Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@trz4747@mstdn.social To be clear, I was not trying to "make a different argument": IIUC they generally do quite a bit more damage per hit than most pistols, all else being equal. I'm sure they make fine hunting rifles, but I am not trying to make a political point by noting that.

My only point here is "assault rifle" bans, as I've seen them at least, seem pretty stupid. Mass shootings probably aren't that much easier to carry out or more deadly if the rifle used has a flash suppressor, for example.

Along those lines, saying AR-15s are "assault rifles" muddies things. Assault rifle bans don't ban all AR-15s, for example, so it misleads in that context. The "assault rifle" bans don't ban them because they do more damage; that is clear. They instead address other silly unrelated things.

@Pat But that isn't what "assault rifle" means, when people talk about banning them.

@JonKramer Well, that may be overstating the point. I'd much rather be shot by a 9mm pistol than a 5.56 rifle.

But "assault rifle" isn't the thing that matters, I think. (Hunting rifles can do far more damage than an "assault rifle", depending.)

@schwern of course not, although if you surround a car and threaten the driver you should obviously expect the driver at least to drive forward (or reverse) rapidly in order to get away, which might kill you depending on where you are standing. (see: Alexian Lien) And if you also threaten the driver with a gun, you should expect maybe more.

Sounds like maybe neither of those things happened in this case, though.

@schwern @dcjohnson "you go talk to the driver" vs. "surrounding his car and banging on it" – kind of give different impressions. (The video doesn't look like the car was totally surrounded or anything, though; like Perry could have driven away, I think.)

@graphictruth Well, I'm sure it came up, it was literally the main defense argument used in the trial, wasn't it?

I don't think "peers" means "people with the same proclivities & interests" but I suppose you have a point.

@Renegade_GDI@mastodon.world I'm not sure what the upshot of noting 6 seconds is. He was stopped for 6 seconds, right? That's plenty of time for anyone to know he wasn't there to plow into the crowd, at least. What else does the 6s tell you?

@augieray @RonJeffries Well, ok, maybe not "fear", but "concerned enough to answer a poll that way".

Even before covid, hundreds of thousands of people die from the flu every year. Plus many more from other random respiratory illnesses. We have to find a way to be at peace with living in a world like that, you know? So I'd answer the poll "not concerned", because I'm not much more concerned than normal about this category of illness.

I take precautions I feel are reasonable, like wash my hands, try not to touch my face, avoid sick people, stay home when I'm sick, etc. I don't wear masks unless someone asks me to, because I don't think they help all that much (if any), and do have some cost. Risk levels feel more or less back to ~normal, at-risk folks I'm close to have been vaccinated, etc.

@dcjohnson It seems like before you say this is "telling right-wing fascists to start shooting" we need to consider the point about this being self-defense.

If an angry mob surrounds a car and points guns at the driver, you gotta expect a reaction. Or: was the driver doing something threatening? or... ?

@adamjcook I hope you didn't move to New York or Pennsylvania, they do the same thing. 😂

(It's actually a great policy – huge users that can shut off in a pinch really help make the grid more robust.)

@sethcotlar And communist statues/etc. So is he a Nazi as well as a communist?

(Or... maybe he collects artifacts from dictatorial regimes that he hates, like he says?)

@dsilverman The flexibility of these operations is huge benefit for power grid operators.

I mean, it's hard to imagine this huge energy usage being a net win for society, but the fact that they can smooth out peaks like this is really nice at least. That's why they pay less for watt-hours. As it should be.

@neilhimself Is "New Kid" actually banned or removed from school libraries/curriculum anywhere? Katy, TX decided not to ban it, ultimately, if I'm not mistaken?

@Kirk It's satire.

@timpatterson I think that's more a "what's wrong with you why are you obsessing about a typo" look. (Sort of the look I had watching the full interview, probably?)

@AlexVoss @dougschuler @dgolumbia @ruchowdh @pluralistic

Yeah, not sure generative AI presents the sort of risk implied by invoking parallels to the IAEA. 😂

@JustAnotherJay @mmasnick Maybe, but Taibbi wrote quite a bit about it on his Twitter account just now.

@dexiheart Some companies are far better than others about this sort of thing.

@gricka Great idea to send email/mail/phone instead of traffic stops in case of fix-its like that.

I wonder, though, if one of the reasons his wife was so afraid is because of hysterical essays like this one.