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[Lord Shonus]

.38 and .357 Magnum rounds are the same diameter. There are multiple ways to measure caliber, and the US changed standards between the introduction of the two rounds (which was about 40 years apart).

.357 Magnum is a really hot .38, with longer cartridges for safety reasons.

[Max™]

Going back to my point which got lost while I was gun geeking: I can't think of a good reason to justify civilians needing a semi-auto, much less a semi-auto rifle with 30 or more round magazines. Someone lights off a .357 round at me while I'm breaking in, if I can't immediately get around cover and escape I'm torn between saying I give up or playing dead, they're scary enough with a regular powder load from the side holding the gun.

Are we likely to deal with hordes of rabid feral wild dogs in such numbers that we need dozens of rounds?
Does anyone take zombie apocalypse preppers seriously?
Is the US military going to give a shit whether you're firing a revolver or an ar-15 at their tank when they're marching on the capital or whatever absurd overthrow scenario is being discussed?

[SalmonGod]

There was another one asking if they'd break up with their partners for a 38k raise. 1/3rd said yes.

I basically did.  My marriage was hurting before.  Since I started my current job about 4.5 years ago, my increase in pay has been in that neighborhood... but marriage has gone from hurting to comatose. 

Despite their research conclusions, it was done out of love.  The alternative was homelessness for my family.  The job I had was going away and debt was piling up.  I chased a good opportunity that came up at just the right time.  New job turned out to be life-crushingly demanding, but financially rewarding.  Family secure, at cost of distance from them.  It was sacrifice either way.  "Choosing career over family"...

I really hope it's true that Trump is the Boomer's last desperate REEEE before they finally succumb to languish in irrelevance.  I long for a future when I can regard their vitriol as cute, instead of an occupying force that wants to devour my soul.

[Max™]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

[Hanslanda]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

Good god no.

People. Need. To. Die. It's a natural part of life. Also why we have nice things like food and houses and sanity.

[SalmonGod]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

Good god no.

People. Need. To. Die. It's a natural part of life. Also why we have nice things like food and houses and sanity.

Honestly, it's not even worth arguing if this is true or not, because I don't care.  My years have been fucking robbed of me by late-stage capitalism.  I've done almost nothing but slave since age 20, and I don't expect this to change while I'm yet young and healthy.  Like hell I'll turn down the opportunity, if it ever arises, to do some proper fucking living someday.  I'm not selfish very often, but on this point the world can go fuck itself.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

Good god no.

People. Need. To. Die. It's a natural part of life. Also why we have nice things like food and houses and sanity.

First of all, watch Altered Carbon.

Second of all, I am all for become perverted gods who lose their humanity in the name of doing... whatever! Conquest, sex, chilling.

[MrRoboto75]

The choice seems irrelevant to me.  The chance of me even having a relationship is basically none anyway, paycheck or not.

[Frumple]

Semi-automatic means that the force of the shot is somehow used to chamber the next shot. Revolver, bolt, lever, and pump action repeaters are not semi-automatic, nor are the various forms of single-shot systems.

EDIT: Dicks stopped selling that type of rifle in their main stores years ago. All they're doing now is applying the same policy to their affiliate store chains.

Also upping the minimum buying age, apparently? Possibly the more interesting thing, that.

Thanks for the clarification. And yeah, that sports store is just doing it for the assault rifle type weapons.

In other news, Hope Hicks, the WH communications director and longtime member of Trumps inner circle, is resigning sometime over the next few weeks. I wonder how many of Trumps 'orginals' of his inner circle remain, other than his family obviously.

Amusing aside, this comes shortly after openly admitting to lying, repeatedly, on the president's behalf. It's perhaps unsurprising for the communication director to ditch shortly after being stupid enough to blatantly state what they're passing along is built to whatever degree from lies.

[bloop_bleep]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

Good god no.

People. Need. To. Die. It's a natural part of life. Also why we have nice things like food and houses and sanity.

Not to mention that this would put population growth on turbo mode. Hopefully we'll be able to reasonably live on other planets by then.

[Rolan7]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

Good god no.

People. Need. To. Die. It's a natural part of life. Also why we have nice things like food and houses and sanity.

I agree that it's a natural part of life, but so are disease and hunger.  Nature is great, but I'm glad we no longer live there.

As for the resource issues, I have a Modest Proposal...  (I'm sorry for being such an asshole about reproduction, before, but I still think we do it too much.)

