridiculous because that's not the world we live in. If it was just rubber bath ducks, they'd be readily available and there would be people willing to use them.
Van, you missed the entire point of my argument. I'm dismissing you as a formidable opponent in this debate.
If someone likes to break things and they have a great potential to do it. Why give them a sledgehammer?
To further understand, studies have shown that a suicide attempt is over 50% less likely to be fatal if a gun isn't present. Given that the there are nearly 200 military suicides every year, including two of my dear veteran friends, and that all but a handful of the suicides were by firearm, can you understand how guns are substantively more deadly?
If someone like to break things, and has great potential to do it, you don't need to provide the sledgehammer.
iEx, Your argument is absurd because such a world does not exist. If your argument requires a special universe in which to function, that's not logic, that's child's play. If you are willing to actually deal with reality and the facts of death by small arms, you can sit at the table with adults.
Logic is not present in arguements sometimes... like a rubber duck . You are not going to kill someone with that. I see the attempt for the arguement but it provides a big fallacy.
You could kill any one with anything, even a rubber duck can be used as a deadly weapon. This wouldn't be an issue if people could take responsibility and learn how to properly handle weapons, or weren't twisted minded killers. A weapon can't kill any one by its self, it requires a humans input to use it, the most deadly weapon, is humans.
It's not the object in my argument that was the point. If "X" is the most deadly object available to humans this remains true X plus human = death If you put a man who desires to kill another man in a cage with nothing but the other man and air, he will kill him.
Gotta remember because of the Geneva convention weapons are now made a lot differently than they were back then
War-King, A human is much deadlier with a small arm than with other weaponry. That is a fact. While intent and training can make the weapon less dangerous, a small arm is a force multiplier. A suicidal person is demonstrably less deadly. A mass murderer is demonstrably less deadly. A child is demonstrably less deadly. All the sophistry in the world doesn't wipe away the essential fact of force multiplication. Pick up any tactical doctrine by a military strategist and it will bear my point out.
I laugh when people act like "let's turn our guns in so there's no more violence!" Really now? Yeah because all the gangs will oblige with that un arming citizens who abide the law could get more people killed. I've seen multiple cases where someone went crazy and started shooting and knifing people and a citizen with a license to carry a concealed weapon put a end to him. Everyone always looks at the bad and can never focus on the good that it may do. But that's just my opinion and everyone's entitled to their own.