Shooting in Chicago park

[Hetalian Indie Rio de Janeiro]

I wonder why this is received with still so much opposition and skepticism.

It is people's choices to do what they want their own bodies.

The fact that people on meth think they have bees in their teeth or the actions of people on PCP might explain why that doesn't happen.

Glad Brazil only got a cannabis issue, and a cocaine and as of the 2010s crack problem. >_>

[Sibirsky]

The United States pays a very high price for its love affair with the gun.

It's the war on drugs, not guns that is causing this.

[Sibirsky]

You people DO realize that most of these attacks are staged, right? They make some sob story about made up people who were shot by "an EVIL white guy with guns!", and then they use that as a good enough excuse to take our rights away. Now to get weapons, I have to go to some kind of test and prove my allegiance to the government. Not even kidding, I've been to those "background checks", and they're all designed to test whether or not you could be harboring antigovernment thoughts. It's kinda obvious, actually. You sheeple will believe anything.

Why do you need weapons?

None of your fucking business.

[Saint Kitten]

There is always a shooting in Chicago. This isn't exactly news anymore

[Hetalian Indie Rio de Janeiro]

Why do you need weapons?

None of your fucking business.

U mad bro?

[Northern Dominus]

The United States pays a very high price for its love affair with the gun.

It's the war on drugs, not guns that is causing this.

It's both.

The war on drugs saps funds away from law enforcement agencies who could otherwise enforce existing controlled substance laws more effectively than any amount of "task forces" that seem to just arrest low-level mooks and throw them in jail for punitive sentences. Then the system beats them down and cripples them metaphorically, forcing them back into the drug trade when they can't find a job because they were arrested for selling narcotics in the first place.

The Cult of the Gun has done their part as well, ensuring that gun shows in certain states are veritable playgrounds for black market weapons dealers. These people buy weapons as "private" citizens in these states and therefore don't go through a background check as they would if they bought from a liscensed dealer, then drive to Chicago with a veritable arsenal in the trunk. Once there, serial numbers get filed before they're sold to gang members who then go on to shoot at each other and hit everything around what they're shooting at.

Simply blaming one while ignoring the other is criminally short-sighted.

[The Serbian Empire]

The criminals will keep doing what they're doing unless one were to subjugate organized criminal groups. Nothing short of legalizing all the drugs would destroy the criminal enterprises as they are left without most of their funds.

Just for the record, I support the legalization of most drugs.

I understand. No, I really do. I'm not some control freak who's convinced that guns equal evil. It's just that I've seen zero evidence that guns would save people's lives.

The violence won't go away even if the guns were gone unless the drugs are legal as the gangs have a reason to be violent and that involves drug money.

[Dunroaming]

Why do you need weapons?

None of your fucking business.

Your response really says it all.

[Sibirsky]

None of your fucking business.

Your response really says it all.

There are many reasons why someone may wants guns.

None of them matter. None of them have anything to do with you. None of them are any of your business.

[Cetacea]

Just for the record, I support the legalization of most drugs.

I understand. No, I really do. I'm not some control freak who's convinced that guns equal evil. It's just that I've seen zero evidence that guns would save people's lives.

The violence won't go away even if the guns were gone unless the drugs are legal as the gangs have a reason to be violent and that involves drug money.

SO why don't we seem the same levels of gun violence in Canada, England, Australia or New Zealand where drugs are also illegal and being pushed by gangs? I acknowledge that when shootings do occur in these places they are often drug related but by and large the gun problems in those nations is minor compared to the US

[Sibirsky]

It's the war on drugs, not guns that is causing this.

It's both.

The war on drugs saps funds away from law enforcement agencies who could otherwise enforce existing controlled substance laws more effectively than any amount of "task forces" that seem to just arrest low-level mooks and throw them in jail for punitive sentences. Then the system beats them down and cripples them metaphorically, forcing them back into the drug trade when they can't find a job because they were arrested for selling narcotics in the first place.

The Cult of the Gun has done their part as well, ensuring that gun shows in certain states are veritable playgrounds for black market weapons dealers. These people buy weapons as "private" citizens in these states and therefore don't go through a background check as they would if they bought from a liscensed dealer, then drive to Chicago with a veritable arsenal in the trunk. Once there, serial numbers get filed before they're sold to gang members who then go on to shoot at each other and hit everything around what they're shooting at.

Simply blaming one while ignoring the other is criminally short-sighted.

Gun shows have nothing to do with it. Most sellers at shows, are licensed, and do background checks.

[Agritum]

The funny thing is, GTA is a satirical social commentary.

It's satirising gun violence and gang culture, not endorsing it.

There are SO many jabs at American stereotypes and American culture stuff in general in GTA 5 in the commercials, the talk radio, and so on. Even gender stereotypes. You got the "Republican Space Marines" on TV, and the "Irritable Rage", one a group of extreme Republican's and the other an extreme Democrat.

On the subject of the thread, as always, it is sad to see so many people injured in a shooting. Surprised though that 13 people got shot and only one is in serious condition.

Helps that the developers, Rockstar North, are British.

[Ayreonia]

Just for the record, I support the legalization of most drugs.

I understand. No, I really do. I'm not some control freak who's convinced that guns equal evil. It's just that I've seen zero evidence that guns would save people's lives.

