A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Gun related chat that doesn't fit in another forum

A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby Lumpy on Thu Dec 15, 2022 4:31 pm

I participate on Quora.com, including responding to many questions about firearms- some sincere, some trollish, some I swear were generated by bots. As a result I have written many responses which are near-essay length on various firearms and Second-Amendment questions. I thought I would repost them here, along with links to the original posts, for any comments you might have. Feel free to copy anything you think is worthy of reposting elsewhere.

https://qr.ae/prI7w9

ORIGINAL QUESTION: Can I get a pro-gun conservative's sincere views on how to decrease school shootings in the US? Can it really be done with introducing lenient gun laws?

MY RESPONSE:
First of all, give up the idea that declaring a school a “gun-free zone” somehow magically makes it safe. If that worked you could prevent bank robberies by declaring banks gun-free zones. Almost all spree shootings are premeditated, in that the shooter took the time to plan and bring a firearm with them. No one who is planning to commit assault and murder gives a fig about whether they’re breaking gun laws in the bargain.

Second, stop opposing capital punishment. Some people really have forfeited the social contract to the point where they should be considered irredeemable and put down like rabid dogs. School shooters qualify. And the death penalty should be swift and certain, not something that a handful of people receive after years of delays and appeals.

Third, make felonies committed with a firearm mandatory hard time. No plea bargains. If you need room in the prisons, stop jailing people for simple possession or low-level street dealing. Make violent offenders a priority for incarceration.

Fourth, learn to tell the difference between minors who are genuinely disturbed and in need of help, versus suspending children under “zero tolerance” (a.k.a. zero intelligence) policies for such b.s. things as pointing a finger at another child and going pew-pew.

Fifth, stop glorifying the commission of massacres in movies and video games.

Sixth, revive the archaic social custom of expecting people to be responsible, and expecting minors to either show responsibility themselves or be obedient to those responsible for them. Have transgressions have real consequences, including outright punishment.

Seventh, give up the idea that you can raise children to be pacifists by trying to condition them to be instinctively afraid of and repulsed by firearms. Demystify firearms and teach children that they are neither inanimate vectors of violence and death, nor talismans of power that will automatically confer respect and awe. That guns do exactly what the people holding them tell them to.

Last and not least, if we’re going to live in a society where guns are common, have the places where we keep our children be at least as well-protected as the places we keep our money. On-the-spot immediate response is the best possible defense against the criminal use of guns.
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Re: A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby xd ED on Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:07 pm

Did you get response/ engagement to your reply?
The original post seem a bit sarcastic/ troll-like.
Not at all sure that framing it as a conservative issue is the most productive approach. or what might be considered a 'lenient' gun law.
Yours is a thoughtful response, even though I disagree with capital punishment.
LET'S GO BRANDON
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Re: A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby Lumpy on Thu Dec 15, 2022 7:03 pm

Well the original poster said conservative, so that's how I framed it. And a lot of the gun questions on Quora lean to the troll-ish, which I don't let stop me from framing a reasoned reply. As for the responses on Quora, while I can repost my own content here I probably shouldn't copy other peoples' stuff without permission, which is why I will link to the posts on Quora. P.S. I'm still trying to work out how Quora links to multiple sub forums each with their own thread of replies.
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Re: A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby Holland&Holland on Thu Dec 15, 2022 7:07 pm

Those who ask this question likely have an agenda other than reducing school shootings.
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Re: A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby Lumpy on Tue Dec 20, 2022 12:04 pm

Okay, for those who want to see what responses my post on Quora had, here are links to the multiple repostings of the thread, each with it's own set of responses. Such links will be in all subsequent entries here.

Primary thread, two responses. https://qr.ae/prI7w9
First repost, one response. https://qr.ae/prI8mk
Second repost, no responses. https://qr.ae/prI8Vk
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Re: A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby Lumpy on Tue Dec 20, 2022 8:45 pm

Okay, second in the series:

ORIGINAL QUESTION: Do we as Americans have the right to own laser rifles under the Second Amendment if they become available?

MY RESPONSE:
Let’s approach the question from another angle: if laser rifles or blasters or phasers existed, what would it mean for society and government? If only a small elite of enforcers had access to these superweapons, it would mean that sooner or later it would occur to them that if they decided collectively to elevate themselves to being lords, who or what could stop them? Even if they didn’t deliberately set out to be, the very fact that it was up to them to use or not use such weapons would eventually give them absolute authority if only by default.

George Orwell wrote a short essay “You and the Atomic Bomb”, that presaged many of the themes he later incorporated into 1984. If nuclear weapons make an army that has them invincible against an army that doesn’t have them, and if due to their cost and complexity only governments can create them, then popular revolts could never hope to win and tyrannies could endure indefinitely.

Something similar is postulated in Frank Herbert’s short story “Committee of the Whole”. Fearing that eventually a small cabal or even a single dictator will gain a monopoly on limitless destructive power, the story’s protagonist leaks to the general public how anyone with access to common tools and materials can build a laser capable of shooting down ICBMs or sinking battle fleets.

The point being, if such weapons existed who could you trust them with at all, if not everybody?

Primary thread, one response: https://qr.ae/prN0mt
First repost, two responses: https://qr.ae/prN0lq
Second repost, one response: https://qr.ae/prN0BM
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Re: A thread for my Quora.com gun posts.

Postby Lumpy on Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:18 am

Third in the series:

ORIGINAL QUESTION: How would someone purchase a firearm in Colonial America?

MY RESPONSE:
You would start by applying to the Colonial Governor’s Office for a permit to own a firearm. Your application would have to include the following affidavits: from your town constable or county sheriff that you had no history of being in trouble with the law; from a local ordained minister who would vouchsafe that you were of good moral character, of even temperament and that there was no history of insanity in your family; and finally from a judge that you had put up bonds or sureties against any claim of malfeasance committed with a firearm.

Upon receiving all of these and the payment of a stamp tax for possession of the firearm, if the Governor’s Office approved your application you would be entered into a register of firearms owners including your name, description and place of abode. The permit would be good for typically five years upon which you would have to reapply and go through the procedure again or else surrender your weapon.

JUST KIDDING!!!

Seriously, if we set modern gun control in colonial times, doesn’t it sound exactly like the tyranny the colonials rebelled against?

Postscript: I’m surprised by how many people took this at face value. Our modern “regulate everything” society I guess. :roll:
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