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A bad comparison for many reasons, and I really would like to know where these statistics Racer X refers to come from. No federal funds have been allowed to be spent on this type of research for decades, most other possible sources of independent funding are rather small.
Besides the comparison is between households, some fraction of which have guns to almost all households which have at least one vehicle.
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Must be all that heat in Texas that makes you do dumb things. LOL
Actually, there are dumbasses ALL over the USA. Unfortunately, the majority of them are in WASHDC at East Capitol St NE & First St SE in that big building with the fancy dome.
I said "dumba**es"
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Racer X wrote:
And it is still his Constitutional right to choose.
Statistics have proven that you are more likely to die in an auto accident if you ride in an auto. Sell your vehicles!
Good luck with that. You'll only get the same old worthless shop-worn, specious and pointless homilies.
They'll never acknowledge the commonality of a human being in control of the device.
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Guns vs Cars.
POMTL
Good one.
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"Dumb teenagers" often become dumb adults. :facepalm:
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The kid was burning gunpowder he removed from a shotgun shell - how does that equate to being "MUCH, MUCH closer to killing himself"? It's not all that difficult to safely remove gunpowder from a shotgun shell and there's certainly not enough in a single shell to kill someone when lighting it on fire, as these videos illustrate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsKyXhM5Mr0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQukonv8rI
I'm not advocating for teens to be allowed to play with gunpowder, but let's keep proper perspective regarding the potential consequences of such actions.
hal wrote:
Damn cbelt - you're too close to the forest to see the trees.
You just admitted that in spite of your careful habits, your kid came MUCH, MUCH closer to accidentally killing himself than he would have if you didn't have any guns around.
[quote=cbelt3]
In fact quite the opposite. I once caught my then teenaged son fiddling around with a .20 gage shotgun shell he had taken from the gun safe after he found my keys and opened the safe up. He had removed the gunpowder and was experimenting with burning it.
I took the following steps:
1) confiscated all ammunition.
2) locked the safe, and left the keys in my desk at work.
3) Took him to the back yard, gave a full safety lecture. Handed out protective goggles and gloves. Then we carefully and safely cut apart a round, showed him the parts, then spent an hour showing him how gunpowder worked.
And after that he said "you do know you sucked all the fun out of that !"
Mission accomplished !
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space-time wrote:
Guns vs Cars.
POMTL
Good one.
Well, around here, I am much more afraid of some nimrod not paying attention to their driving and plowing into me than someone pulling out a gun and shooting me.
Of course, people are more civilized in the small towns around here than in the larger cities. Even though most of them pack a weapon, there's hardly a shot ever fired to do someone bodily harm. I definitely can't say that about the inattentive drivers.
It doesn't matter that it was an unintentional accident. You're still injured or dead as a result.
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My nephews lived in Panama and were near an army base. They would sneak onto the firing range at night and collect unspent ammunition. When they came north to visit us, they would take the shells apart and we would use the gunpowder to burn up plastic models.
Amazing the stupid things we did.