I think you're missing the point here. The war on drugs is ineffective because it cannot be won and making drugs illegal only puts the power in the hands of criminals. It also creates tons of drug-related violence. Similarly, banning guns would be equally ineffective, put the power in the hands of criminals and just create more gun-related violence.

Fun fact: Washington, D.C. has some of the strictest gun laws in the country (I think they are second only to New York). However, they have (by far) the highest violent crime and murder rates in the country. In addition, the majority of those crimes are committed using guns. Conversely, the states with much more lenient gun laws (Texas, Alaska, Florida, Maine, Vermont) have significantly lower violent crime and murder rates. So clearly, banning guns won't magically make them disappear, nor will it consistently reduce violent crime or murder.

The war on alcohol didn't work. The war on drugs isn't working. The war on guns won't work either. You may hate guns and love drugs but surely you can recognize the pattern here.

Thanks for seeing the errror of that word. I won't harp on it.

Comparing guns to drugs to ME is very relevent. As I said I used to smoke quite a lot of pot but not now.( I do wish it were legalized) Now I like to go to the range and blow off steam with big bangs and the zen of finding the centre of the target.
I don't want any war on drugs (or guns) that is not using facts to support the arguments.
The reality is that humankind would be better off without all guns, drugs and alcohal but that will never happen so I propose live and let live.

If you are harming someone else by your actions, it's against my moral compass as correct.

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No, you can't, that's just retarded. You do not have hundreds of thousands of illegal gun owners in prisons. Guns, while some may say are for recreational use, are not designed to take the edge off, to relax after hard day, something humankind has done thousands of years. Guns have been used for tens of thousands of years to kill. How can you compare the two? Oh wait, retarded right wing rhetorics.

The most effective move USA can make in the war on terror is to stop the war on drugs. Stop the fuel, money and the flame goes away.

To condense this more seriously, Armstrong was the organiser and chief perpetrator of PEDs in cycling.
Given the rules in which he operated he should pay a price. There is also the related legal backlash from various third parties - good luck there Lance.

But I do accept we need to ask if a war on PEDs is any different to the (arguably) failed war on drugs.

People *want* to see cyclists bombing along at speeds ordinary folk can't muster. They want to see Olympic records broken. You either do this by being a naturally outstanding athlete (e.g Bolt, who's on record as happy to chomp down chicken nuggets) or start doping.

It's bothered me a bit that improving yourself in this sense is beyond the pale but having access to the best facilities, coaching and medical staff while others skimp by with very little is somehow acceptable.

I think it's acceptable because it's a nonsense to try to police that. And perhaps it's the same with PEDs.

IIRC there was a British athlete who went on to voice support for PEDs. That was a long time ago and I don't recall the name. A few more today need to start questioning conventional thinking.

I gave you examples, you want more or do you want to do your own research? The American public was scared of Saddam in 1990 and they were scared again in 2003. In both cases there was NOTHING to be scared of yet you had people training and buying guns just in case he came HERE to the United States.

Hell you don't even have to look hard, remember the Red Scare when everyone was terrified that the communists are going to choke us in the night? We're a scaredy cat nation, because the propaganda is geared towards scaring us. You can't deny the effect of propaganda on people, it turned us from not wanting to get into World War 1 to a German hating crazy warmongering public. We couldn't even play Bach here because we hated Germany so much. Also the Yellow Journalism that got us into the Spanish American War, there are still people terrified that Cuba is about to strangle us...SERIOUSLY FUCKING CUBA!

Goebbels, Hitlers propaganda minister, based HIS propaganda on the United States' model. This shit is all documented, and you just sit there "Nope not true" you don't have any evidence though.

Chomsky talks about getting letters from people constantly about how dare he defend (as if he does) the helpless people that might kill us at any moment.

LOOK Right here at home, we're terrified of black people, so lets have a War on drugs to make sure if you're a 14 year old black kid with a joint in your pocket you go to jail for a LONG AS TIME. Just look at any prison, you'll see the effect it had.

Just provide some evidence for what you claim...it's not hard, till then you can't tell me I'm drinking kool aid because I actually work at gaining knowledge.

I don't see how it's a poor comparison at all. Anti-gun people seem to think that banning guns will significantly reduce violent crime. This isn't really the case, as the statistics show. If your logic was valid, then Florida would have a higher violent crime and murder rate than DC simply because it's much easier for criminals to get guns. However, the factors that lead to violent crime and murder extend far beyond the availability of guns, so trying to ban all guns is kind of missing the point. It's like putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.

