Make the Gun Companies Pay Blood Money

[Pheonixops]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/opinion/make-gun-companies-pay-blood-money.html?_r=0

But there is a simple and direct way to make them accountable for the harm their products cause. For every gun sold, those who manufacture or import it should pay a tax. The money should then be used to create a compensation fund for innocent victims of gun violence.

This proposal is based on a fundamentally conservative principle — that those who cause injury should be made to “internalize” the cost of their activity by paying for it. Now, gun manufacturers and sellers are mostly protected from lawsuits by federal law.

As it happens, a model for this approach already exists. Under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, those injured by vaccines are eligible for compensation from a fund financed by an excise tax on the sale of every dose of vaccine. In creating this no-fault system in the 1980s, Congress sought to provide care for those injured by vaccines while protecting manufacturers from undue litigation.

Should knife manufacturers, brewers, distillers, and drug manufacturers have a similar 'tax' because people (key word) cause harm with their products? What about car manufacturers, should they have a 'tax' and a 'fund' to pay for people's (key word) negligence with their products?

 

[MikeK]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/opinion/make-gun-companies-pay-blood-money.html?_r=0

Unconstitutional

Plain and simple

The Constitution seems to take a backseat when it comes to progressives pushing their bullshit.

Specifics, please?

 

[MikeK]

Guns make it easier to kill people.

Next.

SO do knives, hemlock, role, cars, rocks, spears, illegal drugs, home made explosives, etc...

Don't forget excessive calories -- which kill more Americans than any other single thing. McDonald's kills more Americans than Smith & Wesson.

 

[Staidhup]

This thread has got to rank up there in "contender for stupidest thread on a message board evah!" category.

With out a doubt, but then again consider the source. It serves to personify the weak liberal mind set and problem solving capabilities of the left.

 

[MikeK]

They make bows and arrows out of wood.

Anyone who's planted a tree should pay blood money.

Not mine. Its 100% carbon fiber.

The riser, too? Or just the limbs? And do you shoot carbon arrows?

 

[legaleagle_45]

Back in the days when ovens were still fired by coal gas, it was a common method to kill yourself to turn on the gas and stick your head in the oven.

Then ovens were redesigned to burn natural (petroleum) gas instead, and guess what, not only did that method of suicide vanish, but overall, suicides declined by 33%.

That was true in the UK, however the same exact circumstance present in the Netherlands at the same time and the method of suicide by coal gas in the Netherlands disappeared, but the overall suicide rate in the Netherlands increased during the same time frame. Additionally, the World Health Organization compared remote areas in both the UK and the Netherlands which were slower to convert from coal gas and found that the nationwide trends of increasing suicide in the Netherlands and decreasing suicide in the UK held true in those isolated areas even though coal gas was still used in those isolated areas. Thus the conclusion of the World Health Organization that the elimination of coal gas in the UK was not responsible for the 33% reduction in suicide. World Health Organization, "Changing Patterns in Suicide Behavior"

Simultaneously with this suicide decline in the UK there was a substantial improvement in "telephone samaritan services" (suicide hot lines services) and also an increasing number of prescriptions for anti depressants together with more suicde awareness by doctors in the UK. Other factors were also at work, such as a change in approach to elderly suicide and the controls at mental hospitals. It is believed that all of these factors were the causative factor in the the 33% decline.

 

[Clementine]

Well, I guess companies like Ginsu Knives are next. Then we will sue auto makers for people killed in accidents, including those involving drunk drivers. After all, people are compelled to take to the highways because of those evil cars. Without cars, millions would still be alive. And how many victims would still be alive if we weren't allowed to walk into every other store and buy knives or crowbars? And what kid doesn't have a dangerous killer baseball bat? Bowling balls are also lethal when dropped on a person's head. And those chain saws make for a torturous death. A toothpick could take out an eye. We should also ban stairs since they are just tragedies waiting to happen, especially when some asshole pushes you down.

We are all in mortal danger every moment of the day. I hope government comes to our rescue because we are all so incredibly stupid that we'll destroy ourselves if those know-it-all politicians don't do something quick. And if you are the victim of a home invasion, know that your death meant more gun free zones for criminals to do their business and a government that no longer fears the people.

