Why compare sex and firearms?
Sex:
- Fundamental to life
- Something every human is capable of, and that (except for Slashdot users ;), most experience in their life.
- If consensual, a source of pleasure and love.
Firearms:
- A tool which can be used for a varierty of purposes
- Must be purchased, i.e. it is a choice.
- I suppose one could compare firearms training/use to martial arts, in that it can have personal benefits, but at the same time it's original purpose and base function is to defend oneself from, or (with guns) attack and kill another person.
So why are we comparing these two things again?
I am for anyone owning a firearm being educated. I don't own a gun and enjoy knowing a bit about them. I am also for a reasonable degree of gun control, and for acknowledging the fact that the U.S. appears to be unique in terms of the frequency of mass shootings, and of taking action (increasing the availability of mental health clinics, finding ways to restrict mentally ill people from owning firearms which does not violate the second amendment, etc) to do something about this.
[Edit]
And no firearms (unless carried by an officer) in schools, on campuses, or in places of worship.
I feel like you've abstracted one level too far. We're not comparing sex and firearms in a concrete sense; we're comparing one type of education as an appropriate way to mitigate the potentially damaging effects that being untrained causes, and another type of education as an appropriate way to mitigate the potential damages of being untrained.
As it stands, it's no worse or less than the nauseatingly constant comparison between firearms and automobiles, when the more apt comparison (in my opinion) is comparing firearms rights vs. voting rights.
Off the top of my head... both can be used for enjoyment (I was going to say pleasure, thinking of the pleasure a shooter might feel at getting a bulls eye, but thought people might get the wrong idea), both can be used to hurt other people (I'm fairly certain more people have been hurt via sex and human relationships in general than from firearms - though obviously we are talking about emotional pain rather than physical pain, discounting the physical pain an STD can cause), both require choice (otherwise it is rape), both can kill (thinking of diseases like HIV in the case of sex), both ideally should require education, both require protection, if your SO is a screamer both might require ear protection, etc.
Armed with a rifle and a handgun, 14-year-old James Alan Kearbey, killed principal, James McGee, and wounded two teachers and a student at Goddard Junior High School.
Firearms: - A tool which can be used for a varierty of purposes - Must be purchased, i.e. it is a choice. - I suppose one could compare firearms training/use to martial arts, in that it can have personal benefits, but at the same time it's original purpose and base function is to defend oneself from, or (with guns) attack and kill another person.
So why are we comparing these two things again?
I am for anyone owning a firearm being educated. I don't own a gun and enjoy knowing a bit about them. I am also for a reasonable degree of gun control, and for acknowledging the fact that the U.S. appears to be unique in terms of the frequency of mass shootings, and of taking action (increasing the availability of mental health clinics, finding ways to restrict mentally ill people from owning firearms which does not violate the second amendment, etc) to do something about this.
[Edit]
And no firearms (unless carried by an officer) in schools, on campuses, or in places of worship.