Before replying, I will note that I feel as though we have reached the end of the discussion - I think you have raised your contentions well, and I understand them but disagree. I expect you feel the same from your end, and that is fine, but I am sure neither of us thinks we will really convince the other of anything at this juncture.

As a result, I won’t be continuing the conversation after this, but know that I don’t feel any animosity toward you.

Yes, and there have been cases of guns not going off and failing to kill anyone but that is a very pedantic take… The fact of the matter remains, guns are designed to kill people, other things could kill people but not been designed for such purpose, they tend to be less effective

Some guns are designed to kill people, others are designed to hunt, others are designed to target shoot.

For example, you don’t see one of these killing a lot of people:

https://www.ssusa.org/media/c0yk1ziu/12feinwerkbau-aw93.jpg

Note that an argument of “it could be used to kill someone however” returns us to placing it in the same category as a vehicle.

The point is that, since seemingly we all agree (even gun owners as per your comment)… why do we do it at all when we all agree it’s a bad idea?!

Poor regulation depending on your area. Recall that I am in agreement that regulation can always be better. I disagree with the regulations for this in a place such as America, but you should examine how this works in other countries as well (such as the paper I linked regarding Switzerland).

Not quite… I would not trust a toddler to get a pie out of the oven because, no matter how well trained, such toddler will likely burn themselves and ruin the pie. Sure, Larry is a disaster, but we have COUNTLESS examples of Police Officers, arguably the most trained demographic to hold guns, who constantly misuse them.

Yes and I would not trust a toddler to drive either, just like how I would not trust Larry to drive, nor to use a firearm. Officers (in the US I assume you are referencing) do not receive nearly as much training as I think you suppose. Furthermore this again goes back to regulation - I believe that if a cop misuses a firearm or a vehicle, then again, they should have those things taken and be jailed. This again hints that you are more upset with specific people/regulatory systems than firearms or vehicles I think.

You don’t seem to have produced an argument against guns that does not directly depend upon a specific group of people choosing to misuse one, but the same argument can be applied to my car bomb allegory.

The amount of people that could truly be trusted with guns, under special circumstances, is very very slim. No amount of education or training would make a human 100% trust worthy with guns 100% of the time. There is a reason a huge percentage of violent crime falls in the category of “passion” crimes

The same could be said for someone driving - most likely more often for drivers since more people own vehicles than those who own firearms. It is anecdotal to say that is slim as well - you should search for a source to back that up in the future. I suggest you look into the actual data regarding gun ownership versus responsibility.

I would highly recommend you read the paper I linked in my first comment regarding Switzerland because it implies the opposite in their case.

In the US? Yes that could be different, but again that demonstrates quite clearly this is not a gun problem, but a societal/educational problem since this problem only really exists in specific places.

We should do those things… and still not let almost anyone own a gun. The case is clear, there is simply no societal benefit to allow widespread ownership of certain guns.

I don’t think the case is very clear at all - based on the sources I have provided I would say it is decidedly unclear. Social benefits include the control of wildlife, military protections, and social sport (such as olympic shooting, and target shooting competition).

I used to feel similarly to yourself so I challenged my bias by going through the process of getting a firearms license in my country and engaging with firearms, sport shooting, and the community that surrounds it. After all, if my bias did not change, then I could simply sell the firearms to recoup my money and would not have lost anything - however it did change my opinions on the matter, so just know that I am speaking from a place of having involved myself with the subject directly to go seek out the real tangible information on my own behalf.

Perhaps someday you may find it enlightening to do something similar, even if you don’t take it quite as far as me.

Thanks and have a good day.

the harm people can do improvising an everyday device as a weapon, is magnitudes of order lower

Not necessarily.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Toronto_van_attack

You could also fill the car with a lot of gasoline canisters and fertilizer if you so wished. These are all also a lot easier to get than a firearm, particularly if you are crazy.

Agree that regulation can always be better however.

How can anyone see that and think “oh sure Larry is a crazy person, drives drunk all the time, usually on his phone, but I am sure he will be super responsible with an automatic machine gun”

I think you are drawing a false causal relationship/strawman here. Almost no one thinks this, including 99% of people who own and use firearms. Certain people should be prevented from owning and operating firearms and certain people should also be prevented from owning and operating vehicles.

A person who operates a vehicle irresponsibly should have their license and vehicle taken and be jailed in such a case.

A person who uses a firearm irresponsibly should have their firearms/firearms license taken and be jailed in such a case.

Such a person using either thing irresponsibly can result in the loss of life, but I don’t see as many people trying to ban vehicles, gasoline, and fertilizer because they are capable of killing multiple people.

