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Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Posts 32,141 to 32,160 of 96,531

bimmy-lee

@ThanosReXXX - I’m still laughing at that gif you posted yesterday. What a tremendous failure. She was like a stunned little hummingbird, just bouncing repeatedly off glass surfaces without any comprehension. I watched it so many times that I started to feel bad for her, but then came all the way around to see her as a hero of unwilling, spontaneous performance art.

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

Tyranexx

@Ninfan We went to both North and South Carolina and hit various sights there. Mostly around the Charleston, SC area, but we also stopped to see the Biltmore in North Carolina.

Currently playing: Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

NEStalgia

@ThanosReXXX A disclaimer first: I'm not a gun enthusiast or owner, and I don't intend to be, however it's not a matter of being against them, but a matter that, it's something that has to become a fairly consuming hobby in terms of maintenance, practice, etc, etc, and I already have enough hobbies...so I have no interest in adding more, let alone one that's not particularly interesting to me. So I'm not saying any of this in some sort of defensive attempt to justify a hobby...I have no personal stake in that game, and am merely an observer, albeit one that respects the hobby as a valid hobby, while not being part of it.

However, at the same time, I have to say "spoken like a true European" (I can't even say Californian on that one...California's a high gun ownership state...even before we get to the illegal ones ) I'm sure in "everything is an urban environment" Europe they're not as useful, and "everything is a bureaucratic nightmare" Amsterdam....actually strike that, sounds like they'd be MOST useful there... But in the US (and ESPECIALLY CA!) there's a ton of hunters, a ton of farmers that use semi-automatic weapons for pest control.....fully automatic weapons/military grade weapons are already illegal, most of the things the press calls "assault rifles" aren't (the AR14 is most purchased as a 'varmint gun' by farmers, and is not fully automatic unless illegally modded, etc, yet the press loves to showcase that every time there's an incident.). Pistols of course become a debate of if that is viable self defense or not, however, the bottom line with those is: pistols aren't terribly useful for mass murders so they're really part of a separate debate anyway. (And as long as there's a land bridge to central America, pistols will be everywhere, legal or not. If Russia weren't Russia, Europe would be inundated with them through China as well. Thank goodness for the Russians! )

If we're going to talk about irresponsible people given dangerous tools, before we ever get to guns we need to talk about a 100% ban of motor vehicles. Not a single civilian needs to own a motor vehicle. That should be saved for commercial transportation services. As a fact, motor vehicles are responsible for far more deaths every year in the US than guns, and that doesn't include the serious injuries. And as a percentage, far more gun owners are responsible and informed than motor vehicle owners. Given a choice of hanging out at a shooting range with 50 random registered gun owners in my county, versus hanging out in a parking lot with 50 random registered vehicle owners in my county, I know which one I'd not be fearful of death or injury while standing there...and it's not the parking lot. I could just watch out the window over the next 20 minutes and find numerous dangerous, reckless/violent individuals in posession of a lethal weapon, who should not be authorized to possess such a weapon, abusing the weapon in such a way it could lead to loss of life, and displaying open hostility while wielding it. The same can not be said for gun owners where I would have to search quite extensively to find evidence of such open recklessness and hostility. Ban the cars. THEN we can talk guns. Ban both, and you'll hear no complaint from me. Bottom line is my safety is threatened numerous times daily by registered vehicle owners. My safety has been threatened 3 times total by registered gun owners, and none of them directly. The same story is true everywhere. It's absurd to talk about banning one tool while not talking about banning the other tool that's far, far, far more widespread and dangerous, with the numbers to back it up.

But that's all sauce for the gravy, to my point. My point is all you do in this country by removing guns as a tool to kill with, is force a change in tools. The violence problem remains because access to that tool is not the cause of the violence, it's just the cause for the violence listed by tool use. Fun fact, by FBI stats for several years running, the #1 tool used for murder was hammers, not guns. Screwdrivers was up in the running as well. So take all the gun murders, many of which were gang/cartel/commerial-black-market oriented, and remember that more people were murdered by hammers, and those were mostly not gang/cartel/commercial-black-market oriented.....

Let that sink in for a moment. Not only is the very high gun murder rate unique to the US, the only place with such widespread gun access, but that's not even the MOST chosen way to kill someone here, basic household items are used to kill more often than guns, despite guns being "everywhere." Then factor in the amount of gun murders that are tied to inter-gang organized crime, a rampant separate problem that ought to be removed from the statistics when comparing to Europe without as extensive a gang/drug operation. THAT is how extensive the violence rate is here. Not the gun violence - the violence in general. And that's not even talking about the deaths-by-car that are seldom written up as homicide or manslaughter, when in fact, the pure recklessness/hostility of actions on the road, clearly are just that. And back to your reference of bludgeoning...as I said with hammers, that's also the most common method here...the guns are in addition to our already massively higher murder-by-bludgeoning rate than there. Gun murder is just a free bonus to already winning the contest against Europe for all other methods! Really.