[RedKing]

Are we likely to deal with hordes of rabid feral wild dogs in such numbers that we need dozens of rounds?
Does anyone take zombie apocalypse preppers seriously?
Is the US military going to give a shit whether you're firing a revolver or an ar-15 at their tank when they're marching on the capital or whatever absurd overthrow scenario is being discussed?

Hordes of interracial gay couples, breaking down the doors and demanding that they bake a wedding cake.

This is a point I've been coming back to increasingly lately. The notion of "I need a gun for self-defense" is potentially valid. So get a handgun with a 6-9 shot clip, or a shotgun. A high-powered long rifle is a terrible home defense weapon.

"Well, I need one for hunting."
So get a traditional bolt-action rifle. If you need to be able to pop off 30 rounds in short order, you're a shitty hunter.
If you're hunting for meat, you're going to spoil the meat full of lead.
If you're hunting for sport, then for God's sake, make it sporting. A semi-auto rifle with a large-capacity magazine against an unarmed deer? That's playing DOOM in God mode. Sure, it's gonna give you a rush, but it's not *sport*.

"I have a gun because I *can*, so fuck you."
Much more honest answer, and a very American one to boot. Betrays a certain degree of sociopathy though, and ultimately I don't think it's a defensible stance.

"I need a gun because something something watering muh tree of Liberty"
Ha, ha, ha, oh that's so cute. Syrian rebels have all kinds of automatic and semiautomatic weapons. Hasn't done them much good against airstrikes and barrel bombs. In the event of an actual armed uprising against the United States government, the citizenry's only hope would be if the military fractured and began fighting itself. Otherwise a few FAEs and drone strikes, and your Patriot 2.0 movement is just a messy smear on the pavement.

"I need a big gun to feel like a real man."
Honest, but there are more constructive (or at least, less destructive) wastes of your money. Get a fancy sports car. Get a girlfriend half your age. Google "penis pumps".




One thing I'm gratified to see is an increasing number of combat veterans stepping forward and saying "We don't need these kind of weapons in the public space." I can't help but feel that the militarization of law enforcement correlates directly with the militarization of the public. Look at the deputies in Parkland. I don't blame them for freezing up, knowing they would be going in with a pistol against a guy with an AR-15. The answer is not to arm the teachers, it's not to turn law enforcement into Mobile Gundam Suits, it's to deescalate the whole society.

[SalmonGod]

Which is why I look forward to anti-aging and the curing of death in say... 25... 30 years?

Good god no.

People. Need. To. Die. It's a natural part of life. Also why we have nice things like food and houses and sanity.

I agree that it's a natural part of life, but so are disease and hunger.  Nature is great, but I'm glad we no longer live there.

As for the resource issues, I have a Modest Proposal...  (I'm sorry for being such an asshole about reproduction, before, but I still think we do it too much.)

Fortunately, younger generations are more likely to see reproduction as a choice rather than a mandate, more likely to support birth control, and birth control options/methods continue to improve when they're not being blocked by histrionic fundamentalist boomers.  So I genuinely have faith in our ability to deal with this aspect of the issue.

And if we can break the cycles of consumerism, it will be easy to drastically reduce our population's burden on the environment.

[Frumple]

Hey, we might be able to sustain a larger population than projected if we can (effectively, if nothing else) de-age the elderly. Just think for a moment about the amount of labor currently past the retirement age biological immortality (or at least substantially increased lifespan) would allow us to stop paying benefits for and force back into the job market :V

Hell, with the experience advantage, assuming the neurological degeneration could be reversed, we could even disproportionately tax them and support younger generations in their stead if they corner the market in the process.

... I think I'm starting to get enthusiastic about this, actually. We could turn the whole thing on its head. In exchange for immortality, the ones benefiting from it can alternate labor periods (so they still get the opportunity to freely enjoy their time, of course) so those that don't immediately need the lifespan extension can enjoy their formative decades without much concern.

Give folks the choice. Work so that others don't have to, or die when biology intended. Basically what most places already do in the elderly's favor, just in reverse once the physical and mental deterioration that makes it happen that way have been halted. Best idea, I swear.

[RedKing]

IIRC, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a short story where just the opposite happened. Because older citizens could accumulate large fortunes after a hundred years or so, they used the threat of being written out of the will as leverage to make their children and grandchildren work hard to pay for the anagathic drugs, becoming essentially serfs to their forebear.

EDIT: was Vonnegut, not Ellison.