As for your drug analogy, I'm not really sure what you were trying to say. I think your attempt at sarcasm overshadowed the clarity of your message. That said, it's a good thing you brought up narcotics because they also kill significantly more people than guns. They are also banned, yet drug-related deaths and crime continue unabated. It's amusing that the same people who decry the War on Drugs are so quick to demand a ban on guns when the former shows how ineffective bans actually are. If a junkie can get his hands on drugs, a homicidal sociopath can get his hands on guns, legally or otherwise.

I love how Jon points out that we are a nation of overreactors while at the same time he too is overreacting (along with the rest of the media). Guns are used in less than 10% of violent crime, yet that's all the media is concerned about. Jon and the media are both overreacting about so called assault rifles as well. Only 3% of crimes are committed with any type of rifle, and "assault rifles" are only a small sub-category of rifles. Why is the media only focusing on less than 10% of violent crimes (those that only involve guns), and why put so much of that focus on the least used type of gun to commit violence? Mass shootings barely make up 0.1% of all murders, yet it gets constant media coverage for weeks after it happens. If we do something to cut down on ALL violence, gun violence will also drop.

Jon also gets a lot of his "facts" wrong. The CDC has an average (1999-2010) gun homicide rate of 12,807 per year and an average accidental gun death of 758 per year, that doesn't add up to 30,000. There is no epidemic of gun violence either. Violence, including gun violence has been on a steady decline every year.

He was almost about to make a good point about gun control with the comparison to drunk driving. Drunk driving deaths were reduced through common sense laws, stricter sentences for drunk driving offenders and educating the public, not by banning alcohol or cars, or imposing ridiculous limits on cars like reducing the size of fuel tanks so drunk drivers would have to stop and refuel more often. When has banning anything ever solved a problem? We tried that with alcohol already, it didn't work. Drugs are illegal, and hows that war on drugs going? I don't use drugs, but I'm all for legalizing and regulating them. It's our generation's prohibition and it needs to end because all it's doing is causing more crime than it's preventing.

The argument that muskets were all that was available when the constitution was written is ridiculous. When the constitution was written they also didn't have radio, TV or the internet, so should we limit free speech and freedom of the press to only newspapers and soap boxes?

I'm willing to have a common sense discussion on how to reduce not just gun violence but all violence, but I'm waiting for the "anti-gun" side to show up with some common sense instead of fear and ignorance.

Guns are already highly regulated, but I'm not opposed to any new regulation as long as it will keep guns from criminals, include harsher punishment for criminal use of guns, and doesn't put any added burden on responsible gun owners. The current legislation being cooked up (what little has been revealed so far) is completely insane.

And by the way (since Jon brought up Mr. Belding), in 1997 at the Pearl, MS high school, it was the school's assistant principle with a gun that stopped the shooter. This was reported only in local papers. Only one national media network covered it, NBC, they mentioned it only twice, and then it was forgotten. Under the law the assistant principal was considered a criminal for having a gun in a gun free zone, yet if he didn't have his gun in his car that day to stop the shooter, the shooter would have been able to carry out his plan to drive to the junior high and kill more students while police were responding to the high school.

You know that recently in China a man walked into a school and stabbed 22 kids? Guess what, they all survived. (See this UK Guardian article for more info). You're right, taking away the guns won't stop people from being violent but it will drastically reduce their capabilities for committing mass fatalities on the scale of Sandy Hook.

About banning assault rifles--since nearly all gun deaths in the U.S. occur because of handguns, not rifles, making handguns illegal would actually make far more logical sense--not that it would ever happen in the U.S., mind you.

About the "mentally disturbed" comment: less than 4% of violent crimes in the U.S. are committed by those with a mental illness. Identifying those "mentally disturbed" as you called them that will actually commit a violent act is not nearly as easy as it sounds; you might want to read this NY Times piece on the subject. Alcohol and drug use is actually a much better predictor of violent acts than mental illness is.

Back on topic to this clip--I'm saddened that Jon Stewart has fallen into the trap of thinking of this as a "gun control" issue. It isn't. There are already millions of guns in circulation, many of which are unregistered and would be impossible to confiscate in the case of a ban. The horse is out of the barn already, and it's far too late to start talking about shutting the doors. We need instead to be addressing the issue of why people are using the guns to commit crimes in the first place: economic disparity, the war on drugs, a culture that glorifies violence and "getting back" at the other guy, a mental health system that has difficulty both identifying and treating those with violent tendencies, etc.

