Merriam-Webster Word of the Year 2017

[loramin]

Originally Posted by mickmoranis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If police do come then someone videotapes them out of context and makes up lies about how the victim was pleading for his life and the cops are raycist. Despite the fact that you seem unaware there is more police presence in minority neighborhoods than affluent ones.

But then again, are you saying that gun control is wrong because the people who live in the boonies have not only a right to own guns but they are a necessity because it takes 20-45 minuets for the police to arrive?

Or are you saying gang violence exists because people in gangland are protecting themselves from petty thieves and not killing each other over turf wars and living in a culture of violence?

I'm saying none of those things.

In general statistics overwhelmingly show that owning a gun does not make you or your family safer. While I don't remember the exact numbers, your chance of protecting yourself against the bad guys does go up by say 10% (or whatever the chance is you'll have your gun ready when you need it, will fire more accurately than the bad guys, etc.)

But, the chance of you even being in a situation where a gun would be relevant are already pretty slim, so really that doesn't increase your safety much at all. However, the chance of you committing suicide goes up, the chance a family member committing suicide goes up, the chance your kid will accidentally shoot someone (or themselves) goes up, etc. and when you add those together you are much less safe.

What I'm saying is that society's resources, including not just police protection but also fire protection, school funding, etc. should all be distributed equally. However (because they tend to be based on property taxes) we instead give the best society has to offer to the rich, the worst we can possibly give without feeling too bad to the poor, and then we wonder why the people who get so much less from society AND started off with so much less in the first place do so much worse.