Now I think of that one episode from Shameless XD

@kittyzuzu  
judge an argument on its merit, not the person who gives it  
Kinda difficult to do with an organization which has an admitted pedophile on its board of directors.

@Background Pony #6B12  

 
It would not be a loss but a blessing for mankind.

@Background Pony #CCDB
 
I can’t disagree, I think we can both agree, we feel the same for the democratic party as well.
 
 
*@tuypo1
 
Not really an argument, just one’s weak opinion. The NRA is good for America because, despite it flaws, it does defend the god giving, or evolutionary right, (Depending on what you believe) for citizen to have tangible power. Also, once again, judge an argument on its merit, not the person who gives it.

@Western Spy #6B12  
Is this what all tolerant liberals think?

@TexasUberAlles
 
“Full disclosure, I really, really, really hate the Republican Party and would gladly fire it into the Sun on a giant catapult if given the opportunity”
 
SAME X 10^100000000

Uh, way to strawman a gun-owning Texan like me…
 
I don’t think anyone wants teachers to be MADE to bring guns with them to school. But should they be proficient shooters, as both my teacher parents are, they should be allowed to pack heat (concealed, of course).

What’s funny about this, is Pinkie Pie was the one who wanted to arm the entire faculty, but was prevented from doing so by Neighsay’s EEA guidelines.
 
That’s before we even get into 1/3rd of the population having a weapon of mass destruction grafted to their foreheads. We need common sense horn control now!

The EEA did nothing wrong.

I actually had a college professor in one of my classes get fired for going on a tirade and referencing bringing a “teaching gun” to class.

@TripletArpeggio  
Yes, it’s funny.
 
 
@Flummoxed Phoenix  
The part between the top and the bottom.

@TripletArpeggio  
Which part is funny?

LMAO y’all gonna tell me this isn’t funny ?? 😂

@Background Pony #4E2A
 
Und wenn man meint, es kann nicht besser werden, gießt jemand Öl ins Feuer. Auf Putin Fanboys/girls ist halt immer Verlass. :-D

Putins iron fist is less brutal than your catholic inquisition/police state.

@TexasUberAlles  
Way to strawman me. I’ve never painted the situation anywhere near as black and white as you’re suggesting. While I do believe gun ownership needs to be regulated in certain regards, just outright stripping people of their firearms is clearly not the answer.
 
As I’ve already pointed out to kittyzuzu, the military has always operated by its own set of rules that significantly differ from civilian ones. You can use heavy artillery on live targets while serving in the military, but I’m pretty certain you can’t do that as a civilian (at least not without being branded a criminal).
 
That statement of mine isn’t in reference to gun control specifically but rather the counterproductive notion of barring any and all regulations on firearms just because of the possibility it could lead to further legislation down the road. If we just stop doing things because of our fears, nothing would ever get done.
 
Those weapons might not be outright illegal, but they’re certainly not the kind of things you can just walk into your local gun shop and buy either. In addition to the paperwork and money, rocket and grenade launchers also cannot fire actual grenades or missiles. As for miniguns, purchasable ones are exceedingly rare and usually quite old (only ones built before 1986 can be purchased). Not to mention they cost a fortune (more than some supercars).

@Background Pony #E2D9  
Or the shooter got an additional gun.

Back in the day, when American teachers were armed, and Israeli teachers are now, there were either no school massacres, or only one dead: the shooter.

But more to the point of this image, in the context of Equestria it’s stupid. Not because there’s any problem with it, but because it’s pointless.
 
Twilight Sparkle has what seem to be the second-best shield spells in Equestria after her brother (and eventually maybe her niece), has mastered teleportation and so can jump to safety with her students easily, and can fire energy beams from her horn. There’s very little chance she needs a gun to defend herself or her students. In fact it would just be an aphysiological intermediary between her horn and her target. She’s better off just zapping her attacker, fleeing, or defending and rendering the attack useless.
 
Rainbow Dash has is a kinetic kill weapon that’s been shown to leave building-sized craters on impact, without leaving a scratch on her; can fly faster than most handgun rounds; and has high-G-capable terminal guidance which a bullet does not. A gun most likely just slows down her response.
 
Applejack is at least as fast on the ground as Rainbow Dash, accurate with a lasso or a thrown/kicked apple, and can kick hard enough to send boulders flying. With her, a gun would extend her reach in a way Rainbow Dash wouldn’t need, but for self defense she wouldn’t be reaching out. Anyone close enough where she’d need it, it offers no advantage.
 
