8-year-old's Uzi death at gun show

[jupla]

This is just plain stupidity from the parents. IF I wanted my kid to be interested in guns, I'd let him play with (realistic looking) toy guns first. Why would you want to let a child fire a real gun? Those things aren't designed for children to use.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Canada has more guns per person than America, yet significantly less crime. Obviously, the guns aren't going off by themselves, now are they?

Can you cite your source for that statistic, please?

Since guns per capita seems to be a central tenet of your argument, an inability to cite this most fundamental supporting statistic does not look good.

Allow me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gun_ownership

I was hoping for an admission from the source. The mere suggestion that Canada has anywhere near the gun ownership rates of the US is laughable, as is the implication that our systems of gun control - from the types of weapons we can legally own to the process we have to go through to get them - are even remotely comparable.

I'm not really following the argument (although in a nutshell, I'm inclined to think that anyone willing to hand his eight-year-old son a loaded Uzi shouldn't complain about having to go to his funeral) but basing an argument on such obviously made-up numbers struck a bit of a nerve. I'm rather surprised nobody else called him on it, to be honest.

 

[anthony87]

You realize there HAVE been VERY YOUNG people who have gotten helicopter licenses.
Like, far younger than you or I.

WOW...good God. I realize I'm argueing with a wall, so I'm just going to go ahead and cut out of this conversation and not waste my time any further.

Just remember, when you have kids make sure to give them loaded firearms to play with! It's totally safe! In fact go ahead and buy them acetylene torches for their 2nd birthday! They'll have a blast, and remember more people die from lighting strikes then acetylene torches, so they're perfectly safe for a 2 year old to use!

I'm pretty sure Ururu117 isn't human. He is one of those supercomputers designed to debate no matter the argument.

She.

I'm pretty sure Ururu117 isn't human. She is one of those supercomputers designed to debate no matter the argument.

Fixed, now go get a soul please ^^.

Souls don't exist.
Neither does god.

Mathematically disproven years ago.
Drop your bronze age myths and become one with the metal

I MEAN....cake.
I love cake.

Delicious.

True, souls don't exist;
True, god doesn't exist;
True, cake is delicious and kudos on the Portal reference but I just refuse to believe that you find no sense of tragedy, or whatever you want to call it, in the fact that an 8 year old kid shot himself in the head.

Not a single iota of sympathy, tragedy, nor anything but sheer amusement.

Well then I can't help but pity you.

Pity me for having a different opinion and viewpoint than yourself?
My my, aren't you a little arrogant?

Oh I'm horribly arrogant, no question but...

I'm not edgy or different, nor shallow.
Simply my opinion on the matter.

And, considering I am a scientist and one of the few dedicating their lives in the selfless pursuit of the most valuable thing to society (knowledge), I'd really say I'm nothing of a parasite.

So are you.

 

[Char-Nobyl]

that seems to be the exact opposite of what ururu is aruging.

Hmm...I see your point. In which case, the point I agreed with him on was this being funny in a macabre sort of way.

 

[MajoraPersona]

Well, that's a tragedy. One would expect the proprietors of a gun show to properly maintain the guns and take efforts to avoid such accidents.

Just a thought, but if the issue was the gun, what are the chances anyone else trying the gun would have suffered a similar fate?

If the kid hadn't shot himself it would have been a successful family trip[?]

Yep, just like everyone who's ever died at an amusement park, his death ruined everyone's fun.

It's a sad incident, and a horrible accident. Shit happens. It can happen when driving a child to a toy store, or it can happen when you bring a toddler to a shootout. Hell, it could even happen in something in-between.

 

[Bigeyez]

I was hoping for an admission from the source. The mere suggestion that Canada has anywhere near the gun ownership rates of the US is laughable, as is the implication that our systems of gun control - from the types of weapons we can legally own to the process we have to go through to get them - are even remotely comparable.

I'm not really following the argument (although in a nutshell, I'm inclined to think that anyone willing to hand his eight-year-old son a loaded Uzi shouldn't complain about having to go to his funeral) but basing an argument on such obviously made-up numbers struck a bit of a nerve. I'm rather surprised nobody else called him on it, to be honest.

Oh Malygris didn't you read her latest post? She's a scientist my good man:a scientist! She's devouting herself to the pursuit of knowledge for the good of mankind! She can't be burdened with providing facts or applying common sense to her arguements. Her logic is infallible. It cannot be denied. Uzi's and AK-47's FOR EVERYONE!!

Edit: It's pretty obvious she's just a troll at this point. So I'd give up any attempts to try and rationlize her posts in any way.

 

[mechanixis]

I'm not edgy or different, nor shallow.
Simply my opinion on the matter.

^^ Does this make sense to anyone here? Does having an opinion somehow make one immune to adjectives?

 

[anthony87]

You realize there HAVE been VERY YOUNG people who have gotten helicopter licenses.
Like, far younger than you or I.

