There is no such a thing as "Gun Violence". Would you call a injury inflicted by
a drunken driver as "Car Violence"? Of course not. A gun does not do anything
until it is picked up, loaded, aimed and fired by a person. Calling it "Gun
Violence" deflects the responsibility from the real cause of the violence, the
operator. It also obfuscates the path needed actions to ameliorate the problem
by taking the spotlight off the person who does the assaulting. The present
shooting are gang violence. We need to focus our efforts in that area.

You ignore the gun culture. You ignore the ease of guns. You ignore the simple fact that a gun is a machine designed to propel a missile at great speed over a short distance with the sole intent of maiming or killing the recipient. You ignore the fact that a second of anger or bad judgment or impulse produces irreversible tragedy. People might stab or choke or beat but that takes a higher level of intimacy, strength, and effort than simply pulling that trigger.
You ignore reality.

"You ignore the ease of guns. You ignore the simple fact that a gun is a machine designed to propel a missile at great speed over a short distance with the sole intent of maiming or killing the recipient."

No, a gun is a "machine designed to propel a missile at great speed" IN WHATEVER THE DIRECTION THE USER POINTS IT. The recipient can be a paper target, a tin can, a robber or rapist, a rival gang member - or a defenseless victim. Depends upon the shooter.

what is "the gun culture"?
what is "the ease of guns"?
guns are not animate objects they do not have intent.
a kid killed his father with a propane tank here not too long ago.
a clonk on the head and he was dead.

"Gun Culture" is the stupidity of thinking guns are the answer to every problem you have, whether it be an ex-wife or an inconsiderate driver.

Must be a very small "culture" then, because I'm an enthusiastic gun hobbyist, and I've never seen it.

And who, exactly, thinks that? Why is it you anti's are always engaging in long distance psychoanalysis of people you've never met? Do you really think you know what is in the heart and mind of gun owners? It's kind of irrational.

so what you are seeing in the movies and such?

you mean what you see in movies, or do you mean the anti gun rights movement, which pew found to be utterly anti science on the data?

Reality is that 80% of "gun violence" is inner-city crime. The notion of a gun owner who suddenly goes off the deep end and starts shooting is just another one of the myths the anti-gun crowd deals in. These type of events are extraordinarily rare, are usually perpetrated by people with long standing mental illness, not regular folks "snapping." And yes, occasionally one of these individuals is stopped by an armed citizen as just happened in Pennsylvania.

Guns are used in self defense upwards of 2.5 million times per year. The fact that citizens own guns creates a diffuse deterrent effect which has been demonstrated to alter criminal behavior and lower the violent crime rate. Example. In America, home invasions comprise 13% of burglaries. Criminals try not to go into a house if they know someone's home. This, according to prison interviews, is primarily from fear of being shot. In gun free England, home invasions comprise over 50% of burglaries. (And you should know that after England banned guns in 1996, their murder rate went up and has stayed above 1996 levels ever since.)

Since criminals don't know who has guns and who doesn't, the deterrent effect applies to everyone. Thus my guns are protecting your house.

As for the gun culture, perhaps you should attend a hunter safety class someday. You will sit through three days, over 20 hours, of lectures, presentations and demonstrations with a massive emphasis on how to responsibly handle firearms. This is the reality.

80%? Try over 90%

The comments about 80%, rare and mental illness all sound plausible, but don't make me feel any better. Mass shootings (by truly crazy people), including in schools and colleges, have become a routine occurrence in this country, while you don't hear much about those in Europe and many other places on this planet, and you would be kidding yourself to think that easy access to guns in the US has nothing to do with that. If one's child gets killed at school by a mass shooter, it would hardly help to know that such acts are committed by less than 1% of all gun owners, or that the number of killed gang members in the country far exceeds the number of killed innocent people, or that there is a bunch of very secure gun owners fortified in their homes. So let's put some of that less relevant statistics aside, and try to remember that civil liberties of some can't be pursued at the expense of others.

"Darha" US gun murder has been PLUMMETTING as gun laws were relaxed.
You would not know it from reading this article but US gun murder is down 50%.
And the data from 20 different jurisdictional studies shows that of those 8,500 gun murders, about 8,000 aer criminals killing criminals.
If you are not a criminal your risk of being murdered in the USA is LOWER than Australia or Canada

And all these things that you assert that I ignore lead to what, in your opinion?