To me it sounds like the issue you have is not with vehicles or firearms, it is with Larry. This brings us back to my point about this being a societal/educational problem rather than a banning problem. I get the feeling if Larry wants to hurt a lot of people, he will find a way to do so regardless. If you want society to be safe from Larry, you would have to go a lot further than banning only firearms.

Alternatively, you tackle the societal responsibility/education/mental health problems that society has, and maybe Larry stops drinking, gets therapy for his mental problems, gets off social media and now feels as though there is no need to hurt anyone or to act irresponsibly with guns, vehicles, gasoline, knives, baseball bats, tire irons, or whatever else.

I believe weapons should be banned and that crime should not exist in the first place

A car can be used as a weapon as can cleaning products, baseball bats, tire irons, kitchen knives, sharp sticks… etc. If someone wants to purpose something as a weapon, then they will.

Crime is defined by law and law is defined by government and/or society. As long as people exist, crime will exist. It is not sound reasoning to believe “crime should not exist” because if it were made illegal to wear black shoes, crime exists again, and as such it is an impossible standard.

Rather, I accept that crime will always exist in the world as a result, but aspire to a world wherein there is no real need to ban things like guns because no one uses them to harm other people - the same goes for cars, baseball bats, etc.

Banning registered/licensed owners from owning firearms does not do much, because the last thing a potential mass shooter does when obtaining a firearm is register or get a license. As such, laws that ban only really affect people who are generally responsible in the first place.

If all firearms suddenly disappeared, people would just build rudimentary ones if they wanted one for violence as well. Shinzo Abe was killed by a gun someone built in their home. To prevent that you would have to make the purchase of metal piping and whatnot illegal as well.

Stopping mass shootings, gun violence, and violence in general is not a matter of banning something, it is a matter of education and societal responsibility. Read about the comparatively high gun ownership yet low shootings in Switzerland for example.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178924000776

This is beautiful.

I’ve been looking for exactly this for some time, really excited to try it out.

I’ve found real solutions to pretty much everything but this. For Fusion, I still just have to run it in a windows VM under Linux.

I’ve found a lot of success after biting the bullet and purchasing bitwig as my DAW.

Interesting, thanks for sharing that, I will have to keep an eye on it as well.

Also not the target of the question but I recall a guy who called 911 because the fries he ordered at a mcdonalds were cold.

The police showed up and found that he had a warrant for his arrest for murder.

The humble kalimba has some of the qualities I think you are describing. Also just a regular nylon string guitar.

Thanks, I will keep that in mind

Thanks!

It looks like the app is not available in my country - there are some rip offs that claim to be similar but charge money. Might look to see if there is some APK of it out there that I can sideload.

That makes sense, thanks for that insight.

Thank you, all good resources and recommendations.

Fair enough. Surprisingly I don’t often drink sugared drinks, eat chocolate or candy, confections, chips, or things like that. Probably the mass of my calorie intake exists at an intersection between bread, meat, and oil.

I think my problem as far as that goes is really more to do with portion sizing. I expect if I reduce portion sizes for what I normally eat and begin adding more vegetables as a filler I would be much better off.

Thanks, yes this is certainly something I have to work on in conjunction with the exercise.

I have often drank coffee black so there is no problem for me there, and I don’t often buy sugared drinks. I can certainly cut down on alcohol as well as what I drink as far as that goes.

I know how to cook as well, so I will have to dive harder into the vegetable space to see what’s good there as far as new meals and correcting portion sizes. I could certainly be drinking more water as well.

Yes I expect that will be the case, but I am not discouraged very easily thankfully. My bigger problem I expect will just be making sure that I can form it as a habit, though other commenters have already offered up some resources which I think will help with that.

Thank you for the recommendation, I will have to take a look at this. I do like that you describe the contents as being straightforward. It is simple jumping off points like that which have always really helped me to learn and become involved in something starting out.

I think that is true. Another commenter sent that couch to 5k app link which is a 9 week program so I think it will be helpful in just making me maintain the routine of showing up. This is especially good for me as I tend to have a difficult time forming habits such as this. Given that this gym is just on a different floor than where my office is, I think that it will also keep me from neglecting showing up as easily, as it is very, very convenient to get to.

Thank you - yes I would like to work my way up towards running more outside, but I think I am going to be doing the treadmill for a while at first because I live in a particularly hilly area, which while walkable for me, would probably be a little too difficult to try to run on due to the grade. I think the gym has a bike or two and a rowing machine so I will look into those. Thanks for the information on the weights, I think they have some simple ones that make all of that doable. I am sure the tingliness will come at some point, but generally after doing exercise I mainly just feel sweaty and hot lol. Nonetheless, I will work toward that, thank you.