Sorry, but I don't trust Vox, and I don't trust anything they claim to "collect" from other sources, and I don't trust any source they would trust.
I think this is also a pretty good example of what I meant by "disconnect" and a lack of shared common ground. It's obviously much harder to have a productive conversation with someone if you can't find any common ground on how one should go about finding out what is true about the world.
But let me try a different tack. Probably the most important empirical claim in my argument against guns is that there is a strong association between the availability of guns and rates of gun-related violence and death. If you accept that this association exists, but disagree with the conclusions I reach for other reasons, then the dispute about Vox is moot anyway. Or, if you do not accept that this association exists, could you describe what kinds of data, or what methods, you would accept as a reliable means of establishing whether that claim is true or false? If you already believe that the claim is false, can you describe what evidence leads you to that conclusion?
I do not, in fact, have to be any more specific than "I don't accept links to people known for lying to advance their agenda"
To be clear, I just mean that it's difficult for me to take your objection seriously as long as it remains so vague. You're not giving me any actual reason to change my opinion about the reliability of the data I cited. I do not mean that you are obligated to try to persuade me.
And you're continuing to validate my perception. Was that your intention?
My intention in creating this thread was to discuss politics with people who disagree with me so strongly as to believe that I must either be lying or delusional, because I find it interesting for a variety reasons, one of which is that it's useful to challenge myself to try to explain my views coherently to skeptical audiences, in order to find weaknesses in those views. So I'm not particularly surprised by the fact that you perceive me to either be lying or delusional.
You statement is either disingenuously self-serving or incredibly naive about political machinations. Which is it?
I covered the objection from naivety in the sentences following the one you quoted, fwiw.