

A web-wide moment of silence for Sandy Hook - coloneltcb
http://www.webmomentofsilence.org

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thuffy
Why are we even discussing guns? They account for less than 0.5% of deaths
(excluding suicides) in the USA. You are two and a half times more likely to
fall to your death accidentally than be killed by a gun. You are three and a
half times more likely to die in a car crash.

Heart disease kills 28 innocent people in the USA every 25 minutes! Cancer
kills another 28 innocent people in that time! More innocent people die from
car crashes every minute than die from guns. Does a mad gunman kill 28 people
every 25 minutes? I haven't even heard of any more such shooting this week,
nevermind every 25 minutes since the Sandy Hook incident.

Guns don't even make the top 15 list* (below)! And #15 ranks in at 2.8% the
amount of deaths as #1. In the interest of tackling problems that would
actually make a meaningful difference, looking at causes at that small
percentage of the problem is really a waste of time.

If any remember not too long ago, the 'year of the shark', it is much like how
that 'epidemic' of shark attacks was suddenly so pressing in our
consciousness. Not because you had any chance at all of dying of shark
attacks, but simply because the media had chosen to spotlight the
infinitesimally small amount of deaths caused by sharks. Just as you have no
chance to die of sharks, you have no chance to die from guns. Just because the
media purposely chooses to fill their pages with mostly gun crime doesn't mean
that what they choose to report actually reflects the ratios that exist in
reality. The tyrants have an agenda to disarm the people so that they can more
easily enslave them. Just as the tyrants of Russia took control of the media
in order to sway peoples opinions to suit their agenda, the tyrants of our
countries have long ago done so as well.

In the USA, approximately 6,755 people die - every day. Twenty eight people
dying is a sad thing, but irrelevant to the 6,755 people that die every day!
The national media focuses on this negligible number of deaths because it
suits the agenda of the parasitic ruling class. If they didn't choose to focus
on it (for weeks and weeks even), then it would just be another 0.4145% of the
deaths that occurred in a day.

Guns are our only defense against the next Trotsky, Stalin, Lennin or Mao once
again purging a 100 million of their own people. Let's ban cars instead of
guns. It would prevent more deaths, and cars are a lot less important to our
freedom than guns. I would rather walk or bike to work than be thrown in the
next gulag or purged because we allowed the tyrants to disarm their people.

 _Note that it is right to exclude suicides because: a) really, those people
have the right to die, b) only half of suicides are by guns, thus you would
only cut suicide by 50%, and c) you wouldn't even cut it by 50% as probably
most of those people would use another way to kill themselves just like the
other 50% of people who commit suicide do. Regardless, even if you don't
exclude suicide then you are still more likely to die from falling or an auto
accident than by a gun._

Proof of the pure BS that the media is stirring up against guns:

From the CDC's: National Vital Statistics Report, Volume 60, Number 4 (January
2012)

Numbers for 2010 (latest tabulated in the 2012 report):

Total deaths in 2010: 2,465,932

595,444 Heart Disease

573,855 Cancer

137,789 Chronic lower respiratory disease

129,180 Cerebrovascular disease

118,043 Accidents [ _A]

83,308 Alzheimer's

68,905 Diabetes mellitus

50,472 Influenza and pneumonia

37,793 Suicide [_S]

37,843 Septicemia

31,802 Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis

26,577 Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease

21,963 Parkinson's disease

17,001 Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids

... ( ^ top 15 )

16,065 Assault (homicide) [ _M]

472,889 All other causes

[_A]:

118,043 Accidents (total)

-> 37,661 Transport accidents

\---> 35,080 Motor vehicle accidents

-> 25,903 Accidental Falls

-> 600 Accidental discharge of firearms

-> ...

[ _S]:

37,793 Suicide (total)

-> 19,308 Suicide by discharge of firearms

-> 18,485 Suicide by other means.

[_M]:

16,065 Assault (homicide)

-> 11,015 Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms

-> 5,050 Assault (homicide) by other means.

~~~
Permit
>Guns are our only defense against the next Trotsky, Stalin, Lennin or Mao
once again purging a 100 million of their own people.

Even though I support gun control, I recognize that there are many good
reasons that people in opposition of gun control put forward.

This is certainly not one of them.

If the government decided to steam roll your town, you'd have as much hope at
defending yourself against them as the citizens of Iraq would. Small arms are
not particularly effective against drones and armored vehicles.

~~~
thuffy
Clearly the tyrants of today disagree with you. They would not be trying so
desperately to ban guns if they did not fear an armed population!

Also,

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915-1917, 1.5 million
Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1929 the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, over 20
million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million
Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and others, who were unable to
defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, over 50 million
political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan
Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians,
unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million
"educated" people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and
exterminated.

