Gun Debate-Gary Kleck vs Paul Helmke-at The Soho Forum

DaleA · September 27, 2018, 01:24 AM

Here’s a link to a 9/13/2018 gun debate between Gary Kleck, a pro-gun person and Paul Helmke who is a past head of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEemGkf_ETk

This was a Soho Forum event and I was not previously aware of the Soho Forum. Here’s a link to past Soho events.

https://www.thesohoforum.org/past-events/

The debate is long, 1 hour 40 minutes long, and is low key. Each speaker gets to speak. There is no cheering or jeering from the audience. There is no shouting. There is almost no talking over each other. It was a calm, reasoned debate. One could say it was boring but that’s totally an individual call. There were questions at the end and the audience seem almost universally pro-gun folk but once again, everyone was very polite.

That said, IMhO Gary Kleck had facts, figures and real common sense on his side while Paul Helmke was patronizing, condescending and spoke in smarmy generalities and platitudes. I think the internet definition of smarmy should contain a link to Paul Helmke.

When Kleck presented study results, Helmke ‘doubted’ the results. Sometimes he ‘seriously doubted’ the results but then said that he hadn’t looked into the studies and that wasn’t the kind of work he did.

One point that struck me was the way Helmke repeated “nobody is coming for your guns”. He claims the Heller decision says your guns cannot be taken away so there should be no opposition AT ALL to having a national gun registry to track all guns. Also he thinks restrictions on all semi-automatic firearms would be okay…Thankfully Kleck calls him on this claim.

September 27, 2018, 01:24 AM	#1
DaleA Senior Member Join Date: September 12, 2002 Location: Twin Cities, MN Posts: 5,312	Gun Debate-Gary Kleck vs Paul Helmke-at The Soho Forum Here’s a link to a 9/13/2018 gun debate between Gary Kleck, a pro-gun person and Paul Helmke who is a past head of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEemGkf_ETk This was a Soho Forum event and I was not previously aware of the Soho Forum. Here’s a link to past Soho events. https://www.thesohoforum.org/past-events/ The debate is long, 1 hour 40 minutes long, and is low key. Each speaker gets to speak. There is no cheering or jeering from the audience. There is no shouting. There is almost no talking over each other. It was a calm, reasoned debate. One could say it was boring but that’s totally an individual call. There were questions at the end and the audience seem almost universally pro-gun folk but once again, everyone was very polite. That said, IMhO Gary Kleck had facts, figures and real common sense on his side while Paul Helmke was patronizing, condescending and spoke in smarmy generalities and platitudes. I think the internet definition of smarmy should contain a link to Paul Helmke. When Kleck presented study results, Helmke ‘doubted’ the results. Sometimes he ‘seriously doubted’ the results but then said that he hadn’t looked into the studies and that wasn’t the kind of work he did. One point that struck me was the way Helmke repeated “nobody is coming for your guns”. He claims the Heller decision says your guns cannot be taken away so there should be no opposition AT ALL to having a national gun registry to track all guns. Also he thinks restrictions on all semi-automatic firearms would be okay…Thankfully Kleck calls him on this claim.