Episode 59 — Gun Control

[slothborn 38]

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[mattbesser 605]

MY SHOTGUN AMERICA - 1) Automatic weapons available for rental ONLY at all target ranges. 2) Legalize weed. 3) Make it much a harder to get a drivers license.

[therealMATTLOXLEY 135]

this was soo on the nail and it made my sides hurt thank you reasonable logical people for making hysterical unforgettable improv great ep

[pongo 190]

I'm just afraid that instead of gun control, the issue is going to be made into "we need more security at our schools" and "we have to combat evil".

 

Oh man I heard someone say the only answer is to have armed guards in all schools. It is ridiculous. This has been a point that I have been arguing with people about for a while now and this episode gave me a lot of strong points I can use next time it's brought up.

 

That guys example of everyone in the movie theater having guns was absolutely ridiculous, more guns is not going to fix the problem in any way. If we start doing something now then even if it takes a while the shootings will be nowhere near as bad as it is now.

[BrettMorris 1862]

 

Do you think that in your double barreled shotgun only America, when someone eventually decides to achieve CNN celebrity by walking into an elementary school and shooting two kids, people's reaction would be, "Thank god it was only two!" No! Two is still two too many. I'm not saying it's a slippery slope, but when knees are jerking, gun rights are gonna be the first thing to get kicked.

i can really easily see people saying that actually, especially now. and it seems like the problem is that gun rights are never kicked, we can never get any reasonable things through because of the NRA and its supporters.

[Defmx04 14]

Hopefully Amy will be on the show soon. Still anticipating an episode with Matt, Ian, and Amy. UCB Unite!

[Hot - Slunch 772]

I just wrote a huge response to this, and right as I was going to hit 'post' my power cord was disconnected and I lost it.

 

So, in a nutshell I agree with Matt and the other comedians involved (shocker).

 

People arguing that altering a small part of the 2nd Amendment will negate the entire Bill of Rights and further amendments is total bullshit. There are plenty of loopholes and extenuating circumstances that lets the government sideswipe the amendments... Like I don't know, THE PATRIOT ACT. The Patriot Act can technically violate at least amendments 1,3,4,5,6,7 and 8. So if you're going to get pissy about losing freedom because someone wants to take away your AK, but not because of all of these other freedoms that could potentially be taken from you, you're a hypocritical piece of shit.

[BroccoliRob 78]

The "War on Drugs" analogy falls apart when compared to if gun control was strengthened. The reason there is a huge market for drugs is because: 1) People want them 2)They are relatively simple to produce. If stricter gun control was enacted, there wouldn't be a "huge black market" created because there wouldn't be a constant source producing guns in a relatively easy-to-get fashion like there is with drugs.

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

Re: the guest's statement (I'm paraphrasing) - "what if you try to take people's guns and they go nuts and start shooting cuz they're so mad that the government wants to take their guns away"

 

To me, this is typical of the bullying and threatening we get from gun nuts all the time - both overt and unspoken. You better be nice to them, and you better not try to regulate their guns, or they just might shoot you! They use this threat to intimidate others into just going along with them having all the guns they want. So much bullying, and it's so obvious.

 

I had a thought the other day that I wondered how much of this increase in shootings is because the right has been pushing the idea for years that the left is going to take your guns. We've seen the increase in gun sales even before this, so is there a chance all that vitriol has lead some people to think 'I better do this now before he takes my guns!' and it turns into a horrible self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe I'm giving shooters and Fox News too much credit.

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

Also, we have CCP laws in Colorado, so I'm not sure why a shooter wouldn't assume that people in the crowd might have had guns.

[GarbageCan 143]

Yikes,

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/21/us-obama-newtown-school-gun-control.html

 

Armed guards it is...

[vgfitzger 46]

People arguing that altering a small part of the 2nd Amendment will negate the entire Bill of Rights and further amendments is total bullshit. There are plenty of loopholes and extenuating circumstances that lets the government sideswipe the amendments... Like I don't know, THE PATRIOT ACT. The Patriot Act can technically violate at least amendments 1,3,4,5,6,7 and 8. So if you're going to get pissy about losing freedom because someone wants to take away your AK, but not because of all of these other freedoms that could potentially be taken from you, you're a hypocritical piece of shit.

So, since they've already taken a knee jerk shit on the bill or rights we shouldn't mind if they hop a squat and do it again? This is the line of thinking that makes the slippery slope fallacy less than fallacious.

 

 

 

Yikes,

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...un-control.html

 

Armed guards it is...

What exactly is the problem with that? We frequently have armed guards to protect our money. Why not extend that same precaution to our kids?

[LAinWLA 6]

Yikes,

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...un-control.html

 

Armed guards it is...

They had armed security guards at Columbine.... and that was super helpful, wasn't it?

[BroccoliRob 78]

Think about how much (meaning: how little) money schools have. Now think about the quality of the armed security guards they will be able to afford.

[GarbageCan 143]

What exactly is the problem with that? We frequently have armed guards to protect our money. Why not extend that same precaution to our kids?

