(Part 4) Top products from r/news

>Unless the the man didn't want the child at all

uh...

>it is entirely in the hands of women.

double uhh....

Condoms. $0.35 each on Amazon with Prime shipping.

98% effective when used correctly, 88% effective even when used incorrectly.

Also: vasectomies. 99.85% effective and every single insurance company on Earth will pay for them. (it keeps their costs down) And they have a 98-99% reversal success rate. Even if you don't have insurance you can get a vasectomy for $350 to $1000. That's cheaper than a single month of child support.

As far as women getting to choose whether to abort or not, that is one of those things that is just going to have to be the way it is.

The bottom line is that if you have a child that shares 50% of your genetic makeup, it is your duty to pay for at least 50% of its upbringing, and there are concrete steps that males can take, to a relatively high degree of certainty, to avoid ever having one.

Crying helpless because some chick you banged shat out a kid is childish, foolish, and a whole lot of other -ishes, unless you were tricked/defrauded/taken advantage of and "oh yeah baby I'm on the pill" isn't a trick any more than "sure baby, I love you" is a trick.

If you don't like the "feeling" of condoms and don't want to get a vasectomy, don't have sex for one to two years (you can do it, you probably did it for 14-18 years earlier in your life), and by the end of your celibacy, Vasalgel will be on the market and you can have a male contraceptive, like an IUD for dudes (ish), and be happy with only contracting STDs due to not wearing a condom instead of getting a chick pregnant.

Now that is some Jonathon Haidt-level shit right there! Thank you for sharing the full text of her message. I'm relieved to find that nowhere in the text does it say "you should be able to do or say whatever you want without social consequences," and I'm disappointed to hear that there's a new label for people we disagree with. "Regressive left" seems pejorative in the extreme. My hope is that people who believe different things will actually do what she suggests and talk to each other about what they believe. That is a very hard, but very necessary, thing to do.
Anyway, I wanted to share something that the letter reminded me of that was written at a time when America was even more divided. Here are the last few sentences of Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address:

>I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

I don't know how rural you are, but condoms are available at pretty much every single gas station and pharmacy and as I said above, they're cheap as dirt compared to things like diapers and formula.

Even if your local shop doesn't have condoms, you can easily order online: https://www.amazon.com/Trojan-Condom-ENZ-Lubricated-Count/dp/B0073R7TWU/ref=sr_1_1_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1486677648&sr=1-1&th=1

See that? You can double-bag it for less than a dollar. How's that for "cheap, available contraceptives"?

Cost is not the problem, bad decisions are.

It's fine if you don't want one, so don't feel pushed by me...

However, it takes about 5-10 minutes to clean a gun, is easy after the first time, and most guns only need it every few hundred rounds. Ammo lasts forever and is safe (unless you store it in an oven), so you can buy in bulk when it's on sale and just store it.

If safe storage is a concern, you can buy one of these and stop kids while being able to get it fast if someone breaks in at night. Guns also hold their value well, so if you don't like it you can sell it for not much loss...

Again though, if you don't think you want to spend the money and time that's totally fine. If you don't think shooting is much fun, that's also fine but you might want to give it a try first ;)

That’s kinda what separates conservatism from liberalism; wholly liberal, progressive societies tend to respect each individual’s identity, failing to foster a common identity and eventually becoming insolvent. Uniformly conservative societies, on the other hand, devolve into oppressive totalitarianism, but are more stable. This is why a society generally benefits from a diversity of viewpoints combining the tolerance of liberalism with the shared identity of conservatism.

Jonathan Haidt discusses the research around and moral underpinnings of these ideas in this incredible book.

then legitimately, just snag a safety razor, 20 dollar steel one, and a 10 dollar 100 blade pack.

bam, you've got shaving supplies for a year.


Get soap later if you care, it's just another way to save money. A thing of soap lasts years. You just lather it up with a brush.

>98.44%/99.9%

That should be 98.44-99.9%

>being european.

Actually, it's "something other than NA"...

>So yeah, between naught and fuckall percent native American

Again, I'm going to need a numerical value for "fuckall".. Because "naught" means zero, so I'd have to assume fuckall means "more than zero"...

