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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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Ok so... i'm often seriously confused about what safety people actually care about.

I understand fear of handguns a handgun is an easy to procure object in a hurry that allows someone to commit a crime suddenly and violently.

But it seems any type of premediatated or planned operation is just super legal and easy to get? (except of course using it to commit a crime is obviously very illegal)

Nitromethane is freely available for purchase, which can be easily made into very dangerous chemicals using stuff you can buy in the hardware store. From there we have other things, while you have to either break the law or DIY it for a lot of parts you can make your own drone (or just use a kids RC helicopter toy, seriously it may not work for heavy payloads but you'd be shocked at how far you can go with mediocre toys these days.) and drop an explosive on anyone. You can also make actual war crimes in your basement by mixing iron powder, and sulfur then heating it, sealing it in a glass bottle with water as it builds up H2S. Alternatively if you want to make cyanide gas, buying sodium cyanide (i'd be willing to post links but I don't want this forum to actually get in trouble with the FBI, I already got searched once) and mixing it with sulfiric acid is doable (and ok like hyper dangerous beyond belief and you would have to basically get rid of it the moment you make it but....)

Again the delivery mechanisms for this stuff isn't complicated and the main limiting factor of these does not appear to be that obtaining the means of violence is hard it's that anyone smart enough to do this is also smart enough to realize that violence is a bad idea.

Some gangbanger fool on the street is highly unlikely to put the time and effort into making a bomb drone he'll have floating around with him in case he wants to mug me, or drop it on some other gangbanger and I'm in the vicinity.

That same fool can easily get a gun and start shooting and hit people not at all involved. CBS has an entire "drive by shootings" page for Chicago. And just being in the same area as when the bullets start flying gives you a good chance of being a victim:

A 7-month-old baby in a stroller was killed by a stray bullet Wednesday afternoon when a man on a moped shot at a group of people on a Brooklyn sidewalk, authorities said.

The shooting was believed to be gang-related and the child an unintended victim, police said.

Americans often make jokes online about the UK and "have you a licence for that knife", but it's the same principle. Guns are harder to get over here (though not impossible, in parts of Ireland we have our own native gang culture shooting away at each other), so stupid dumb teens tend to carry knives instead and when they get into a stupid dumb fight people end up dead, even if not intended to end that way, though overall knife homicides are falling (due to the police cracking down):

The average age of a young fatal stab victim is now 14, indicates an analysis of the causes of death among children and teens in England between 2019 and 2024, published online in Emergency Medicine Journal.

Those of Black ethnicity are 13 times more likely to be fatally stabbed than their White peers, while children living in the most deprived areas of the country are 7 times more likely to die of their wounds than those living in the most affluent areas.

Being smart and disciplined and patient and minimally skilled enough to make a bomb or plan how to use a drone is not the street-level thug who is the most dangerous to ordinary people.

Those of Black ethnicity are 13 times more likely to be fatally stabbed than their White peers, while children living in the most deprived areas of the country are 7 times more likely to die of their wounds than those living in the most affluent areas.

As is tradition, the passive voice leaves unanswered who is stabbing “those of Black ethnicity” and “children living in the most deprived areas of the country.”

White cisheteropatriarchy is murdering them via other Black Bodies.

The above sentence is unironically the critical theory position on this matter; it is not a weak man.