 

[MikeK]

People kill people with guns. And in the US, the number is over 32,000 a year. And the number of gun deaths will soon exceed the number of auto deaths. But that is just fine with the fruitloops here.

So because car safety is increasing to the point where deaths are down, that somehow means guns have to be banned?

One number has nothing to do with the other.

Quite on the contrary, the numbers have a good deal to do with each other. You screw up too many times in a car, you get your license pulled. You have to prove your capability to drive to be allowed to have a license to drive.

If you are not a felon, you can go into a gun store and buy a weapon capable of firing 30 rounds in under 10 seconds, and reloading another magazine in under 2 seconds. No matter how far around the corner you are. And the horrors with have seen in the last few years demostrate how insane that is.

One of the most popular surplus U.S. military weapons was the venerable M-1 Carbine, a .30, semi-auto, categorical "assault rifle," commonly loaded with a thirty round magazine.

I'm aware of three of these in my family. I bought mine in a store (in the 1950s) but they were readily available from the DCM (Director of Civilian Marksmanship), a branch of government, for $49 to $79, depending on condition. Millions of them are in civilian hands and there has been a negligible amount of misuse over the years.

In terms of capability, effectiveness and functionality, The M-1 Carbine is fully comparable to the current fetish weapon, which is the AR-15. It just doesn't look as sexy. But even though this short, 30-round, semi-auto rifle has been around in plentiful number for the past six decades, the fact that psycho shooters are a fairly recent phenomenon makes it clear the problem is not with guns but with our increasingly psychopathogenic society.

Briefly stated, our Nation is being governed in a manner which is pissing off so many people so much some of them are stepping off at the deep end.

 

[MikeK]

Yep, millions of guns out there, and we have the highest rate of guns deaths per capita of any industrial democracy.

You're right. But that is to be expected in a Nation which was given birth by and baptized with gunfire.

Regardless of how one might feel about guns there are so many of them in civilian hands right now that short of the most oppressive police-state methods it would be impossible to remove them. And passing laws against civilian gun ownership will serve only to disarm the law-abiding to the full advantage of the criminal element.

 

[MikeK]

Time to address the mind poisoning going on in the name of pyschiatry.

Hold doctors and drug companies accountable when their patients commit suicide or commit mass murder.

That is quite true:


•Kip Kinkel was withdrawing from Prozac and had been prescribed Ritalin when he murdered his mother and stepfather then shot 22 classmates, killing two, in 1998.

•Christopher Pittman was withdrawing from Luvox and from Paxil when he killed his paternal grandparents in 2001.

•Elizabeth Bush, who fired at fellow students in Williamsport, Pa., in 2001, wounding one, was on Prozac.

•Jason Hoffman, was on Effexor and Celexa when he opened fire at his El Cajon, Calif., high school, wounding five.

•Shawn Cooper of Notus, Idaho, was on antidepressants when he fired a shotgun on students and staff.

•T.J. Solomon, on antidepressants, wounded six at his Conyers, Ga., high school.

•Eric Harris was taking Luvox when he and fellow student Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before turning their guns on themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado.

•At Virginia Tech in 2007, where 32 were murdered, authorities found “prescription medications related to the treatment of psychological problems had been found among Mr. Cho’s effects,” according to the New York Times.

Read more at Psych meds linked to 90% of school shootings

 

[MikeK]

One more time.

Japan has banned handguns.

They had all of 11 gun homicides last year.

We had 11,000.

Banning guns CAN work.

Comparing the Japanese culture with ours for the purpose of advancing an argument is specious reasoning. There is almost no comparison.

 

[Clementine]

Guns make it easier to kill people.

Next.

SO do knives, hemlock, role, cars, rocks, spears, illegal drugs, home made explosives, etc...

Don't forget excessive calories -- which kill more Americans than any other single thing. McDonald's kills more Americans than Smith & Wesson.

And McDonald's has been sued, of course, by people who don't take responsibility for purchasing and lifting the food to their mouth.

And suing gun makers won't stop a single murder or accident. I doubt it will put them out of business either, even though that might be the goal. It would redistribute some money and liberals always love that.

Personal responsibility is a foreign concept to so many politicians these days.