Innumeracy can be overcome with the proper desire and effort. This might be a good place to start...

is this a book?

it might not require a police state, but it sure does seem to enjoy having one

Invest in a bidet attachment for the home commode and that number will decline sharply. Plus, it's much cleaner.

Easy to install and 27 bucks from Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Astor-Non-Electric-Mechanical-Attachment-CB-1000/dp/B003TPGPUW/

I'd also recommend this. I got it for my neighbor's dog and it works great https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Outdoor-Ultrasonic-Bark-Deterrent/dp/B000UZNLGA

> Safes are attached to where they are.

>Yeah. A safe is bolted to the floor.

This is not true. None of what you just said is true.

https://www.amazon.com/GunVault-SV500-SpeedVault-Handgun-Safe/dp/B006OGNLKA/ref=sr_1_4?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1527028963&sr=1-4&keywords=gun+safe

https://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-Water-Extra-Combination-SFW123DSB/dp/B005P12F2K/ref=sr_1_4?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1527028811&sr=1-4&keywords=safe

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Fire-Resistant-Safe-Cubic/dp/B074KDHMKJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1527028811&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=safe&psc=1

You too. I recommend http://www.amazon.com/The-Problem-Political-Authority-Examination/dp/1137281650 .

I promise you I will read your book (I've been meaning to), if you promise to read mine.

> ...and say there's no bullying going on at Columbine which is complete nonsense

Sure, there's always bullying. Everyone's been bullied at some point or another. And i haven't personally visited the area, so i can't speak to the local culture.

What i meant to say was that the two guys, at the time of the shooting, were not particularly bullied people.

>I've heard this and always found it strange, it's actually debated to this day. There have been a number of coverups with local LEO's and school staff. It's almost like the school, and local LEO's want to push the problem on mental health

I base most of my stance on the event from the usual menagerie of easily-available sources, but also this book which is, as far as i can tell, the most complete picture of the duo. The author spent a great deal of time interviewing practically everyone in town, and who had any influence on the two shooters. There have only been small bits and pieces of the basement tapes released, with a similar situation for their diaries, so i don't feel comfortable taking those for what they appear, because of how cherry-picked they are.

I feel like i just wrote a pitch for the book, haha. But anyway, that's where i'm coming from.

All you need is one of these: Merkur HD Slant Safety Razor 37C and a box of these: 100 Feather Razor Blades NEW Hi-stainless Double Edge and you are set for a long time.

I shave two or three times a year, whether I need to or not (got to stay employed!), so I will most likely die before I make it through all my razors, but even if I shaved daily (the horrors!) I would still go this route. A dollar shave is an expensive shave!

Add a shaving brush, a mug, some soap, and a stand. If you know a better way to shave, that doesn't involve Peter Dinklage standing on the counter and doing it for you, then I want to hear about it.

Edited to add: A shave should be a pleasure. If you are not enjoying it, then you are doing it wrong.

These work pretty well most of the time. I've used them to take care of neighbor dogs who bark all the damn time. It doesn't hurt them either, it's just a loud annoying sound you can't hear.

Read this
http://www.amazon.com/A-Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0060838655
Zinn should be a hero to all of us.

For those curious about the root causes of government corruption and the solution, I recommend The Problem of Political Authority

I think there are plenty of scientist that would make good leaders. I don't think being a scientist makes you inherently a good leader or policy maker.

Have you ever read anything by economist Thomas Sowell? Specifically his book The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy or A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles


I realize it's far-fetched for you to take reading advice from someone you disagree with so much but here is the author discussing the latter book if you're interested.

Thomas Sowell and a Conflict of Visions

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TPGPUW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Easy to install too. Took me all of 20 minutes? Maybe 30 minutes. Needed an adjustable wrench and that's about it.

Disagree. If you think it's not at all that effective, order this and upload a video of how it feels. I have tried it on my arms, it BURNS, I can't imagine how bad it would be for eyes.

It's so strong that amazon is not allowed to ship it to a handful of states and is used also by Law Enforcement.