Pinkie Pie already has a cannon hidden somewhere nearby, no matter where she is. It’s full of nonlethal substances like confetti, cake batter, or cupcakes, but it’s a cannon. Firing it at somepony pretty much stops the action flat until they can clean up. Unlike in the human world where there is no nonlethal equivalent of similar effectiveness, Pinkie Pie actually has a better solution than a gun. (Although it is, technically, a gun.)
 
Fluttershy would more likely freeze than use it, thereby making things worse. On the off chance her protective instincts did manage to get the better of her, she’s beaten up Rainbow Dash when she was scared of being dragged to see the dragon migration, flattened a bear with a massage, and berated a dragon to tears. Plus she has The Stare. She does not need a gun. She’s more likely to make things worse, more likely to resolve the situation to a nonviolent end where the perpetrator is crying and apologizing to her, and more likely to do more damage to the perpetrator with her teeth and hooves than she could with a gun, than she is to actually use a gun on someone. She’s really the worst possible candidate to have a gun.
 
Rarity probably has the composure and dexterity to use a gun masterfully in self defense. There’s really no downside to giving her one, but there’s not much of an upside either. Her telekinetic control is excellent and multiplex; every drawing compass, pencil, x-acto knife, needle, pin, and pair of scissors in her classroom making a beeline to her assailant is already at least as effective a defense, and probably a better one against multiple assailants. Plus as with Rainbow Dash, those projectiles have terminal guidance to their target whereas bullets would not.
 
Spike carries is a flame thrower and has been used as a gun himself. (Now that I think of it, so has Twilight.) Again, it would be harmless to give him one but there’s no real advantage unless he was reaching out to kill someone outside the range of his breath, which is not self defense.
 
Starlight Glimmer has similar shield and beam capabilities and has pretty much stalemated Twilight in a fight. No advantage to her with a gun either.
 
So among ponies, where’s the advantage.
 
What we really need in our human-world schools is a bunch of magical pastel ponies. But until we have that, humans may actually benefit by having guns to defend themselves.

@tuypo1  
Could I get a source?  
Sincere apologies, it’s going to take me a while to compile that because there’s no single source– it’s based on the last ten years and figures from multiple websites which aren’t actually talking about the same data for the same reasons– but when I have time I’ll do my best to construct the train of thought that led me to that statement and will fully retract it if I can’t do so according to the same standards of data reliability to which I hold my ideological opponents. I take this issue quite seriously, because I have personally used firearms in self defense and sincerely believe that actual quantifiable fact supports my opinions to a far greater degree than the opinions of my ideological opponents, and to that end I will stand by my data or freely admit it was in error.
 
@aroddo  
Republicans in congress threatened to cut all funding for the CDC unless they stopped all research into gun violence.  
If you have a source for any member of the Republican Party– much less any (R) in a position of leadership– calling for the complete defunding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on their advocacy for gun control, by all means, please share with the rest of the class, otherwise I’m going to chalk that up to empty truthiness. Here is the entire text of the Dickey Amendment, which was part of the 1996 omnibus spending bill :

Full disclosure, I really, really, really hate the Republican Party and would gladly fire it into the Sun on a giant catapult if given the opportunity, but the near religious belief among anti-Bill Of Rights activists that they “stopped all research into gun violence” is complete and utter horseshit; CDC was barred from using taxpayer money to actively promote a political agenda of gun control, and they decided all on their own to refrain from any such study if they weren’t going to be allowed to use it as a political stump.
 
And republicans are and were in the pocket of the NRA  
The NRA spent $5,122,000 on lobbying in 2017. Opensecrets.org is being a recalcitrant asspain right now and refusing to give me a complete ordered list of lobbyists ranked by amount spent, but here are the top 20 lobbying groups in 2017, with #1 having spent $82,190,000 and #20 having spent $12,385,000.

@aroddo  
The NRA’s pockets aren’t that deep. However, they represent a lot of voters who care about the issue they lobby on. Horrible, horrible thing, that politicians are beholden to the voters, isn’t it?
 
And why should the CDC be doing research on gun violence in the first place? Does the FBI do research on cancer? Does the National Parks Service do research on PTSD, or does the VA do research on conservation of darter snails? Congress was absolutely right to tell an agency with no expertise or mandate in the field whatsoever that they are forbidden to spend any money on it. Research into gun violence should be done by agencies whose focus and expertise includes criminology, not medicine, and the CDC should be told to use their research money exclusively to do research on what they actually have the credentials to do research in, the epidemiology of diseases.

@TexasUberAlles  
bullshit, man.  
Republicans in congress threatened to cut all funding for the CDC unless they stopped all research into gun violence. And republicans are and were in the pocket of the NRA.

I warned you against the shitstorm in the comments bra,i warned you

@TexasUberAlles  
That sounds interesting. Could I get a source?