Dan, serious question. Do you have any gun experience? Many of the things you say about guns and ammo decry ignorance about both guns and ammunition. The ammo used in the olympics (.22) is not designed to inflict mass damage, true, but it is responsible for more deaths than any other caliber.

Some of your arguments and comments about guns and ammo would not be dissimilar to me trying to argue with you about bicycles and their many facets. With your type-a personality, I think if you ever had the chance to learn marksmanship and the ins n outs of reloading, long range shooting, and the skill it takes to hunt certain animals...you would love it. Much like the skills for proper bike fitting/set up/build it is a skill that takes much time and effort and is very fun/challenging/intriguing.

Before retiring two months ago, I was a law enforcement officer in SoCal. If you asked me, based on all the terrible things I saw over those 27 years what I would address first, guns or alcohol, I'd reply "alcohol" without even thinking about it. Did I see lots of carnage from guns? yes, mostly in the form of suicides though although I saw quite a few gun homicides. But.......the carnage from alcohol though....oh my gosh...in the form of innocent lives killed by drunk drivers to families and lives left decimated by it. Just my opinion and my experiences....no stats....alcohol was exponentially worse.

Do I think we could pass some better laws? Yes. If you can't drink till you're 21 then how about not being able to purchase a gun until you are 21? There's one for starters (although that one needs to leave some room for obviously being able to shoot/hunt under supervision etc). But at the same time,,,,easy access to alcohol, drugs, lack of parenting and many other things have been much more devastating to our kids than guns.....but I'm not downplaying these shootings either so please don't twist my words. I'm just purely speaking from experience. I think you are a great guy, but I also think you are speaking from a very inexperienced position about something you know little about. :-)

Do police chiefs and unions feel that way, in general? Across the US? If so, I’m happy to concede the point. I’ll let you tell me what guns and ammo should be illegal.

klehner wrote:

Why has that breakdown occurred in the US, alone of all countries in the world?

Halvard wrote:

https://www.vox.com/2015/10/3/9444417/gun-violence-united-states-america


https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/out-wedlock-births-rise-worldwide

you may do as you wish but i would encourage you not to engage with the shit stain known as Halvard

What exactly is the difference? FMJ vs. hollow point? I don't think the FMJ is really much of a safety measure. Is range ammo less dangerous? Humans are small critters with light skin... Trying to clarify.

I dunno. Comparing US single-parent homes with their counterparts in foreign cultures sounds iffy. I'd argue that the issue of imprinting decent values into a kid has a strong cultural component. Not only does the kid learn values from their surrounding culture, but that culture has a strong impact on how the parent teaches the kid those same values. It's pretty well established that (US) single-parent homes have a much higher % of problem kids then two-parent homes.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=167327

That's a different discussion. But, it too is not as simple as you want to make it. Is there a legitimate/reasonable reason for a civilian to have armor piercing 5.56 rounds? Probably not. But, there are legit/reasonable reasons to have hollow-point rounds, which are designed and manufactured specifically to destroy humans.