Unlikely, though it's still very cheap. It's less than a dime for sure, possibly less than a nickel.

http://www.amazon.com/Derby-Extra-Double-Razor-Blades/dp/B004SGKMA0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1450465535&sr=8-5&keywords=100+blades

EDIT: It's probably a penny per shave?

This is the book he's holding. History of the National Security State by Gore Vidal.

That's covered in his OTHER book, "The Art of the Comeback." And no, not even joking, he really pushes that as one of his books. Also, this is legit ancient news. This was all revealed like a decade ago when he was on Apprentice. The New York Times is just re-wrapping old news to take advantage of the current news cycle to garner clicks.

you might want to get one of these

Here's a simple and cheap one: http://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-WT1-Drinking-Water/dp/B000FBMAVQ/

Here's a more expensive and more complete one: http://www.amazon.com/Watts-Premier-173006-All--Water/dp/B002XISS4C/

This is the exact plot of a young adult fiction from the early 90's. https://www.amazon.com/Obnoxious-Jerks-Stephen-Manes/dp/0553281143

http://www.amazon.com/The-BeerBelly-200-001-80-Ounce-Belly/dp/B001RB2CXY

This is what I use. http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Old-Bond-Street-Sandalwood/dp/B0007MW2ZW/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1450464981&sr=8-5&keywords=shaving+cream

I don't think it will last more than 6 cans. I already used half of it and it's only been 2 months. I usually get 6 weeks out of a single can.

This is the type of razor and this type of blade

Edit: these are the blade samples I ordered. It's only 80 not 100.

Here.

Time to get one of these

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0073R7TWU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sZmNybJ57Z2RE

$.35 each.

https://www.amazon.com/Vidal-History-National-Security-State/dp/1494887991

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404390997&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=confessions+of+an+econo+hitman

read it.

Ridiculous? It's a ban based on sound science and statistics. Isaac Asimov died of HIV from a tainted blood transfusion—and now we're going to put more people at risk, just for the sake of being politically correct.

AIDS carriers have been a favored protected victim class of liberals since the 1980s when the courts found it to be a "handicap" entitling its carriers to special privileges and anonymity to the detriment of public health.

From Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed:

>As late as 1983, people were being reassured that their chances of catching AIDS from transfusions of untested blood were 'extremely remote.' Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler went on nationwide television on July 3, 1983, to 'assure the American people that the blood supply is 100 per cent safe.'

>But just one year later, the Centers for Disease Control began reporting dozens of cases of people who caught AIDS from blood transfusions; just two years after that [1986], the AIDS deaths from blood transfusions were in the thousands."

>The problem was not simply with what medical authorities did not know at the time but with what they presumed to know and to proclaim to the benighted–to those who, in Secretary Heckler’s words, had ‘irrational fears’ and ‘unwarranted panic.’ [According to U.S. News and World Report, it turns out that whereas the Red Cross and others] ‘put the risk of getting AIDS from a transfusion at about 1 in a million. In fact, it was at least 1 in 660–and up to 1 in 25 in high-exposure cities like San Francisco.’]

>It was at one time triumphantly proclaimed that no health-care worker had ever contracted AIDS from patients, but by September 1985 there were the first of many cases of nurses, lab workers, and others who caught the disease from AIDS patients and by 1991 there were cases of patients who caught AIDS from a dentist . . . .

>Precautions to protect the public from AIDS carriers have repeatedly been backed into only after new revelations devastated previous reassurances . . . . Instead of erring on the side of caution in defense of the public, as with previous deadly and infectious diseases, ‘responsible’ officials approached the spread of AIDS by making the protection of the AIDS carrier from the public paramount.

>One political reason has been fear of offending the organized, zealous, single issue homosexual organizations and their allies in the media, in the American Civil Liberties Union, and in other liberal bastions. But this only raises the further question as to why the interest of carriers of a deadly, incurable, and contagious disease should be regarded in such circles as preemptive over the rights of hundreds of millions of other people . . . .


http://www.amazon.com/The-Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-Social/dp/046508995X

Yes, they had a circle of friends. Like a lot of people, they weren't the popular "cool kids" but they weren't loners either. Most of those claims came from a bad information perpetuated by the media.

https://www.amazon.com/Columbine-Dave-Cullen/dp/0446546925/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=columbine+dave+cullen&qid=1573884018&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Reckoning-Living-Aftermath-Tragedy-ebook/dp/B01208WN3G/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=columbine+sue+klebold&qid=1573884050&sr=8-1

Sorry, Art of the Comeback. I get Trump's Art Of book titles confused.