People want the quick fix, the easy solution--there isn't one. The sooner Stewart, Obama, the NRA, and the rest of the U.S. figures that out, the sooner we can start having a real discussion about how to make our society a better and safer place.

Lyrics:
Im gonna smoke some weed, only got 20 dollas in my pocket
Imma huntin, looking for a pot shop, this is fucking awesome!

Walk into my house like what up, i got some good pot
I'm just pumped up got some herb from the pot shop
Ice in my fridge it used to be frosty
My friends like "Damn, that's a stoned ass donkey!"
Rollin' in hella high, looking like it's fifa time
Dominating all my friends, as I eat some chili fries
Draped in a snuggie with my girl sitting next to me
Probably shouldn't have had a big gulp full of ice tea
PISS!
But shit it was 99 cents!

I be blazin and smokin it
Bout to go and get some munchie snacks, passing up on those cracker jacks
Reeces Pieces are where it's at, Gotta get me some soda pop
Cotton mouth has been creeping up
But can't remember where I put my keys,
Yeah, that's what's up.
Imma take your grandpa's ride, Imma take your grandpa's ride
No for real, ask your grandpa, Can I take his 65?
Deville Cruisin to my local Publix
Nothing better than rolling with 2 super fly chicks!
They had frozen burritos, I bought frozen burritos
I bought some Ben and Jerry's, then I bought some Cheetos
Hello, Hello, my main man Obama
A couple states have just reformed their laws on marijuana
Whatcha gonna do, send the feds there? Hell no!
The DEA's would be like "Ah, they got Volcano"

What you know about the science of marijuana?
What you know about people suffering from glaucoma?
They need it, they need it, it helps them with their condition
If don't believe me, then just ask some eye physicians
Thank your granddad for voting for that guy Richard
Nixon is the President who made the plant illegal
But science is now showing that its medicine for people
And the private sector's fighting to keep all of that illegal
Alcohol and Tobacco, Pharmaceutical, Prisons
I'll take those four major lobby groups and fight those motherfuckers
They making money day and night, all those motherfuckers
And bribing congress out of sight, all those motherfuckers
They be like, "Oh, it's immoral and unhealthy"
I'm like how many people are you making wealthy
Anti-marijuana lobbies are making all kinds of profits
And they don't want you to stop it cause of all the special interests
I call that getting swindled and pimped, shit
I call that getting tricked by the government, that law's hella old
So its time to update it, regulate it, and then get it under state control
Peep Game, look into my political telescope
Think it's going to stay like this forever, nah, it hella won't, nah, it hella won't.

Let's end the war on drugs, It's time to pull the plug
These special interest groups are nothing more than corporate thugs
Let's end the war on weed, the people have agreed.
These special interest groups have kept these laws with bribery

Imma smoke some weed, only got 20 dollas in my pocket
Imma huntin, looking for a pot shop, this is fucking awesome!

I'm not pro-gun in the slightest, but I always find it curious when the rallying cry of "MAKE GUNS ILLEGAL" starts up after every tragedy, as if that would magically and instantly solve the problem. I think there are societal factors at play that run deeper than whether or not guns are legally available. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I suspect that you could make guns illegal in the States right now and it wouldn't do all that much to reduce the gun fatalities over there. I mean, how's that war on drugs working out? You guys don't have a drug problem anymore, right?

Okay, that's one example. Have any others? Also, guess how the shooter in that spree was stopped? He was shot by someone else with a gun. If nobody else was carrying guns in that area, the casualties would have been significantly higher.

The fact is that the vast majority of shooting sprees happen in schools and business areas.

Also, why do people think that banning guns would be any more effective than banning drugs? Have the junkies and cartels disappeared since the war on drugs began? No. Will guns disappear if they are banned? No. If people really want a gun, they'll get one, legally or not. Banning guns just ensures that people who obey the law will be left defenseless against criminals, which is exactly what criminals want.

Even though in the past I liked cocaine when it was around, these days I refuse to buy or partake in it until our war on drugs is over (+ Iike adderall better, lol). The amount of blood and suffering on one little Eight Ball is unbelievable while America sees all of the benefits.