Dude - don't be an ass. He was trying to make a point - and he said he'd elaborate more if needed....maybe it's not a dumb point...and my point is, I'm happy to run the numbers if someone grabs them for me so we could actually see.
And as to your off the cuff "BUZZZZZ - WRONG." That's a response based on what you want the response to be - not based on being thoughtful about the problem. All I said was that given those numbers - it's worth looking at and discussing. "We've always done it this way" is not a good reason to keep doing it that exact way. Changing a way that it's always been is hard and not culturally fun (see NFL concussion rules for micro example). You shouldn't take changes to the gun control laws off the table because "we've always done it that way." AOL "always" made their $ by providing a semi-closed internet solution. Properly trained 16th century armies ALWAYS fought in lines in the open field. Men made the decisions and women never voted. Plenty of things were culturally entrenched as one thing or another at one time. Technology changes, times change, culture changes.
I'm not arguing that there's an easy solution. The root problem is gun violence. You can approach that problem from a bunch of different ways - education, mental health, improving the economy, gun control, police search rights. All of those approaches (and many more) could lower gun violence, and changes to any of them would be very hard. So do we just give up?
I'm not insensitive to the idea that guns are a part of the american culture, and any steps to more tightly control them should be taken carefully - I hope to own a gun one day - I enjoy target shooting. I don't know what the solution is, but to say "No, cause that's not how we do it" to any of these approaches to lowering gun violence is narrowminded. If it's a real and serious problem, everything should be on the table until real numbers and debate put it off - and I don't think "cause that's how we do it" is enough to take anything off the table.