Write-offs in publicly traded companies are overseen by the SEC. Write-offs in private holdings are not overseen at all.

Smuggle it in with this.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001RB2CXY/?tag=047-20

The Problem of Political Authority (There isn't any)

Don't mind me. I'm just here to shamelessly plug a $26 bidet kit.
Why buy more than one roll of toilet paper per month?
Wash your butt with water and dab to dry.

Rofl... this thread is hilarious.

Trump literally wrote a book called "The Art of the Comeback" in 1997 that talks about how he was over 1 billion in debt and his businesses were going into bankruptcy, and how he overcame it. You guys are acting like Trump businesses taking a billion dollars in losses in the 80s and early 90s is somehow news. This has been known for decades.

Trump literally wrote a book about it!

Maybe you should read the book to learn how he pulled himself out of debt.

This is the exact plot of a book I read as a kid, titled "The Obnoxious Jerks". (Or at least the bit I remember, years later.)

The Obnoxious Jerks by Stephen Manes

How bad are these? http://amzn.com/B000FBMAVQ

Here’s why this is simply a terrible, terrible idea... crickets

Actually, if you want more insight into why this might just feel wrong to you, I highly recommend you check out this book by Jonathan Haidt: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Edit: If you’re going to downvote, please at least comment to explain your disagreement.

It's always the same story with these types, they push policies but don't actually suffer the consequences if they fail.

Economist Thomas Sowell in his book Vision of the Anointed:Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy calls these types out so well.

The razor was on sale and I fucked up on the blades it was actually 100. Whoops.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004SGKMA0/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1469037919&sr=8-2&keywords=Derby+100+blades&pi=SY200_QL40

I can also cherry-pick statistics to make them fit my paradigm.

Where do you think the saying...

"Lies, Lies, and Damn Statistics" comes from.

That is the problem with statistics, and why scientists sometimes arrive at bad conclusions.

It is very hard to be completely objective when trying to evaluate social phenomenon clear of preconceived notions.

I recommend this book, Innumerancy.

Even though we disagree, it is a good read.

John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

That said, I've heard the Kennedy / Federal Reserve / Executive order 11110 conspiracy. I'm unconvinced.

Pro.

Con.

>This is a very deep topic that cant be summarized in a sentence.

totally understandable...

>I'm sure youll take that to mean that I dont know or or I making it up. No matter.

pffft. don't be so presumptuous...

>Historians have written ad nauseum about exactly how the highly centralized bureaucracy of complete state ownership inevitably and in all cases has lead to heavy handed authoritarianism.

this is the one question here i want an answer for (and haven't received an answer to), as the rest seems highly debatable (more on this below) and should be easy enough to provide a simple summary for. please do so. that those leaders who have attempted (and failed) to implement communism previously have all been assholes doesn't mean that communism inherently leads to authoritarianism, genocide, extrajudicial killings, etc. its quite a leap to suggest so.

> ...that has eclipsed every other ideology in terms of human suffering.

and this is where that debate comes in that i mentioned earlier. but its not the topic of this discussion directly so we can move on from it, for now.

> For a scholarly retrospective on the subject, I suggest "https://www.amazon.com/Black-Book-Communism-Crimes-Repression/dp/0674076087"

its hardly scholarly...as noted here by another redditor, two of the authors have renounced the book, the figures have been inflated due to error and nevermind the blatant historical inaccuracies within. i haven't read the book but this quite detailed NYT review seems to suggest that it doesn't quite say what you think it says. referring to the last paragraph, speaking of communism versus nazism...italics and bold are mine.