Well for one, if the bank wants to protect their money then they pay for a guard. Fine. Most of them do that. But schools are publicly funded for the most part, and they have a tiny enough budget as it is without having to sacrifice programs to pay for the guard that will hang around ready for an event that happens one time in the country every five years.

 

Apart from the financial strain of it, it leads to the same argument about why arm the good guys when you can just disarm the bad guys.

[BrettMorris 1862]

this is a good article from fareed zakaria on it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-the-solution-to-gun-violence-is-clear/2012/12/19/110a6f82-4a15-11e2-b6f0-e851e741d196_story.html

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

One thing I personally don't understand is the general acceptance some people seem to expect when they label themselves "a gun collector". I may be wrong (not being facetious) but I am under the impression that all handguns and assault weapons are designed strictly to kill human beings. I understand people use these guns at ranges on targets. But if your neighbor had a collection of guillotines in his backyard that he loaded with watermelons every weekend... wouldn't you be a little wary of them? Wouldn't the majority of people label them as somewhat scary?

[tittefan420 5]

just wanted to say... huge UCB (original show) fanboy...

i just recently started getting into improv4humans over the last month or so... while ian roberts is still my favorite guest , i gotta say, the 3 guys in the gun control episode strike me as some of the funniest ive heard in this context. the gun control wasnt my favorite show, but there's a lot of mojo with this group. gold stars all around!

[joelkarnold 0]

this is a good article from fareed zakaria on it: http://www.washingto...d196_story.html

 

The Zakaria piece is a great one that dispels the myth that the caller mentioned in the episode, the idea that 'it will take 100 years' or 'it's just not possible.' Other countries have done it and seen dramatic decreases in short periods of time:

 

"There is clear evidence that tightening laws — even in highly individualistic countries with long traditions of gun ownership — can reduce gun violence. In Australia, after a 1996 ban on all automatic and semiautomatic weapons — a real ban, not like the one we enacted in 1994 with 600-plus exceptions — gun-related homicides dropped 59 percent over the next decade. The rate of suicide by firearm plummeted 65 percent. (Almost 20,000 Americans die each year using guns to commit suicide — a method that is much more successful than other forms of suicide.)"

[Hot - Slunch 772]

So, since they've already taken a knee jerk shit on the bill or rights we shouldn't mind if they hop a squat and do it again? This is the line of thinking that makes the slippery slope fallacy less than fallacious.

 

You aren't complaining about any of those other supposed violations, you only care about the gun stuff. If you were really about freedom you'd be fighting against all of these things and not just chiming up when a gun law might change.

 

You're saying it's a slippery slope to let them change one more thing, but what about EVERYTHING ELSE they've done that you let slide?

[Hot - Slunch 772]

just wanted to say... huge UCB (original show) fanboy...

i just recently started getting into improv4humans over the last month or so... while ian roberts is still my favorite guest , i gotta say, the 3 guys in the gun control episode strike me as some of the funniest ive heard in this context. the gun control wasnt my favorite show, but there's a lot of mojo with this group. gold stars all around!

 

Go listen to every Paul Rust appearance on Comedy Bang Bang/Comedy Death Ray, he's hilarious. Matt Besser's also had some amazing appearances there.

[clever username 35]

Did that caller really try and make an analogy between banning alcohol, an addictive substance you can literally gin up in your bathtub, and banning semi or fully automatic weapons, which are extremely complicated pieces of machinery you need expensive and pretty obvious factories to build and which a person is going to buy a really limited number of?

 

Does he really think there's gonna be people slinging glocks they made int heir basement on street corners?

[clever username 35]

Like even huge gun nuts buy like what, maybe five guns? Ten if they're rich and really, really feel like they need to prove they've got a big dick? You can't really sustain a criminal empire on that kind of turnaround, you dumbass gun owners.

[killian_martin 1]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/the-nra-and-the-positive-good-of-maximum-guns/266571/

 

This article compares the pro-gun argument to the pro-slavery argument in an intriguing way. This is all the more interesting, given how Matt argued that, like guns, slavery was effectively supported by the constitution. Also, kudos to Matt for pointing out that just because something is ingrained in the American culture, it doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be changed.

[prestonsinfield 6]

hey matt,

 

i had recently made remarks on another forum here on earwolf about how i couldn't get into this episode and someone brought it to my attention that i should probably bring that opinion here. it seems i'm one of the only people to not have appreciated the lack of sensitivity regarding the skits. i mean, i really think the 'too soon' idea could be applied here and although i know you and your guests were more so trying to tackle the issue of gun control as a challenge, perhaps it could have been one that you didn't attempt to take on less than twenty-four hours after such a tragedy. sorry to seem like i'm bashing you, i think you and your comedic friends are exceptional performers with a quick wit, but i don't understand how anyone could find humor from a skit that sets up a scenario of a student having a gun in a classroom given the matter. perhaps, i'm not being fair because i couldn't even get through the whole episode, but i just wanted to share with you my feelings on this episode because i found it in poor taste. i don't consider myself someone who is easily offended, but i couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with certain aspects of the skits. sorry i couldn't get into it, apparently everyone else could and maybe i just missed what you were going for.