"Gun Violence" is the deliberate action of a gun nut with a firearm.
"Car Violence" would be the deliberate action of someone using a car to inflict injury.
Now you're a little more intelligent that you used to be.
Just a little.

Vehicular homicide. On the books in 50 states..

The derogatory term "gun nut" refers to someone who takes a long term interest in shooting and collecting firearms. Take a look at FBI UCR statistics and see how many of those type of folk are committing murder. Hint; not very many.

Inner city gang members and other criminals, hardly the stereotypical gun nut, commit 80% of the murders in this nation.

"gun nuts" don't seem to be the ones committing the vast majority of crimes involving firearms.

How about the well-publicized intimidation of federal agents by armed "friends" of Cliven Bundy?

bundy? really? 87% of US murder occurs in Democrat congressional districts

Was that an answer? Looks like a pivot to me.

pivot? you try a pitiful red herring with bundy, when 90% of US murder is gang members and criminals shooting each other.

please provide some substantiation to your claim that the vast majority of crimes involving firearms are perpetrated by bundy ranch affiliates

I didn't make any such claim. You are exaggerating.

but that's what you said.

Read it again, this time for comprehension.

how about it?

A good example of a crime--the intimidation of federal agents carrying out their duties-- by self-identified "second-amendment patriots".

if its such a great example of crime perhaps you can tell me about what crimes they have been convicted of.

They haven't been, to my knowledge, but Federal agents were intimidated in the performance of their duties (there is ample photographic and verbal evidence) and that is an illegal act.

so tell me about the arrests then.

The very definition of People Violence. Without the person, nothing happens.

Lawyers Band Together To Fight Gun Violence

Sorry, what "gun violence"? The million and a half times a year a lawful gun owner stops a crime from occurring? Or the, in comparison, minuscule numbers of injuries and deaths caused by unlawful thugs and idiots?

Thanks for the laugh of the day.

$40 MILLION dollar June 2013 CDC study. 500,000 to three MILLION crimes prevented each year in the USA gun owners

So what inspired you to begin this new group? Millions of Bloomberg bucks!

"some short list of objectives policy-wise"
objective one: ban guns
objective two: d\find an other way to get in Bloomberg's pocket

I admire what Bloomberg does, regardless of his personality. He is clearly making a large part of America's vast population of gun addicts very anxious. To me that means there must be a real chance things will start changing for the better on this issue. And the more I hear gun nut heads repeating that Bloomberg is wasting millions of $s, the more optimistic I get that change may be finally coming to America...

Bloomberg is the most successful gun salesman and recruiter for the NRA in history. Do you know he paid over $100 per vote to get elected to Mayor?
Its funny that you think one egomaniacal narcissistic billionaire trying to take the civil liberties from tens of millions of people is on the winning or right side of history. The trend in America on firearms is clear, fewer restrictions.

Thanks for supporting my point. The pro gun community is paying a lot of attention to what Bloomberg is doing, repeating like mantra that he is wasting money, it won't work, and so on. Just a proof that he must have a good chance to start the change. The rest will be taken care of by time in a generation or two...

Are you watching the same feed? Despite his billions, Bloomberg is losing far more fights than he's winning. People are realizing that background checks, assault weapon bans, magazine caps, and gun free zones don't stop even one single criminal.

with Bloomberg's efforts the NRA has doubled in size

vasya, thanks for the Soviet view on things!

Do you realize that Mayor Mike has his very own team of ARMED bodyguards?

Are you kidding? Bloomberg is a gift from the gods. All you have to do to raise money or get a politician recalled is run a few ads with Bloomberg in them. The guy is the greatest villain for the pro-gun movement ever.

if only they actually knew people who could prosecute people for gun crimes. More Bloomberg astroturf and NPR is only too happy to give them all the free taxpayer provided airtime they like.

Absolutely. NPR is the Bloomberg gun-control mouthpiece, bought and paid for. This anti-gun group isn't news, it's merely anti-gun politics--an interest NPR is happy to serve.

a Bloomberg gun-control mouthpiece

If they prosecute more black people for gun violence, because they commit more gun violence, they would be considered racist.

perhaps its time to end our racist gun and drug laws