>All of which brings one to the second great question. What of the relative immorality of Communism and Nazism? Both Malia and Courtois chew over this puzzle at some length; oddly, they do it as though it were not one of the standard subjects of debate back to the 1950's. The body count tips the scales against Communism. If wild utopian disregard for human life is the charge, there is little to choose between the practices of Nazism and Communism. But if the issue is the intrinsic evil of the entire project, it still seems no contest. Nazism was committed in principle to exterminating the Jews. So long as a shred of Marxist intelligence remained to Communist practice, it was not in itself an exterminationist project. Just how and why socialist aspirations came in practice to be so thoroughly betrayed will continue to preoccupy historians well into the next century.

​

so this book admits that the "socialist aspirations" were "betrayed" meaning the evil and tyranny were not inherent to it, unlike nazism. also note that the question "will continue to preoccupy historians well into the next century". this book does not provide that answer, at least to the reviewer quoted.

​

That looks like Roger Stone to me but that would be ridiculous.

I'm def wrong: https://www.amazon.com/Vidal-History-National-Security-State/dp/1494887991

This is a very deep topic that cant be summarized in a sentence. I'm sure youll take that to mean that I dont know or or I making it up. No matter.

Historians have written ad nauseum about exactly how the highly centralized bureaucracy of complete state ownership inevitably and in all cases has lead to heavy handed authoritarianism. There is a deep history of political repressions by Communist states, including genocides, extrajudicial executions, deportations, killing population in labor camps and artificially created famines that has eclipsed every other ideology in terms of human suffering.

For a scholarly retrospective on the subject, I suggest "https://www.amazon.com/Black-Book-Communism-Crimes-Repression/dp/0674076087"

There's not a single incident in the article regarding a kid being killed by a parent thinking it was a burglary. Apparently shit doesn't happen "all the time".

Additionally, before you follow your strawman down that path, every one of the deaths in the article could have been prevented with a simple gun safe.

One of these, bolted to the headboard, and you have quick, secure access. Maybe stupid people just shouldn't have children.

With regards to Robert Downy Jr, yes, he should be thankful he's alive. Why the hell would someone get a pass from doing something so incredibly stupid, just because they're a celebrity? What a ridiculous question.

It isn't, and OP has his information wrong.

The Columbine shooters made and used pipe bombs in their attack, there's even the famous video of the one going off in the cafeteria. They were not very effectual though. I don't know if anyone was even really injured by them. Pipe bombs and pressure cooker bombs aren't incredibly difficult to make, but they're also not that easy to use for mass casualties (see Boston Bombing for evidence of that). A gun is far more effective.

What did fail was a much larger propane tank bomb that they built and placed at the base of a support column in the cafeteria. They wanted to bring the entire cafeteria roof down on everyone. But that proved to be beyond their ability, and it didn't go off.

They also set another bomb off across town, which they hoped would draw police away from the school. I don't remember exactly, but I believe that was another propane bomb that didn't really work correctly and just caused a small brush fire or something.

I highly suggest the book Columbine by Dave Cullen. It's an amazingly researched look into all the minutia of what actually happened, and its effects. He spent over 10 years working on it and it shows. There was so much about it that I had wrong in my head. Great read if you're interested in this topic.

Dude... It was never great by any stretch of the imagination.

Good primer would be Zinn's "People's History of the United States". In the words of Matt Damon, that book will "blow your hair back".

About the only thing remotely "good" this country ever really accomplished as a whole was assisting the Allied Forces in securing a victory in WW2. And the only real significant part we played in that (as far as the European theater) was materiel. If it wasn't for Operation Barbarossa and the Soviets kicking the ever loving shit out of the German forces we would have been destroyed (or never really got involved in the first place).

Edit: I'd like to add that even the "good" done in WW2 must be tempered by the fact that even General Curtis LeMay commented "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal". We were most certainly guilty of horrific atrocities and violation of international standards of war (i.e. the Dresden and Tokyo fire bombings that actively targeted civilian populations) among other thing.