That places total victims who lost their lives because of gun control at
approximately 86 million in the last century. Since we should learn from the
mistakes of history, the next time someone talks in favor of gun control, find
out which group of citizens they wish to have exterminated.

~~~
Permit
>Clearly the tyrants of today disagree with you. They would not be trying so
desperately to ban guns if they did not fear an armed population!

I can't tell if you're serious. The world isn't out to get you. We've had
sensible restrictions on guns in Canada for some time now without a resulting
genocide.

Is it so hard for you to believe that one might want guns banned for reasons
other than the oppression of fellow citizens? As a citizen I have nothing to
gain by banning guns. If I became a politician and offered the same position,
I'd be called a scheming tyrant by individuals like yourself.

Bizarre. Your comments remind me of:
[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/08/08/calga...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/08/08/calgary-
nose-hill-gun-stampede-police-us.html) Perhaps the attitudes of Canadians and
Americans differ more on this issue than I initially thought.

~~~
_dps
Your factual observation is correct, but I don't think the parent is
suggesting that the absence of weapons guarantees genocide. I believe the
claim is that weapons provide a deterrent to genocide.

To relate to your example: Canada may have merely "gotten lucky" in not yet
having had a genocidal leader. If I had to pick among two competing theories:

Theory 1) An armed populace _can_ deter genocide. The observed fact is because
Canada hasn't yet had a leader inclined to genocide, or influential enough to
accomplish it.

Theory 2) An armed populace _cannot_ deter genocide.

I'd be inclined to believe the first. The policy implications of such a belief
would, of course, depend on the general likelihood of leaders prone to
genocide. If they are vanishingly rare, then the benefits of deterrence are
probably outweighed by the costs of widely distributed arms. The history of
twentieth century states leaves this, for me, an open question.

~~~
n3rdy
Not to mention that an armed United States is a reasonable deterrent that
would undermine any attempt at genocide in Canada.

The moment it was clear that the Canadian government intended to begin mass
executions, activists from the U.S would start moving weapons and other
provisions over the border to assist a resistance. This is assuming that the
U.S government didn't send its own military to stop the genocide itself.

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freehunter
So this lasts for... how long? One minute? How many users will see it, and how
many of them will not appreciate it? I understand the SOPA blackout, that
directly impacts the web and it brought attention to a major issue. The
shooting at Sandy Hook already has massive media attention and doesn't
directly impact the web. There are memorials set up, there is an address you
can send cards, there is probably a donation form somewhere.

The shooting was tragic and I support memorial services for the victims, but
the only sites I see blacking out are ones where no one is going to see it
anyway. I would be somewhat disappointed if any site I visited was observing
this moment of silence. There are appropriate places to mourn.

~~~
codegeek
"doesn't directly impact the web"

Try telling that to the scamsters who have launched hundreds of sites asking
for donations to victim's family when they have absolutely no connection to
the victims.

~~~
freehunter
And a virtual moment of silence helps resolve this how? The SOPA blackout was
to draw attention to an issue that threatened to potentially shut down the web
as we know it. You'll find scammers anywhere. I stand by "doesn't directly
impact the web". Scams are not a threat to the web, they're a threat to the
people who fall for them. Do you think this moment of silence is going to
convince the scammers to close up shop? The site doesn't even call out scams
as a reason for this blackout.

Maybe to give your point more credibility, the author of this could add in a
call to action to shut down scam sites, with a reasonable method to follow in
achieving this goal. Instead, it's as effective as putting a ribbon on your
car.

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armored_mammal
Yes, let's play with people's emotions. Maybe after seeing this they will feel
good about my site and pay me.

Just because something is a tragedy doesn't mean we should turn it into a
hoopla of cooperative and meaningless tripe.

Skip the hollow gestures and spend a real moment of silence yourself maybe?

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dmschulman
What a useless hollow gesture.

~~~
pg
Not at all. Among other things this shows politicians how much people care
about fixing this problem. With any luck it will be another "if the people
lead, the leaders will follow" moment like with SOPA.

~~~
freehunter
I can't tell if you're serious or joking, but without a call to action (for
gun control, mental health services, whatever you support) there's nothing to
be done here. If there was a call to action, I would support it a bit more.

~~~
coloneltcb
Hi, we've updated the site with a FAQ that addresses this

thanks

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shuzchen
At first glance I'd think this was illegitimate. I mean, you expect people to
deploy this before tomorrow, and the script tag isn't ready yet? Sure, I'll
let you harvest my email address. If it weren't for the fact that this was
created by the people behind causes.com, my alarms would be ringing.

Project creators should probably take some direction from sopablackout.org, or
even modify the sopablackout snippet (it's not hard to do) to suit their
needs. Since the users will be linking to an external resource, they can
install it as soon as possible (and should, if they expect to have as many
users as possible) and updates can be pushed out behind the scenes.

(disclosure, I'm responsible for the js snippet on sopablackout - yes, if
anybody wants to ping me with questions about how it works I'm available)

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mikeleeorg
They finally released their JS script:

<http://www.causes.com/moment_of_silence.js>

In case anyone is curious, this modal dialogue stays up for 5 min. The script
is hosted on their servers, not a CDN. It uses the client's system time. And
it is somewhat configurable, offering the three global (ack) variables:

* _showText_ (boolean to display action link)

* _text_ (action link text)

* _url_ (action link to causes.org)

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jacalata
First image: "We are observing a national moment of silence". I hope you will
be targeting this exclusively to people with US-based IP addresses.

