lock What are your political views?

Guys, please be respectful. This discussion shouldn't get kicked off because you can't be mature. Even if someone is wrong or you disagree with them, you don't have to be rude about it.
It's okay to disagree and it is completely okay for someone to express their opinion, but we have to respect each other no matter what.
We are writers, express yourself in a manner you'd be proud of 2 years from now. Don't put others down, even if they are wrong. That's just messed up and immature. I get that both of you, or whoever was involved in this argument, have different views on things, then listen and talk like an adult! I DID ask for you to be polite and reasonable, so please, I'm asking again, be polite and reasonable.
Thank you.

I offer my apology. @writelikeyourerunningoutoftime and and I have made amends, and the fault is mine. I acted out of turn, so it is I therefore that should be punished, not the rest of you. I'm an A-hole and I know it, so I'm going to leave you alone so you can have peace without my contentious words.

Yeah, alls good here! The actual political debate wasn't too heated. I got…passionate about a different topic. Lol.

Wow @Mindful_Bison thank you! That is the most mature response I've ever gotten trying to make peace between people. And you don't have to go unless they want you to.

I see what you mean. But I've never been lectured about this in my life. Maybe you live in Cali, maybe you don't, but here, nobody cares. That's not to say that there isn't racial tensions in fact, I've beefed with people over some racist ass shit that they'd said about my friend, poor thing, and I have personally done some things I regret because of these things.

Thanks guys, it sounds stupid but I feel much better now even though I wasn't even part of it. Thank you! :)

Hey, the faiult is mine, @hopelessromantic, don't worry about anyone else.

Well I read all of that, it got kind of heated.

I think everyone on all sides of the argument have good points. I'm sure all of us here are not saying that we should have ZERO gun control. We're also not trying to say that the system we have in place right now is the best way to go about things. At least I'm for effective gun control that still allows everyone to defend themselves.

So the two examples you guys sited were "school shootings" and "vegas." Just because most of the people who do school shootings are white doesn't mean that most gun violence is done by white people. It's a human problem, not a white problem. Also, just because armed citizens couldn't defend themselves in the Vegas shooting doesn't mean they shouldn't carry guns. That was a meticulously planned shooting. He was in an isolated area where no one could have defended themselves anyway. He also had clean background checks. Those kind of unpreventable shootings are just going to happen. If you want to stop shootings like that, you have to not allow ANYONE to own guns. And you have to destroy every gun ever made. Oh wait, if guns don't exist, then violent murderers will just switch to another weapon. There's no ending violence. You can't stop it. Therefore, people NEED to be defended. And sometimes, you can only look out for yourself. In our advanced society where guns are everyday threats, every individual has to have the right to be able to defend themselves. And like shuriken said, guns are by far more effective at deterrence.

Virtually all shootings happened in gun free zones. 98% of them. https://www.dailywire.com/news/27440/what-percentage-mass-shootings-happen-gun-free-amanda-prestigiacomo#
What does that tell you about the wimps who want to shoot up a school? What does that tell you about places where you're allowed to carry a gun?

In a perfect world, nobody would have any weapons and everyone would be peaceful. But that isn't the world we live in, and even if you took away everyone's weapons, well, we still have our hands. And it may seem like the world is more violent now, but it's not. We just have international TV now.

About arming teachers… you said we shouldn't arm them because some bad guy in Star Wars didn't back down, so a school shooter wouldn't either…? Not saying it's a good idea either, because I'd rather the school be a gun free zone except for police officers kind of deal, but don't cite Star Wars. Villains in movies won't back down cuz they're insane. Troubled white kids could be deterred by the cop at the door. Or maybe the knowledge that every teacher is armed, I don't know. I haven't researched that topic. The only way we can "increase security" in schools is to stop them from being gun free zones, at least for police. The only way to defend a school from a shooter right now is to hopefully lock it down in time. That's scary. THAT'S putting children's lives at risk. Remember, 98% of shootings happened in gun free zones.

Deterrence: "However, Kleck studied crime rates from Great Britain and the Netherlands — two nations with much stricter gun ownership laws than the U.S. — and concluded that the risk of armed robbery is lower in America because of loose gun laws." https://www.thoughtco.com/gun-rights-and-self-defense-721344

That whole article is great, I think it supports both sides. A good marriage of the two.

Additionally, Obama signed off on a study that said the use of firearms for self defense is an important crime deterrent: https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/obama-study-concluded-firearms-used-self-defense-important-crime-deterrent

Most gun deaths are from suicide, not homicide. That's part of the reason why the numbers are off. You can't deter suicide, but you can deter homicide. Also, compared to small countries like the UK and Japan, of course America will have more gun deaths. We're a huge country. I think all the countries of Europe could fit into the US. It's much harder to regulate a huge nation like that, and plans that worked for Japan won't necessarily work for the US. We're a hub of culture and crime, hate to break it to you. Guns pass through us all the time. So even if we were able to not allow our citizens to carry guns, well, crime runs all around the world. It'll still run through us. Bringing guns to a defenseless people.

We need better gun laws, of course. But we sure as heck need to be able to carry guns. If the only people allowed to carry guns left are the government, police, and the criminals, where are the people left? Enslaved by their government, and constantly terrorized by criminals.

Considered yourself lectured, bro! Had fun with this even though I got kinda heated. Hope i didn't scar you for life, but also hope i got you thinking about it. (plus I just listened to Janelle Monae's newest singles so I'm feeling pretty activism-y rn.)

I was writing that before I saw everybody apologizing, sorry for interrupting and posting at a bad time.

I don't mean this to be personal at all, and ALL of us want the same thing: for people to live. To be protected. We all care about human lives, it's not like either side wants people dead just because they don't agree with how our laws should work. I think everyone has valid points, based in actual events and experiences. We can all come together on this. :)

I didn't say anything about Star Wars, but otherwise! Solid points there. I would argue em but I'm tired and I've said pleeeenty. I think everyone's tired of me talking. Lol. Good night people

@writelikeyourerunningoutoftime don't sweat it, dude, I've done worse (although noting racist, sexist, homophobic, bigotry-based or intolerance-based), and I've been through worse. You're fine.

@writelikeyourerunningoutoftime Oh sorry, I was talking about what another guy said. :P I should've tagged your names…

Whenever you want to debate those points, feel free! I want my view on gun control to not be one-sided and to take into account everyone's experiences, because hey, that's how you find out the truth. That's kind of what debate is for. I'd be glad to hear what else you have to say.

I completely agree with you, 'key.