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[Bumber]

1000th page. Whee!

[Egan_BW]

Fake news. The page number is 300.

[Reelya]

On the taxing bullets thing, that really doesn't sound reasonable, given how cheap they likely are already.

Put a small bullet tax on, then tell everyone the tax will go up next year. Repeat the scare-story every year about the imminent rise in bullet taxes. Use the bullet tax to pay for better schools.

Basically, with everyone stockpiling bullets unnecessarily, you'll have a windfall, and the idiots constantly panick-buying all the bullets will in fact cause bullet shortages and excessive bullet prices.

[Egan_BW]

That has the small side-effect of everyone now having a bunch of bullets stored up.

[smjjames]

Page 600 because differing posts per page settings.

On the taxing bullets thing, that really doesn't sound reasonable, given how cheap they likely are already.

Put a small bullet tax on, then tell everyone the tax will go up next year. Repeat the scare-story every year about the imminent rise in bullet taxes. Use the bullet tax to pay for better schools.

The Republicans are never going to go with that. Probably more likely it would show up as a state or local tax though, but then, ppl are just gonna buy elsewhere. Any sort of gun law really needs to be whole country in order to be effective.

[Rolan7]

Taxing bullets (particularly to such a silly degree) would make hunting and range shooting impractical, yet do almost nothing to stop malicious actors.  Nobody wins.

On the taxing bullets thing, that really doesn't sound reasonable, given how cheap they likely are already.

Put a small bullet tax on, then tell everyone the tax will go up next year. Repeat the scare-story every year. Use the bullet tax to pay for better schools.

Harness FUD for a good cause?  Intriguing!
(and happy kilo-page woo)

[Dunamisdeos]

Yeah @smj I was talking more generally rather than about this specific event.

I'll say that part of the problem with domestic abuse is proving it actually happened. It's why is such a frustratingly pervasive problem. It's in the vein of rape in that there were only two people present and very little physical indicator. To use a trope, I can get bruises from falling down the stairs.

Also, it requires a victim to go through things the might be terrified to address. I suppose this might be a bit off topic. I do think that someone with a domestic abuse conviction should be screened from buying guns.

Conservatives are still gonna cry slippery slope, though yeah, would probably be better if liberals and progressives tried more incrementally than making conservatives think that liberals/progressives are really aiming for a complete ban or something like that.

Theres a very vocal lot of people who do want that, is the problem. People always point to the most dramatic example of their opposition to use as an example.

Agreed though, it would have to be federal to make any difference.

[Frumple]

Like, I'll repeat. Isp added a little. But there was no problem proving domestic abuse happened in the case that ultimately got him discharged. Dude cracked his ex-wife's kid's skull, among whatever else went on.

Pretty sure tex actually has a flat ban for folks with domestic abuse convictions, or something along those lines. Enforcement is as fucked as it ever is when chunks of the country's political actors are fairly actively trying to sabotage it, of course.

[smjjames]

Like, I'll repeat. Isp added a little. But there was no problem proving domestic abuse happened in the case that ultimately got him discharged. Dude cracked his ex-wife's kid's skull, among whatever else went on.

Pretty sure tex actually has a flat ban for folks with domestic abuse convictions, or something along those lines. Enforcement is as fucked as it ever is when chunks of the country's political actors are fairly actively trying to sabotage it, of course.

Also doesn't work when the person lives in Texas and buys it elsewhere. I don't think any other countries have the patchwork of gun laws that we do, and because of that, any gun laws that are done at the federal level have to be either vague or extremely specific because it would be unpopular on both sides, one for enforcing more gun laws and the other for imposing laxer gun laws.

@dunamis: The other problem is that politically, the middle ground doesn't appear to exist at all, like the e is a literal chasm in the middle that the politicians are unable to bridge. It just defaults to mental illness, which can't fix everything (and yet they're decreasing funding for mental health care) there has yet to be a case where they are absolutely unable to use mental illness as an answer.

[EnigmaticHat]

Okay but like seriously, how many mass shooters have had prior diagnosis of mental illness?  And honestly something like depression shouldn't count, since the reason depressed people shouldn't own guns is unrelated to mass shootings.  Even if past mass shooters had mental illnesses, they wouldn't have been caught in the first place by the existing mental health services.  And I absolutely refuse to accept that "improve mental health" is going to be accomplished if the motive is "because we're afraid of the mentally ill."

[Dunamisdeos]

I think our entire culture as a nation and as a people is taught to avoid the idea that a middle ground on anything can even exist.

Everything from marketing to politics to healthcare to entertainment is very deliberately and specifically structured to create divides in us that can be exploited. Small wonder that this had bled into our general mindsets.

I don't think we can improve mental health before we improve this.

[smjjames]

Okay but like seriously, how many mass shooters have had prior diagnosis of mental illness?  And honestly something like depression shouldn't count, since the reason depressed people shouldn't own guns is unrelated to mass shootings.  Even if past mass shooters had mental illnesses, they wouldn't have been caught in the first place by the existing mental health services.  And I absolutely refuse to accept that "improve mental health" is going to be accomplished if the motive is "because we're afraid of the mentally ill."

There's definetly a few, but the majority don't seem to have the level of mental illness some might associate with a 'crazed gunman'. There's often some sort of violence in the past, which could indicate some sort of instability. This most recent one didn't do it because voices in his head told him to.

The problem is that the Republicans keep using it to dodge the main issue while cutting funding for the very thing they're blaming.

[Pwnzerfaust]

Kind of a tangent, but I fucking hate the term "fake news". It's so infuriatingly stupid. Whatever happened to the perfect serviceable word "propaganda" or "lies".

[smjjames]

Because it became a meme? *shrug*

[Dunamisdeos]

Because it became a meme? *shrug*

Probably this.

But, I think it has become a more specific term. Fake news seems to be used in reference to deliberate falsehoods or negligently un-researched events as told specifically by mass-media. To differentiate, when President Trump says silly fake things on TV, it's not fake news.

Also yes, I roll my eyes every time I hear it used. I think we also have a mass-media accountability problem, and this whole fake news thing just trivializes it.