Think about that. Even if we remove ALL gun statistics and pretend there are no guns and nobody died from guns, and that also eliminates most cartel/gang deaths.....we STILL have more murder.

So the guns clearly are not a cause, or even the most popular tool. And it's not a matter that we just have tons and tons of psychos where nobody else does (or is it? If it is, I think we know to look in the direction of big pharma...) No, we have a culture problem. A very very severe culture problem. I guarantee you if the EU were to declare an even more lax gun policy than the US tomorrow.....by the end of the next 30 years....the murder rate per capita will still be substantially higher here. There's a very serious culture problem, and societal structure problem. That's the root cause. It will never be addressed or solved. The status quo works for those with wealth, status, or power. They'll keep pointing at excuses. Guns, games, "mental health", rock & roll, anything but the actual cause, because fixing that is the very last thing they'd ever want to do.

The individuals you cited are certainly on the extreme end of cases where there is actual abnormality in their behavior prior to the event in a way that suggests visible instability...however there's a reason those are the mention-able cases....they're outside the typical. We can cite the arsonist in Japan as well, obviously an unstable person....but murder as a whole is so entirely uncommon there to the point the very notion that even the disturbed and unstable could do that is inconceivable. There is a fundamental difference here. Insecurity and instability in all things is easily the most fundamental difference. (Or the extensive medication used to enforce "societal behavioral norms" (with a side effect of possibly becoming a homicidal maniac...)

And again, as a disclaimer I'm not a part of the whole gun thing myself, and have no plans to be, so I'm not defending any personal interests or habits here. But I can't really wrap my head around scapegoating "NRA members" - while they do attract some undesirables, overall, people that are members of that organization would be the hobbyists that are the most informed and disciplined with their guns...much like video game enthusiasts who care about their hobby and spend considerable time and money in trying different hardware and accessories. By and large it's a membership group for the law abiding members. They wield money for political power...but by that standard we should be targeting Boeing, Lockheed, Pfeiser, etc. etc. that are even more dangerous in their lobby. The people that point fingers at "the NRA" and by extension its membership are pointing fingers at a lot of law abiding, perfectly safe individuals to pin the actions of others on. If one gamer murders at an eSports event (which has happened) we don't accept fingers pointed at "gamers" as being a part of that. Yet if one NRA member murders someone, it becomes acceptable to point fingers at "NRA members" - And again (I feel on the internet this bares repeating endlessly) I'm not a part of it at all....just an observer outside....but that seems remarkably misguided and unethical, and remarkably hypocritical for gamers, members of another group at which fingers are pointed for the same thing, that ironically is the next closest group to the NRA itself, as a significant part of our hobby does involve guns, albeit, computer images of them. There's a lot of finger pointing and scapegoating in that. 95% of us don't deserve it, 5% maybe do.. 95% of them don't deserve it either, 5% of them maybe do. It's just more wishing for easy fixes and factions to blame for a much more innate problem.

To use your candy metaphor, there's no point taking the candy away, if the guy's chain smoking and chugging Pepsi, and has a massive sugar dependence disorder. The candy wasn't even the worst of the problem, and certainly not the cause. All the hand waving and finger pointing at the specific tools is a lovely distraction that keeps everyone from focusing on the real problem: The US has a massively higher murder rate than the rest of the world irregardless of gun access. THAT requires some serious reflection and evaluation of why....saying "guns" is like saying "no, don't look behind that door! Just look behind the other ones that don't have skeletons in them."

Your footnote though, we can both absolutely agree with that.

NEStalgia

HobbitGamer

Very thoroughly said. I don’t know why our community and elected officials can’t have the same calm discussions that are being had here.
I mean, I do know why; It’s easier to get ‘support’ for something when emotion gets involved. But you know what I mean.

