Hyperbole will always be a part of any discussion, no matter how much one might try to keep it away. There are other statistics, too. One is as likely to die (statistically) from a gun homicide as from a car crash (NYT quotes CDC and the Graduate Institute of Geneva) in the United States of America. Additionally, it's about the kind of argument one makes about global events and the hypocrisy of people's statements. You see all these politicians in America (mostly Republicans, incidentally) praying and mourning the losses of gun-based terrorism in our and other countries (see: Paris, Planned Parenthood, San Bernandino), stating we need to deal with terrorism more effectively and find ways to deal with this. Yes, we have terrorist watch lists, and many people who have done acts of extreme violence (some in Paris, those at the Boston Marathon, those in San Bernandino) have either had contact with people on these lists or are on these lists, yet there are those in the Senate (again incidentally Republicans) who vote against bills to limit gun sales to, say, people who are on terrorist watch lists or have had contact with known extremists... It is a painful wound, being from California, to realize that the people who shot up a workplace in San Bernandino were able to purchase those guns legally despite their known communications with extremists. It just doesn't make sense. I welcome a counter-argument to this, as long as you... ... let me remind you of two things: 1) Because I post an article, does not necessarily mean I agree with all of it. No shit that this was an overblown statistic, but it generates conversation. For example, without this headline, you may not have chosen to add your points to this discussion. 2) This: is ad hominem, whether you meant it or not. Not cool.This makes me doubt that you credibly want to work with me toward an actually viable solution. You are the deadlock that you hate to see in Congress where one side digs in deep and refuses to move. Is that really who you want to be politically? An idealistic zealot who won't concede an inch?
But I kind of doubt that once you're dug in on one issue that you don't mirror that in others. Entrenched ideas look like burial to everyone else.
That Republican prayer vote mongering nonsense is part of the problem. They don't actually want to stop gun violence. They want to stop talking about it by calling it terrorism, which in some cases it is (Dylan Roof obviously). But they never actually do anything about it because each side is so polarized. There's no room for compromise because Republicans are set up to defend gun rights and they have great success painting Democrats as wanting to take them away (even if they were only trying to enact better background checks for example). It's all political theater and nothing changes. Statistics like the ones from this article make it very easy for both sides to stay entrenched is my point. The anti-gun crowd gets to say that a shooting happens every day, and the pro-gun crowd gets to say look how ridiculous our opponents are. Nobody wins. For shit's sake, the article even points out that this a statistic made up by a Reddit anti-gun group called GunsAreCool. It's not a tool of discussion, it's a tool of polarization. This response wasn't written to you in particular, but to people who would carry this article under the banner of gun-control. I didn't mean for you to take it personally and I'm sorry if it made you feel as if I don't respect you. That was not my intent. In the tone of the paragraph there is no 'you' in reality, but a caricature of a lot of entrenched people, both left and right who refuse to work with each other.