Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wichita police shooting

Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by michaelscott on Friday December 29, 2017 @02:41PM (#16031459)

This just isn't true. Canada and Switzerland, as examples, also have a high number of firearms and not nearly as many firearm-related deaths (at least from 2014 data I could find; I doubt it's changed).

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by api_or_ipa on Friday December 29, 2017 @03:08PM (#16031648)

A long-gun stored in a locked cabinet in the attic with a trigger guard and ammo in a separate locked compartment is very different than carrying a loaded pistol on your hip in public. In Canada it is essentially impossible for normal citizens to carry a gun in public, let alone a loaded handgun. IIRC you need a separate license to transport your weapon (in a locked case, unloaded, and carried securely in your trunk). The idea of adult citizens carrying loaded pistols around in public is completely foreign in Canada.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by davidw on Friday December 29, 2017 @03:13PM (#16031692)

What you describe is more what things were like in Italy - you can have a gun there, but you have to prove you are responsible, and it is a privilege, not a right. It seemed to work out ok in that people could still own them for self defense or hunting if they put in the effort to do so.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by michaelscott on Friday December 29, 2017 @04:15PM (#16032034)

Oh of course, I agree with you. My point is purely statistical i.e. those are the numbers open for interpretation. The gun cultures in Canada and Switzerland are completely different to the US, but it's disingenuous to simply say more guns == more deaths.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by api_or_ipa on Friday December 29, 2017 @06:19PM (#16032723)

Right, I see your point. Absolute gun ownership isn't the number we should be discussing-- it's the number of guns that can be easily carried and used in public. In Switzerland guns are everywhere, but the ammo is stored in sealed containers to prevent frivolous and unaccountable use of the guns. In Canada you can't ever carry your gun around on the street and handguns are almost completely illegal for all intents and purposes. In most of America you can carry a semiautomatic pistol in public with no consequences. Firearm incidents occur when you increase the availability for people to get and posses guns in public-- whether they buy them at Walmart or steal them from unlocked cop cars. That's indisputable.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by llukas on Friday December 29, 2017 @06:06PM (#16032648)

Except that data is there to prove the point - more guns correlates with more deaths. Regardless how you compare - different states inside US or different countries.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/u...

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by wavegeek on Friday December 29, 2017 @10:14PM (#16033641)

What a load of rubbish.

1. The compare gun deaths. This includes suicides and excludes all other murders. So it is a totally biased metric.

They even admit most gun deaths are suicides.

2. Ignore by far the most salient variables for predicting murders.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by jessaustin on Saturday December 30, 2017 @10:01AM (#16035499)

This is typical "advocacy research". They don't care about science; they only care about getting funded. The general public knows this, so for the most part their research is completely ignored.

Don't even get me started on the "suicide is always terrible" bullshit. Many suicides are rational responses to untenable situations. I'm glad that my grandfather had a gun, when AEC and his physicians had both failed him completely.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by davidw on Friday December 29, 2017 @02:45PM (#16031496)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shoot...

Looks like your numbers are badly off (those countries have less than half the guns the US does per capita, so not all that high), and in Switzerland there are a ton of restrictions on the guns (and on the ammunition!) compared to the US, to boot.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by rbcgerard on Friday December 29, 2017 @06:18PM (#16032720)

I believe that the post above is a reference to household ownership rather than per capita, there are a number of countries where the household ownership percentage is similar, but the number per household is much lower, that is true of many things, cars, TVs, guns, etc.

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Re:Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in Wic... by michaelscott on Friday December 29, 2017 @04:13PM (#16032029)

I'm talking about gun deaths in total, not mass shootings as in your link. Yes, the number of guns is far below the US (every country on Earth is) but looking at the number in isolation is disingenuous.

As to legal restrictions in Switzerland, that is absolutely true but orthogonal to the point I've made. The issue lies in the number of guns per person (and I'd personally argue the culture surrounding guns which spurs it), not the legal framework. South Africa has tighter gun laws than the US but still suffers from greater gun deaths (again, in total not mass shootings).

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