As a bear, let me tell you that you are welcome to have my bear arms wrapped around you.

It made him much harder than it should have, at least.

I don't think anybody ever forgets that they are essentially toys to some people. But look at drones. People love to fly them, they are very fun, but those things weilded irresponsibly are a fucking menace to people and there are some laws with hefty penalties for using them in ways that endanger the public incur hefty fines because they are dangerous.

Yet guns don't get the same treatment in the US.

Quite frankly the fun factor isn't really pursuant to the discussion. When you are talking about wide ranging public health issues that make a lot of people more likely to die due to making suicides more successful and escalate your personal conflicts into highly deadly senarios people do not want to take the time to entertain discussion about how fun they are to shoot because it turns one into the adult trying to deal with a maddened six year old trying to make a case for buying lawn darts.

You need armor piercing rounds to hit a target? How about am ankle holster? What about a silencer? What about a concealed carry permit?

If every civilian who owned a gun owned it specifically to have fun at the range things would be a lot different. Pointing out the one tiny use of a subcategory of it is just a distraction. I could use the air conditioner in my car to cool down my cup of coffee but that is in no way shape or form the primary reason for owning a car.

Yes, there are secondary uses that have risen in popularity because people want excuses to have more guns.

That does not mean their primary use has changed. You can use them to hammer nails if you really want to. That doesn't mean that's what they're made for.

But you absolutely don't need to own a gun to have fun with one. You can go to a shooting range, they'll give you one, you have your fun and go home. No everyday citizen owns a gun in that scenario, but fun was had. (This is how it works in the EU mostly.) I have had my fair share of fun with guns and I agree with you: they are indeed great fun! But I've never felt the need to own a gun because of that.

I'll be honest, Lemmy has some of the worst showings of good faith discussion I've ever seen. I'm glad you like the community, but be careful not to spend too much time here. It's already unwelcoming to many people, and I certainly see more and more extremist rhetoric on it every time I log in.

I grew up around guns and totally agree with you as far as that goes, but my larger point, the source of my disappointment where this discussion is concerned, is that people are misrepresenting what you actually said in the first place.

It's one thing to disagree with an argument, but it's an entirely different thing to disagree with an argument that no one actually made.

My complaint here is that most of the comments in opposition to your initial comment were made on the basis of bad-faith or idiot misunderstanding of your original point.

In other words, my complaint is not about anyone's position so much as it is about how they use rational (or irrational) thoughts to arrive at said conclusions.

Cars are a good example because they're dangerous and therefore heavily regulated. (Not heavily enough if you ask me, but nobody asked me lol).

... guns are not inherently evil and require someone with bad intentions to use them in a bad way.

You've reversed yourself. Which is it? Do guns require bad intentions to be misused or not?

Also, cars are more strictly regulated than guns in most parts of the US. If you're pro gun then you might want to think of a better comparison.

Sorry, just the sentence that said "both are correct" sounded to me like you're agreeing that people kill people and that gay people gay people, but I probably misunderstood. lol

Who let a 2 year old drive