I went on a cleaning bender before cooking dinner, now I almost just want to eat plain bread and water 😂

#MudStrongs

Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr

NintendoByNature

Nothing wrong with a little carbs and h20 for din din

NintendoByNature

Roronoa11

@Ryu_Niiyama You should come to the Perfume concert in September... I'm going! 😊

Nintendo History🎮: Game and Watch> Original Game Boy with Tetris> GBASP (NES Edition)>DS Lite,Wii>2010s=3DSXL (Super Smash Bros. Ed.🇪🇺)/New 3DSXL (SNES Ed.🇯🇵) Feel free to add me, just lemme know👍🏾

3DS Friend Code: 1564-4860-7165 | My Nintendo: Sebastian | Nintendo Network ID: euroseb11

Lucarianzx

I live in Charlotte, and the rate of gun violence has gone up exponentially in our city. The south side of our city is the wealthy area, so nothing ever happens, but if something does the news covers it like hotcakes. The west, east, and north side however is where all of the crime happens and it gets worse by the year. The theory that violent games contribute to mass shootings is false. Quite the contrary actually. Witcher 3 is one of the best games for destressing. Overwatch however is not. It's sad though how easily the media influences people to think otherwise, when in reality games are practically harmless. Now should little Timmy play Doom? Probably not. That's my two cents on this at any rate and hopefully our government will actually take responsibility instead of blaming it on young people's pastimes.

I don't like Monster Hunter.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySCtUppltv_WhFobC0Rq8w? (My safe place)
I'm probably listening to green day right now.

Heavyarms55

@Anti-Matter They aren't poison just because you don't like them dude. Seriously you come off as insulting sometimes, the way you say things like that.

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

Heavyarms55

@BacklogBlues God bless Reggie! And you, for sharing! Thank you!

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

Heavyarms55

@HobbitGamer Elected officials don't want to have calm rational discussions for solutions. Taking extreme positions that align with their wealthiest "donors" (pimps) is what keeps them in office.

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

HobbitGamer

@NintendoByNature I amped myself up and made chicken and rice. Chopped in some homegrown basil and sage with the rice.

@Heavyarms55 Gotta keep us plebeians down

#MudStrongs

Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr

Heavyarms55

@HobbitGamer Personally I don't even think it's that. I think it's less about keeping normal folk down than keeping themselves powerful and wealthy. I think there are very few actually malicious people out there, it's more about selfishness. And we are all somewhat selfish - it is simply that the damage done by a selfish politician far outweighs the damage done by the average Joe spending his paycheck on video games and beer.

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

Heavyarms55

Good for you? Funny I can't take my PS3 with me... did you mod yours or something? Like that guy who put a Wii U in a jacket and wired up a power bank and a custom screen?

Sorry, joking aside, I just don't agree that ports to the Switch are over priced just because you can get them cheaper on older, less versatile hardware. What was stopping you from buying the game before now on that older hardware? (Obviously @RedderRugfish you didn't have a PS3 apparently but I'm speaking more in general) For me, nearly every game around is better on Switch. The only exceptions being games strictly designed for a keyboard and mouse - but even then, I've been surprised with the Cities Skylines and Civ 6 ports working so well with controllers.

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

Heavyarms55

@RedderRugfish Don't understand that mindset at all, but it's your own life to live. I'm not gonna tell you how to have fun.

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

HobbitGamer

@Heavyarms55 I superglued his Switch to the dock, so he doesn’t have a choice. I’m part of Nitneod’s plans to incentivize folks to buy a Swatch

#MudStrongs

Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr

Heavyarms55

@RedderRugfish For me I always try to keep more on my games on my preferred platform and the Switch is that for me like never before because it gives me both options. I love that so much! I don't know how to make that point as strongly as I feel but that versatility to me is such an utterly amazing incomparable feature of the system that I wouldn't trade it for almost anything! Not 4k, not cheaper games, not VR, not 3D, not motion controls, nothing. In my head Nintendo has done it. This is it, this is the best! All I want from now on are refined and improved versions of the Switch.

I know that wont happen though. Nintendo never sticks with an idea for more than a couple iterations. :/

@HobbitGamer is that gonna be like a Nintendo smart watch?

Edited on by Heavyarms55

Nintendo Switch FC: 4867-2891-2493
Switch username: Em
Discord: Heavyarms55#1475
Pokemon Go FC: 3838 2595 7596
PSN: Heavyarms55zx

Ryu_Niiyama

@Roronoa11 heh. Cheaper to see them when they come stateside. Saw them in April.

Taiko is good for the soul, Hoisa!
Japanese NNID:RyuNiiyamajp
Team Cupcake! 11/15/14
Team Spree! 4/17/19
I'm a Dream Fighter. Perfume is Love, Perfume is Life.

3DS Friend Code: 3737-9849-8413 | Nintendo Network ID: RyuNiiyama

HobbitGamer

@Heavyarms55 Yep. Like a pipboy. It’ll be a crisp 240p, and use a proprietary zipdisk format. The consumer still can choose how they play, though. Provided there are other arms or legs available.

#MudStrongs

Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr

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