

Cars are more dangerous than guns and should be banned immediately. - amichail
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed113099b.cfm

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pg
Cars _are_ banned in most places. They're only allowed in roads and parking
lots, and even then with severe restrictions. Start driving your car on the
sidewalk or across someone's front yard and you'll be rapidy arrested.

~~~
amichail
Cars are dangerous with those rules already in place. Should we ban cars from
more places such as city centers?

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brl
Yes, of course. That would be a nice start.

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Zak
I'm _very_ strongly pro-gun, but I don't want to see political articles on
Hacker News. Take it to reddit.

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mdemare
I second that. I've blocked Reddit (even programming.reddit) because it's a
productivity killer for me. Coming here still feels work-related and gives me
a tremendous motivation boost, and I'd like News.YC to stay that way.

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far33d
The danger of something is not the only factor in banning it. It's the danger
: utility ratio. Cars are dangerous, but their utility is very high. Guns are
also extremely dangerous, and their only utility is their danger - they are
made to kill people (and protect, as a side effect). We ban guns because we
consider their utility low compared to their danger (replacing them with
police and a civil society).

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german
This kind of posts just make me laugh, can someone really compare cars and
guns?

I don't have the numbers but I'm pretty sure that heart attacks kills more
people than cars and guns together, should we ban Mc Donalds?

~~~
fauigerzigerk
or hearts? ;-)

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inklesspen
Amichall, are you a troll? I mean this in the nicest possible way, but when I
look at your submission record, you either don't think things through before
posting, or you're deliberately trolling.

~~~
pg
He seems to be like a troll in the sense that he likes to stir up controversy,
but I don't think he has the same bad intentions as a troll. The hallmark of a
troll is to engage people in long, acrimonious back-and-forths that push the
thread to the right side of the page.

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keith_erskine
This post doesn't belong on this service - can anyone delete it?

~~~
Zak
The editors mark content they really don't want here as "dead", which means
you don't see it unless you have the "showdead" option turned on in your
profile. I don't think they ever delete posts.

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ivankirigin
What we need are robot cars and robot guns. Folks are working on both :) cars:
<http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp>

guns: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMkV8E2re9U>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQf0Q0JEdtE>

~~~
Zak
Far more appropriate for this site! I'm fairly impressed with this homemade
automated sentry gun myself: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al-4_1kUBLc>

~~~
ivankirigin
Yah, I've had a number of email threads with Aaron Rasmussen, the guy behind
that system. Smart guy, now working on a startup call US Mechatronics
<http://www.usmechatronics.com>

I love that it was "just" a summer project and I love that he tested on his
brother.

They also did a pretty cool Wii controled samurai sword slashing robot arm.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qEotHQgUsg>

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mynameishere
The danger of something must be balanced with its utility. Cars are (sadly)
unavoidable.

~~~
davidw
The "externalities" (CO2, traffic) are less extreme - at least on a per-unit
basis, than threatening someone, or actually shooting them. We have the means,
if not the will to make some attempts at calculating and taxing them. I wonder
what those sorts of calculations would look like if you calculated a value for
each person killed by guns in a given year and spread that out over their
sales in a tax of some kind. Hrm. Anyway, yeah, cars are useful, guns I can
and do live without.

~~~
Zak
Your comparison is invalid because you're comparing externalities from legal
use of cars to externalities from illegal use of guns. Compare the
externalities of legal use of cars (pollution, traffic, some crashes) to legal
use of guns (pollution from lead and propellants, some accidental shootings)
and illegal use of cars (crashes due to DUI, reckless driving, racing) to
illegal use of guns (assault, murder).

~~~
davidw
Ok, so throw them all in there and see what comes out, it would be
interesting.

Oops... I saw your other post about it not belonging here. I agree, let's drop
it.

~~~
Zak
And I'm even more guilty for continuing it _after_ posting that.

Dropped.

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sabat
Cars aren't designed to kill. Guns are.

That said, take it to Reddit.

~~~
curi
Guns are designed to propel bullets quickly and accurately. This is used for
whatever people want to use it for, including sport, murder, and saving lives.

~~~
german
and I'm sure the gun industry earns billions of dollars each year just from
people who loves sports!

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curi
why do you focus on sports instead of self defense?

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german
I don't have a gun, in fact I believe that having a gun for self defense may
increase your possibilities of getting killed, let me explain it.

Where I come from people are not trying to kill you, they are trying to steal
your wallet or something, and if someone points a gun on me, i would prefer to
give that person my wallet than to take out a gun.

Its just my opinion and I don't want to take the risk of someone shooting me
because I pulled out a gun.

~~~
mynameishere
_let me explain it._

And let _me_ explain pi:

Pi is exactly THREE.

Actually, there's no "you" or "me" explaining it. The math behind the question
is complicated and most people instantly fall into the mistake of pretending
it is simple.

<http://www.google.com/search?q=more+guns+less+crime>

From Amazon's review,

 _In retrospect, it perhaps should not have been surprising that increasing
the number of civilians with guns would reduce crime rates. The possibility of
armed victims reduces the expected benefits and increases the expected costs
of criminal activity._

Well, maybe. Maybe not.

~~~
german
It is in fact a complicated question, let me say that you are focusing only in
US statistics.

That assumption may not work in other countries.