 

[MikeK]

Back in the days when ovens were still fired by coal gas, it was a common method to kill yourself to turn on the gas and stick your head in the oven.

Then ovens were redesigned to burn natural (petroleum) gas instead, and guess what, not only did that method of suicide vanish, but overall, suicides declined by 33%.

That was true in the UK, however the same exact circumstance present in the Netherlands at the same time and the method of suicide by coal gas in the Netherlands disappeared, but the overall suicide rate in the Netherlands increased during the same time frame. Additionally, the World Health Organization compared remote areas in both the UK and the Netherlands which were slower to convert from coal gas and found that the nationwide trends of increasing suicide in the Netherlands and decreasing suicide in the UK held true in those isolated areas even though coal gas was still used in those isolated areas. Thus the conclusion of the World Health Organization that the elimination of coal gas in the UK was not responsible for the 33% reduction in suicide. World Health Organization, "Changing Patterns in Suicide Behavior"

Simultaneously with this suicide decline in the UK there was a substantial improvement in "telephone samaritan services" (suicide hot lines services) and also an increasing number of prescriptions for anti depressants together with more suicde awareness by doctors in the UK. Other factors were also at work, such as a change in approach to elderly suicide and the controls at mental hospitals. It is believed that all of these factors were the causative factor in the the 33% decline.

Voluntary euthanasia is presently legal in The Netherlands for the terminally ill. I think it should be optional for anyone who has had enough and simply wishes to fall painlessly to sleep and never wake. I believe a significant number of long-term prison inmates would opt for that.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Just remember that JoeB131 agrees with the Salon.com article that Hitler was pro-gun an endorsed the Nazi gun control measures against Jews.

The Nazis did make guns more easily available to average Germans. Sorry.

the notion that the people would "rise up" against a dictatorship was a fallacy. The dictator made guns more available, and Germans pretty much fought to the last man for him.

Even after Hitler was dead, Germany had surrendered, you had about a year of Germans continuing the fight, until Ike confiscated all the guns.

Today, Germany has little private gun ownership, little crime, little murder, and only has to lock up 78,000 people compared to our 2 million.

there is an estimated 25 million guns owned by the German populace......
In a comparison of the number of privately owned guns in 178 countries, Germany ranked at No. 4........The rate of private gun ownership in Germany is 30.31 firearms per 100 people.......
Unlawfully held guns cannot be counted, but in Germany there are estimated to be 17,000,000.......Germany has 80 million people.......try again Joe......

 

[Harry Dresden]

I have an idea.
If a gun is used to injure or kill someone; the manufacturer of that specific gun should have to pay compensation to the tune of all costs incurred from the shooting and likely salary for life to the victim's family.
That seems fair.

i have an idea......how about if someone uses a gun to kill or injure someone ....that person is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law......and gets a MINIMUM of 25 years in prison and depending on how much damage was done you add more time.....and that person serves EVERY FUCKING MINUTE....no time off for "good behavior".....

 

[JoeB131]

[

No one banned coal fired ovens, natural gas ones took over naturally. Also there is no consitutional right to a coal fired oven.

Keep trying, dime store hack.

No, they didn't ban them.

They stopped running coal gas through the pipes and ran natural gas instead. IN short, they weren't given a choice.

 

[JoeB131]

[

He doesn't even mention the armed Jews that roamed the forests... or any of the other militant groups that managed to survive.

SCUM

NAZI SCUM
url]

Guy, you are seriously dealing with a reality/fantasy confusion here....

Which probably explains much of your posts. You think movies are real. Halmark makes a movie about the drunks who broke into a jail in 1946, and you think that's reality.

 

[Rozman]

This is ridiculous.If this ever looks like it will gain traction I will join the NRA to help them fight this.

 

[Missourian]

Don't forget alcohol.

Alcohol, sold for the sole purpose of intoxication...

Should be forced to pay for every dumb, illegal, self destructive, deadly activity undertaken by any user of their product!

Or...we could just correctly reason that this is an incredibly stupid idea, that people are responsible for their own actions, and move on...

Take it a step further...the alcohol companies can pay child support for every child born to mothers who conceived while under the influence of their product...until the child's 21st birthday.

 

[KissMy]

Should we sue Apple every time one of their devices distracts a driver causing an accident?