Gun Ownership

[Jishin]

Hi,

Semiautomatic = 1 trigger pull, one bullet, faster than a musket. Magazine capacity 5 (revolver) and higher. Automatic weapons empty a magazine while holding the trigger. Automatic weapons are banned in the US for civilian use.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAH

[lorax]

Wow Rish, I have become a concerned observer of the divisiveness this "issue" has become and removed all my previous comments from this thread. I do need to step in again and ask all that are posting on this emotional issue please respect the opinions and observations of others. If answers are ever found for this it will be only through open dialog. I know being tied to family in Mexico that Kyonin speaks from his perspective, please respect that. "Right Speech" is critical.

SAT TODAY

[Risho]

Hi,

Semiautomatic = 1 trigger pull, one bullet, faster than a musket. Magazine capacity 5 (revolver) and higher. Automatic weapons empty a magazine while holding the trigger. Automatic weapons are banned in the US for civilian use.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAH

Doh! Here I am talking about precise language. lol

Sorry, I don't mean to sound heavy handed; I just think the more serious the issue the more precise our language needs to be.

Gassho,

Rish

[Jundo]

Hi,

Semiautomatic = 1 trigger pull, one bullet, faster than a musket. Magazine capacity 5 (revolver) and higher. Automatic weapons empty a magazine while holding the trigger. Automatic weapons are banned in the US for civilian use.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_ , LAH

Yes, but bumpstock can mimic an automatic weapon, and an AK-47 and the like can be converted although illegal.

That is the extent of my knowledge, so I am out of bullets.

Let me mention that Kyonin lives in a place where it is not surprising to hear gunfire outside his apartment from time to time, and the murder rate is through the roof. I am sure that the majority of the following involved firearms, and I would assume that the majority of those firearms are imported from the USA ...

There were 25,339 homicide cases last year (2017) in Mexico — the most recorded in a year since the government began releasing data in 1997. Cases can include more than one victim, and a tally of victims, which the government has released since 2014, reported 29,168 homicide victims during 2017.

Mexico's homicide rate reached 20.51 homicides per 100,000 people in 2017. That's a considerable increase over the previous year's 16.8 per 100,000 people and more than the previous high, 19.37 per 100,000 people recorded in 2011, when the drug war hit its peak. http://www.businessinsider.com/mexic...t-start-2018-1

... Mexico had the second-highest number of murders last year among countries considered in “armed conflict,” more than Iraq and Afghanistan

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence/mexicos-2016-murder-tally-exceeds-those-of-many-countries-at-war-study-idUSKBN18529T

Most of the weapons used by criminal groups in Mexico originate in the United States. Each year, an average of 253,000 firearms cross the border, the overwhelming majority of which come from the Southwest states of California, Texas and Arizona.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...302-story.html

I believe that is about twice the numbers of murders in the US, although the population of Mexico is about 1/3 of the USA. Mexico has gun restrictions on the books, although obviously not effective.

Gassho, J

SatTodayLAH

[Shinshou]

I don't own guns, but to equate gun ownership with a lack of compassion and increase in violence - even if you could show that metric (which I find questionable) would be correlative not causal.

I would agree that equating gun ownership with lack of compassion, at least individually, is a stretch. But there are myriad reputable studies that show a correlation between gun availability and gun violence and death. Based on evidence, it's quite clear that increased gun availability correlates with increased violence.

Dan (Shinsho)
Sat Today

[Mp]

Wow Rish, I have become a concerned observer of the divisiveness this "issue" has become and removed all my previous comments from this thread. I do need to step in again and ask all that are posting on this emotional issue please respect the opinions and observations of others. If answers are ever found for this it will be only through open dialog. I know being tied to family in Mexico that Kyonin speaks from his perspective, please respect that. "Right Speech" is critical.

SAT TODAY

Yes, I agree very much with this ... we have our own views, but lets be respectful of others.

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Hoseki]

Hi folks,

I just thought I would chime in here. I think what Kyonin said about guns making people feel powerful and feeling powerful can make people feel different is likely true of some people. But its been my experience that we (people) typically don't need much to turn our noses up to someone. That's why dogs make such great companions, to use the parlance of our times, they don't give a fuck about most of the things we find our selves preoccupied with. So all the stupid shite we use to differentiate ourselves means little to them. My wife would not want me going out in public with a stained shirt, Rudy (my old dog) would be happy to be going somewhere together.

As for mental illness and gun violence I'm under the impression that mentally ill people are more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator. That said, I think we can all agree if someone is experiencing paranoid delusions they should have access to guns during an episode. In fact, I think the mental illness argument is some what of a red herring. As human beings we are capable of violence and most of our thoughts and feelings have a ring of truth about them. At least until you come to understand them as entities that pass in and out of existence. Given that its easy to look down at people and our capacity for violence I think quite possible for "normal" people to reach a point where they are prepared to harm others.

As for the political climate I think its part of how we communicate. I was listening to Russell Brand's Under the Skin podcast and he had Jordan Peterson on as a guest. Brand mentions that they seem to be getting on well and Peterson offers the view that they were engaging in a kind of discovery of each others positions, thoughts and the truth (more or less.) It was a cooperative investigation of a subject rather than an interrogation of a person or a debate (it was very Platonic). Often we feel challenged when we encounter something we disagree with. Once challenged we try to defend our position like we would defend our bodies. Its to be protected and preserved. But when we engage in an investigation we are more open to change, painful though it may be.

Because we aren't communicating well we dig into our positions instead of trying to understand the needs and wants of those who have different positions.

Basically I'm saying that for most people their cup is too full! There have been times in my life where I feel I would have metaphorically died of thrust before I emptied my cup. But what is a cup for but to hold something nourishing? Something to be consumed when needed and discarded with no longer useful. A good cup must be capable of being filled and emptied. I'm going off on a tangent but I hope my point has some value.

Anywho, that's all I have to say about this.

Gassho

Hoseki
Sattoday

[RichardH]

Hi. I just saw this thread, and am not surprised it can be heated and divisive. In a way I should not be commenting on the situation in the U.S. because I have been raised in Canada, where the history and culture are different. Firearms have a different history and culture here. I am on sure footing when talking about gun laws here, but not in the U.S.

Maybe something more universal is having a sense of safety or not, and how I percieve the world outside my door? For me, the world is safe, the neighborhood, and the world at large. This is not an objective claim, it is just an honest perception born from my experience. For someone who honestly percieves the world outside the front door as unsafe, so much so that he/she feels her family needs protection with firearms, that is this person’s experience, and I can only respect that.

There are probably people everywhere who have a special fascination or fetish for weaponry, but I do not believe the struggle we are seeing in the U.S. is about that. I believe there is the underlying issue of fear. Maybe this is just stating the obvious.

Wishing all people can live in safety and without fear.

Gassho
RichardH

Sat today/LAH

[Beldame]

There are probably people everywhere who have a special fascination or fetish for weaponry, but I do not believe the struggle we are seeing in the U.S. is about that. I believe there is the underlying issue of fear. Maybe this is just stating the obvious.

Wishing all people can live in safety and without fear.

Gassho
RichardH

Sat today/LAH

Perhaps these two dimensions of the problem are not mutually exclusive--and even occasionally overlap. I also suspect that both (fear and fetishism) are "fed" by other forces in society at large. Sometimes through structural forces that can't be considered "intentional" in any simple way and sometimes quite deliberately.

Gassho--
Deborah

SatToday