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August 26th, 2018
 
The eternal arguments about how many guns to have, how much regulation, what types are permissible, misses a more important point.  As with most of the subjects that the MSM chooses to yak about, it's mostly a distraction.
 
There are several problems, with the gun debate in the United States
 
 
 
The Wrong focus
If we can't deal with the big 'I' - Inequality - then there will always be incidents of violence.  And that's regardless of whether firearms are availale.
 
 
Bigger fish to fry
Eliezer Yudkowsky coined Moore's Law of Mad Science:  "Every eighteen months, the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by one point."
 
Very soon, in this century, there will be resources available to individuals, that we aren't prepared to manage.  Nanotechnology ; Designing and 3D Printing of viruses, along with other materials we haven't even encountered yet.  And of course, personal A.I. engines.  These and other technologies will all be available simultaneously.  We aren't ready.
 
This is not a politcial issue.  It's technological, it's a threat to several species including our own, and we're not up to this challenge.
 
 
We're stupid poopy-heads
We're too immature to recognize that eternal Right and Left debates get us only the personal satisfaction of winning against THOSE people ; but they don't actually accomplish anything.
 
 
Stop threatening gun owners
If we want to 'take away their guns', we should do it only voluntarily.  To me, that means finding alternatives to guns.  Guns are important to some people, whether or not we want them to be.
 
Find alternatives
So, e.g. when lab-grown meat becomes healthier, better-tasting, and cheaper than wild meat, hunting won't be as necessary.
 
If and when we can design tools that are more effective than guns for self-defense, with less deadly results, that's the time to ask gun owners to take a look.  Until then, we have no business telling decent people who haven't gunned down anyone, that they have to give up something that is so important & symbolic to them.
 
If we can't address our gun fears without attacking each other, then we're in a lot of trouble.  Because there are bigger Fish to Fry
 
 
It all comes down to this
More important than ANYTHING - we can't eliminate violence in this world, until we kick Inequality out of the Human Condition.