Unnecessary Deaths

[SecularMotion]

The death this week of a 3-year-old boy after what appeared to be an accidental shooting at his grandparents' house in Spring brings to mind a recent article in The Washington Post about guns in Japan, a nation with some of the tightest gun-control laws in the world and, not coincidentally, one of the lowest rates of gun deaths in the world (12 last year, 10 of them tied to crime syndicates).

Let's say you want to own a gun in Japan. First, you must attend a class on gun law and gun safety, then pass a written test. Next, you must submit paperwork to the police about your family, work and educational background, as well as a medical certificate declaring you're not depressed or an alcoholic. The police will check to see if you have a criminal record and look into whether you've had any domestic or neighborhood disputes. A police officer will visit your home to see where and how you intend to store your gun.

That's Japan and this is America, of course, where our fealty to the Second Amendment would never allow such intrusive government oversight. What we do allow are 33,636 firearms-related deaths a year (in 2013), including such corollary damage as the death of 3-year-old youngster who finds a loaded gun in his grandparents' nightstand. His is the fifth accidental child shooting in Harris County this year, including at least three deaths.

Nothing unusual about Harris County. A recent report found that nationwide at least two children are killed every week by accidental shootings. The numbers are probably vastly under-counted.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Unnecessary-deaths-6371572.php

[Shamash]

1. The well must be pretty dry when you start doing editorial dumps instead of news dumps

Perhaps you can followup with some cut & paste editorials on Japanese racism, xenophobia, corruption, government secrecy, attitudes towards women, abuse of prisoners, drug laws, suicide rate, formalized school bullying, no legal protection for LGBT, an "age of consent" of 13(!) and other wonderful topics? International and cross-cultural comparisons do need to be examined in context, after all. Simply picking a tiny distorted slice and assuming you can just transplant it into a different culture with no changes seems either naive, disingenuous, or both, depending on the person trying to make the argument.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. "The well must be pretty dry when you start doing editorial dumps instead of news dumps"

You're relatively new here. A commentary is a step up. Some days it's just some blogger's bilious screed.

[Duckhunter935]

5. That is so true

the number of times that host does a cut and paste Google dump without any comment is really just spamming in my opinion. Other opinions may very though.

[DonP]

8. Uh oh! Now you've gone and upset SecMo again and he's tattling on us in ATA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12598227

Not happy when he posts in Bansalot, no responses.

Not happy when he posts here, too much push back and questions.

Not allowed to post in GD, where some people that don't know better might applaud his banal sophistry.

Life is hard for the gun control posse, but whining to Skinner doesn't seem to help.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. Oh, that's just sad. I mean really sad. Like "I cry after sex" sad.

[Duckhunter935]

10. I do not think he got what he wanted

As an answer from Skinner.

[Lurks Often]

11. How many is it so far?

Seems every time he goes to ATA he either gets an answer he doesn't like or doesn't get an answer at all. One would think the message would sink in after so many attempts and responses indicating the Administrators are ok with the how the Hosts are handling things in GD.

[Duckhunter935]

12. all I can say

But I am quite sure he really is not insane

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. Would the controllers support funding for firearms safety classes and storage devices?

[Duckhunter935]

4. I am sure Bloombergs

Astroturf "gun safety" organizations do that all the time, right?

[ileus]

6. Let's hope we can keep something as crappy as this far away from America.

[Eleanors38]

7. Hmm. I'll stay with the National Safety Council's figures: 62 the last reporting yr.