Parkland survivors speak up prior to March for our Lives

[Baz Ares]

Well, Our Times now...

 

[Ghost of a Rider]

It's a very simple concept: teenagers die more often or in equal numbers by car accidents from texting and driving or speeding or other reckless behavior yet in relation to firearm deaths, teen auto fatalities get virtually no attention. Can you dispute this?

Sorry dude, almost every state has a law against texting while driving. The more progressive states don't allow phone use at all while driving. Get caught answering the phone in California and it's a $500 fine.

My daughter's very good high school friend ran into a phone pole while texting and died. Her school held a vigil, teachers talked about it endlessly and our legislature approved some very harsh penalties.

It's been a very hot topic nationally - come up with a better analogy or we can be done here.

You didn't answer the question. I have never said that measures were not taken to reduce teen texting and driving and improve car safety and have acknowledged multiple times now that they have. In fact, I never even said or implied that it wasn't enough. You're just not getting that I'm not advocating for more or stronger measures to reduce teen auto fatalities, I'm comparing the relative lack of attention give to teen auto fatalities in relation to teen firearm deaths given the fact that teen auto fatalities are much higher. Before you post another useless graph or regurgitate more irrelevant statistics that I've already acknowledged, I will say, in all caps so there's no misunderstanding: I AM NOT SAYING TEEN AUTO FATALITIES GETS NO ATTENTION.

To put this in perspective, we've never seen the kind of public fervor to do something about teen auto fatalities like we are seeing right now with guns. We've never seen a March for Our Lives type of movement. We've never seen the same kind of media coverage that we see right now with all these kids appearing on CNN and other news organizations calling for a ban on firearms. We've never seen school walkouts. We've never seen Congress stage a sit-in like they did after the Orlando shooting. In fact, according to NPR, hundreds of thousands of people across the country are marching for gun control as we speak. We've never seen anything like this regarding teen auto fatalities or even teen suicide which is the second leading cause of death for teens, ahead of firearm deaths.

Given all this, can you honestly tell me that teen auto fatalities has gotten, or is getting, the same kind of attention?

 

[Ghost of a Rider]

Oh for Christ's sake. This is like shooting pool with a rope. You're acting like I'm not aware of these things or that I'm denying them. I know just as much as you do about the laws against texting and driving and the safety features in cars and the reduction in auto fatalities and I never said anything to cause you to assume otherwise.

My point from the beginning is that teenage highway fatalities, being just as high if not more than firearm fatalities among teens, gets almost no attention. Never has the issue of teen texting and driving galvanized the country like firearms are doing right now and yet the body count is the same. How do you account for the pointed disinterest in the issue of texting and driving deaths relative to the passion about the equal number of firearm deaths?

Let's do a hypothetical. Let's say for the sake of argument that there are 5,000 teen deaths in car accidents this year and 5,000 teen firearm deaths. Now let's say that next year there are no teen firearm deaths but 10,000 teen auto fatalities. Would the issue of texting and driving get the kind of fervor and passion that firearms do right now? Would they be marching on Washington demanding laws and bans? I highly doubt it.

Now let's say that next year there are no teen auto fatalities but 10,000 firearm deaths. You know as well as I do that if the number of firearm deaths jumped from 5,000 to 10,000, even without the auto fatalities, this country would go apeshit. Yet given that the numbers are roughly the same, they may as well ALL be firearm deaths.

Are you getting any clue yet as to where I'm coming from?

Sorry but no, you are making no sense at all. The texting and driving issue is a serious one, but you are engaging in one logical fallacy after the next.

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Gee. Guns are tools to transport folks and well regulated by gobmint to be safer year after year.
Guns are unregulated tools for the most part made for killing folks.

Bullshit. There are already gun control measures in place and I'm sure you're aware of this.

BTW, what's a "gobmint"?

 

[martybegan]

"I know you are but what am I" is the primordial ooze of message board discourse.

You lose.

Your schtick Gandolf .. NOT mine

Simply pointing out YOURS

Get it?, Got it?? GOOD!!

Not even close, you poseur.