The violence won't go away even if the guns were gone unless the drugs are legal as the gangs have a reason to be violent and that involves drug money.

I know that. Outlaw guns and only blah blah blah. If guns didn't exist, we'd have threads on crossbow control and all that.

However, I urge you to tell me that the US having the laxest gun rights in the first world and such an appallingly high gun crime number is a coincidence.

[Hetalian Indie Rio de Janeiro]

Your response really says it all.

There are many reasons why someone may wants guns.

None of them matter. None of them have anything to do with you. None of them are any of your business.

This concept of privacy is so foreign to me. As much as the jealousy one.

I couldn't care less if people made endless questionnaries over my sexuality or sexual practices for their own curiosity. No one is harmed and I can actually consent to it, you know?

[Northern Dominus]

It's both.

The war on drugs saps funds away from law enforcement agencies who could otherwise enforce existing controlled substance laws more effectively than any amount of "task forces" that seem to just arrest low-level mooks and throw them in jail for punitive sentences. Then the system beats them down and cripples them metaphorically, forcing them back into the drug trade when they can't find a job because they were arrested for selling narcotics in the first place.

The Cult of the Gun has done their part as well, ensuring that gun shows in certain states are veritable playgrounds for black market weapons dealers. These people buy weapons as "private" citizens in these states and therefore don't go through a background check as they would if they bought from a liscensed dealer, then drive to Chicago with a veritable arsenal in the trunk. Once there, serial numbers get filed before they're sold to gang members who then go on to shoot at each other and hit everything around what they're shooting at.

Simply blaming one while ignoring the other is criminally short-sighted.

Gun shows have nothing to do with it. Most sellers at shows, are licensed, and do background checks.

Except for the individual non-liscensed "citizens" who are not held to the same standards as licensed dealers. Those weapons can't be tracked and can't be tracked because there is no record of that transfer IE a background check. Multiply that by multiple gun shows in states like Indiana Michigan and Kentucky and the flow of illegal weapons into Chicago is easy to track.

Again, waving one's arms frantically at one problem while denying the other one exists is not only highly callous but is pretty much denial on a massive scale.

[Sibirsky]

There are many reasons why someone may wants guns.

None of them matter. None of them have anything to do with you. None of them are any of your business.

This concept of privacy is so foreign to me. As much as the jealousy one.

I couldn't care less if people made endless questionnaries over my sexuality or sexual practices for their own curiosity. No one is harmed and I can actually consent to it, you know?

So, because you don't care about your privacy, others are not entitled to theirs?

[Sibirsky]

Gun shows have nothing to do with it. Most sellers at shows, are licensed, and do background checks.

Except for the individual non-liscensed "citizens" who are not held to the same standards as licensed dealers. Those weapons can't be tracked and can't be tracked because there is no record of that transfer IE a background check. Multiply that by multiple gun shows in states like Indiana Michigan and Kentucky and the flow of illegal weapons into Chicago is easy to track.

Again, waving one's arms frantically at one problem while denying the other one exists is not only highly callous but is pretty much denial on a massive scale.

They are not held to those standards anywhere else, either. Why would they be at gun shows?

[Dunroaming]

Your response really says it all.

There are many reasons why someone may wants guns.

None of them matter. None of them have anything to do with you. None of them are any of your business.

My question was why anyone "needs" weapons. Of course there can be many reasons why you would "want" guns, but the tone adopted by you would suggest you have anger-management problems and may not be suitable to have guns. Just a thought.

[Latinorium]

Why don't we just execute everyone that is in a gang? It would decrease the prison population by A LOT and it would decrease crimes like this.

[Ayreonia]

Why don't we just execute everyone that is in a gang? It would decrease the prison population by A LOT and it would decrease crimes like this.

Probably because that would make us no better than the gangsters.

[Sibirsky]

There are many reasons why someone may wants guns.

None of them matter. None of them have anything to do with you. None of them are any of your business.

My question was why anyone "needs" weapons. Of course there can be many reasons why you would "want" guns, but the tone adopted by you would suggest you have anger-management problems and may not be suitable to have guns. Just a thought.

Why do you care? Why does it matter?

I'm not angry.

You have no right to restrict my rights.

In Chicago, self defense comes up as a need.

[Big Jim P]

Or enact reasonable gun measures that work to keep every other place in America safer than Chicago.

You mean like closing the gun show loophole? Yeah, good luck with that, maybe if you shut Wayne LaPierre and the rest of the Cult of the Gun up for the duration and let the adults work out some reasonable and universal firearms regulation, but that's not going to happen. Because unfortunately the wingnuts have more than a few pet politicians, and the rest of us are going to pay for that influence in blood until something drastic changes.

Doesn't Chicago have far more draconian gun-control measures than anyplace else in America? I believe it does.

[Sibirsky]

Why don't we just execute everyone that is in a gang? It would decrease the prison population by A LOT and it would decrease crimes like this.

Guilty by association. Extrajudicial murder.

[Big Jim P]

It was almost guaranteed to have been Kept and carried illegally, and certainly was used so.

So much for gun control disarming criminals.

Well, your gun rights aren't exactly keeping the people safe, either.

Then why is every other place, with less restrictive gun laws, safer than Chicago?

[Union Of Canadorian Socialists Republic]

The problem is the gang, not guns.