zlacker

>>robthe+(OP)
This is how you govern from a position of unpopularity.

The government knows they’re on the wrong side of many issues, to the point they know they can’t win an open debate.

So media control, regulation by enforcement, and institutional control becomes the focus of effort.

>>spaceb+ab
> So media control, regulation by enforcement, and institutional control becomes the focus of effort.

You forgot gun control. That's the first thing they took away. Thereafter, freedom after freedom has been made optional by the government [1].

When government becomes overreaching, and you don't have the means to protect yourself and your rights, that's where it goes.

[1] I said "government", but probably "regime" would be a more suitable term here.

>>mirolj+0f
I still don't know what's so important about guns and how it's a metric for freedom.

>>whynot+Ph
Predators are less likely to attack someone who can defend themselves, it's quite simple.

>>wormpi+yq
The empirical evidence from the US does not bear that out. Compare murder rates between the US and any peer country with more gun control.

>>chimpr+4w
Most of the murders (homicides) in the USA are committed using illegal weapons. Banning legal weapons wouldn't reduce crime, it would just make it harder for victims to defend themselves.

Besides, USA is not a good example. According to Wikipedia [1], high murder rate statistics in the USA are skewed due to the overrepresentation of one specific part of the population, which is not that common in comparable countries. If that population were to be removed from the statistics, the murder rate in the USA would drop significantly.

> According to the FBI 2019 Uniform Crime Report, African-Americans accounted for 55.9% of all homicide offenders in 2019, with whites 41.1%, and "Other" 3% in cases where the race was known. Including homicide offenders where the race was unknown, African-Americans accounted for 39.6% of all homicide offenders in 2019, with whites 29.1%, "Other" 2.1%, and "Unknown" 29.3%[48]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_S...

>>mirolj+ZC
> Most of the murders (homicides) in the USA are committed using illegal weapons

Hardly relevant. If you control guns better, you get fewer illegal weapons as well. Most of the murders in Europe are committed by illegal weapons as well.

> Banning legal weapons wouldn't reduce crime

Of course it would - see the reduction in gun violence in countries where this has been implemented.

> Besides, USA is not a good example. According to Wikipedia [1], high murder rate statistics in the USA are skewed due to the overrepresentation of one specific part of the population

Oh. You're one of those.

It's a peculiarly American thing to try first to look to race to try to understand something, when there are more salient correlations.

Presumably since Black Americans are overrepresented as victims of gun violence, you'd like to see a significantly higher proportion carrying guns?