I am saying what happened is so damn easy and obvious that it is likely a false flag operation.

https://www.amazon.com/America-Great-Donald-Adjustable-Baseball/dp/B07GL1CPC7
$9 for a MAGA hat.

https://www.amazon.com/SABRE-3-Pepper-Spray-Protection/dp/B0007VM8UC/
$8 for some pepper spray

You can literally do this for $20 and keep the media's story of "MAGA = hate" alive. The hardest part if finding a fall guy, but getting some random homeless dude to do it for $100 isn't hard.

There were some assholes in the MAGA camp. Look at Maxine Waters, who explicitly demanded that people harass Trump officials while they were off-duty.

Update: The guy was one of ours, defending himself from a crowd. That crowd, however, is pushing for the installation of Pelosi as POTUS through Klingon promotion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/21/maga-cap-man-attacks-anti-trump-protesters-with-bear-repellent-california/

That said, it is still so damn easy that it can be a false flag operation.

> I own 1000 acres of farmland that I use to grow corn.

So you cannot use rain water to grow that corn? You are forced to cover those acres in plastic, so the rainwater flows downhill, instead of watering your corn?

If you use a 1000 acres of land to grow corn, you are using all the water that rains on that field, then why cannot you store any of that water?

> Every time it rains, I divert the stream into my water tower because I am allowed to collect rain water.

Does your water tower grow bigger and bigger every time it rains?

You see, if you have a planted field in your farm you ARE using rainwater, much much more rainwater than you could ever collect.

Imagine one inch of rain falling on one acre of land. That's 25,000 gallons of water. Over one acre. It's a big amount of water, but only 0.1% of the total that fell on those 1000 acres of farmland. So, if your farmer owns 1000 acres of land and builds a one-acre rainwater collector, he's storing 0.1% of the rainwater that falls on his property. Do you call that being greedy?

If the farmer has a thousand acres of land, he gets 25 million gallons of water for every inch it rains on his property. There's no way he could ever store any significant part of all that water.

The sad reality is that most people cannot do the simplest math. And, unfortunately, those people are allowed to vote. This is what makes people vote for law like those restricting the collection of rain water. They only see the COMMERCIAL and GREEDY catchwords there, without ever stopping to do some simple math and think, does this make any sense?

"his way of life" was built around the social hierarchy that was slavery. "The average Confederate soldier" didn't want slaves to be on the same class level as him. The vast majority volunteered to fight, only 12% of Confederate forces were drafted.

Ignoring that there were (and still are) racial tensions in the south and that a civil war broke out over something ambitious as "states' rights" is pretty ridiculous. Especially when the states still had their rights to establish and enforce the Jim Crow laws.

edit: anyone who disagrees with this post I made needs to read A People's History of the United States

Peper spray may work and you can definitely spray yourself and someone can still fight through being pepper sprayed or even see it coming and cover their face with their arm. Tasers can work depending on their clothing but requires you to make physical contact with the attacker. You're not always surrounded by a group of friends or have your dog everywhere you go. And dogs have to be trained for attack/defense when most are trained to be pets and companions. The reality is that you can use these non-lethal tools, i have Sabre Red pepper spray on my keychain and can stop a group of people, but sometimes immediatly going for the lethal option will make sense and is the reason why I carry two non lethal devices, pepper spray and a 1000 lumen light, and a ccw pistol because I am not a mind reader or a fortune teller.


Japan has a relatively low violent and is considered odd how low it is. Austraila has more guns now than they did before their ban and they are seeing an increase in firearm crimes as well as the UK.

I cant find the exact study at the moment because I am getting ready to close but here is something that you can read.
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2014/january/survival-rates-similar-for-gun

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/nyregion/03shot.html

No offense but you talk crazy talk. No serious economist believes going back to the gold standard is a good idea. Oil was pegged as the new gold and the Washington Consensus ruled foreign policy for 50ish years. The result of the Washington Consensus was 9/11, the second war in Iraq, and the current War on Terrorism. Also, the Washington Consensus is dead.

The decline of the American Empire can be pegged to the difficulty in replacing what was very effective (if damaging in the long term) foreign policy.

Should you desire page-turning reading on what really turned America's gears for decades, check out "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins. It's a first hand account. Not conspiratorial and/or misunderstood ideas about macroeconomics. Again, no offense.