WOW...good God. I realize I'm argueing with a wall, so I'm just going to go ahead and cut out of this conversation and not waste my time any further.

Just remember, when you have kids make sure to give them loaded firearms to play with! It's totally safe! In fact go ahead and buy them acetylene torches for their 2nd birthday! They'll have a blast, and remember more people die from lighting strikes then acetylene torches, so they're perfectly safe for a 2 year old to use!

I'm pretty sure Ururu117 isn't human. He is one of those supercomputers designed to debate no matter the argument.

She.

I'm pretty sure Ururu117 isn't human. She is one of those supercomputers designed to debate no matter the argument.

Fixed, now go get a soul please ^^.

Souls don't exist.
Neither does god.

Mathematically disproven years ago.
Drop your bronze age myths and become one with the metal

I MEAN....cake.
I love cake.

Delicious.

True, souls don't exist;
True, god doesn't exist;
True, cake is delicious and kudos on the Portal reference but I just refuse to believe that you find no sense of tragedy, or whatever you want to call it, in the fact that an 8 year old kid shot himself in the head.

Not a single iota of sympathy, tragedy, nor anything but sheer amusement.

Well then I can't help but pity you.

Pity me for having a different opinion and viewpoint than yourself?
My my, aren't you a little arrogant?

Oh I'm horribly arrogant, no question but...

I'm not edgy or different, nor shallow.
Simply my opinion on the matter.

And, considering I am a scientist and one of the few dedicating their lives in the selfless pursuit of the most valuable thing to society (knowledge), I'd really say I'm nothing of a parasite.

So are you.

That isn't arrogance, though we're getting very very far off topic very fast, so here is the cliff notes: a single invention, made by a single person, known as the HEBA process, feeds 2 billion people a year. Knowledge is indeed the most valuable thing to society, and without it, we go back to the stone age and almost everyone starves.

Declaring myself not a parasite because I contribute more than I consume is not arrogant, though it is a bit self serving.

Your pity, however, is sheer arrogance, implying your way and your thoughts are better than my cold metallic ones.

But....they are. And I feel no shame at all in admitting that I think that.

 

[Dogstile]

The thing is, i have no problem with the kid being there.

I have a problem with a kid actually being allowed to /use the gun. Its an Uzi, did they not think this might happen?

 

[anthony87]

*snip*
It's pretty obvious she's just a troll at this point. So I'd give up any attempts to try and rationlize her posts in any way.

Yeah I know, but she's a scientific troll!
Plus I'm kinda having fun. ^^

 

[mechanixis]

*snip*
It's pretty obvious she's just a troll at this point. So I'd give up any attempts to try and rationlize her posts in any way.

Yeah I know, but she's a scientific troll!
Plus I'm kinda having fun. ^^

I know, right?

 

[megalomania]

Hahhaha, hilarious! Doubly hilarious with some of the commentary here!

Why not go to a gun show?
How is an art exhibit any more or less wrong for an 8 year old, considering guns kill far less children then the bus he had to take every day of his life?

This was a hilarious tragedy which is made even more hilarious because it will provoke people who don't think logically to say "well gosh, if only he hadn't been allowed near guns"!

Yes, guns are terrible instruments of life and death, but when we live in a world where the car is far more of a blood god than anything actually designed for destruction, the rules may just be a bit different from what your intuition tells you.

tl;dr: this wasn't sad or tragic at all.

I know I'm a little late to the game here and that you have already received a fair amount of stick, but I need to point something out about your argument:

It is based on a Faulty Syllogism. You say cars kill more people than guns, thats true, but what is not true is that they are more dangerous.

Let say that Dangerousness = Deaths caused (per Year) / Total No. occurances (per Year)

Dangerousness(Car) = Many accidents / billions of car rides

Dangerousness(Gun) = Not as many fatal shootings / not nearly as many car rides

Car is less dangerous than Gun. Sorry I dont have any numbers to back this up, but I cant be bothered to look up the statistics on fatal shooting and fatal car accidents or to make a series of approximations to guess at the total number of car journeys or gun discharges.

 

[5stringedbandit]

Guns are dangerous full stop. This is really screwy. I ust can't think of anything else to write about the matter.

 

[anthony87]

Ahh...what a fun thread.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

My question is how the fuck did the kid shoot himself?. Seriosly the Uzi would either have to be on full auto or the kid was pointing it at himself. Either way its all the kids fault.

 

[Shoes]

My European brain has issues understanding this.

Oh come on don't even try to pull this as one of those "All Americans ever are teh stupidz"
Just because we happen to have alot of stupid and insensible people/shit going on (Bound to happen when you have as diverse a background of people as we do) doesn't mean each one of us is the exact same carbon copy of the dumb-ass in the media. I hate how people like to generalize us Americans yet when we do it, to say the British suddenly were ignorant and incompetent.

/Angry sinus headache induced rant,

I'm off to go play Dragon Age now

You are all beautiful.