I developed a new drug. Totally legal- anyone can take it. 99.5% of the people who take this drug will feel great and safe and warm, but .5% of the people who take it will go insane and start killing random people- from the insanity of course. But it's as safe as a condom and 99.5% of the time it's a freaking great drug to take. But if you go insane, I cannot be held responsible for you actions from taking my drug. Would you take the drug?
Are you referring to firearms? .5% is a bit large, .00004% is a bit more accurate (the number of homicides divided by the number of firearms).
Not firearms- "a new wonderful drug" that makes everyone feel great but makes some go on a killing spree. So are you in?
Spree killings is an interesting one. Its terribly difficult to test any hypothesis on the subject. Any one know of any studies on the subject?
Shouldn't this be a thread in the "Other Political Issues" section - "Drugs, Alcohol, & Tobacco" subsection?
Drugs/medicines have a purpose. If I already feel "great and safe and warm" without taking your drug, and the only purpose of your drug is to make one feel "great and safe and warm," then I would not take your drug, since there is absolutely no purpose for it. I don't see what your OP is doing in a gun control forum, inasmuch as there is no obvious analogy between your fantasy drug and firearms.
I would not. I could fall into that small percentage of people who were affected by the drug. I would not want anyone else to take it either, in case they went mad and I was caught in the crossfire.
Here is what happens. At first, no one notices your new drug for several years, except teenagers and young adults looking for the next latest and greatest high. Soon, it's seen that several hundred kids go insane. America, in an effort to protect it's children from going insane, ban the drug. That is how it works. No one cares about adults, all prohibition is geared towards stopping teens and young adults from gaining access to dangerous drugs and that's not possible in a permissive society.
You wanted a study about spree killing, that's the only one I could find. If it doesn't suit your needs, then I suggest you find one yourself. Surely, somewhere in that vast PPV library that you have access to there must be one! As for me, I'm still at a loss to understand why a thread about drugs was originally posted in the "Gun Control" section, and what spree killing has to do with pharmaceuticals...
Guns? In a thread about pharmaceuticals? Surely you aren't insinuating that jmpet had an ulterior motive when he posted this thread - that he was going to try to somehow turn a post about drugs into a gun control discussion? You should be ashamed of yourself. Ashamed, I say!