Let us all take a moment out of our day today to spare a thought for those 20 innocent little angels gunned down so early in their lifes and the 7 teachers that also became gun crime statistics. Do not think about the coward who killed them and then took his own sad life before he could be judged and punished by his peers. God bless the children.
That is dreadful. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dam-Lanza-massacred-26-Sandy-Hook-school.html Words fail me.
I feel sick to the stomach about this. I am equally very sick of hearing americans defend their 2nd amendment. I can't even imagine how it would feel. Those poor parents.
It is more complicated than the 2nd amendment which actually does not give anyone the right to bear arms. Technically it gives the right to a militia to bear arms. That was to stop a future British invasion since we had no standing army our militias were in essence that army. The 2nd ammendment guaranteed the population some sort of protection against the precieved threat of Britian attempting to retake the states. Guns are a part of our culture and unless you were born into it you simply can not understand it. Everyone has guns here, and I do mean just about everyone. I have 16 guns myself, 4 are from the 1800's, I have my great grandfathers rifle from WWI and some are much more recent purchases. They are passed down. It is sad for their parents, it is also sad for all the other parents who have a similar loss every year. It is rare that you or someone you know has not been touched by gun violence. As bad as it is it will simply not change. The assult weapons ban may possibly one day be put back in place but with the number of assult weapons here it means little anyway. It is far worse than this one event. We are the worlds largest exporter of arms, more guns are made here and sent to the 3rd world than all the other nations combined. Think of all the mexicans who have died in their drug war, all those weapons are from us, it isnt even legal to own a firearm there. This will happen again and nothing is going to come of it, as bad as that sounds, no one is going to pass a law to make them illegal or try to take them away. That would result in a revolution without a doubt.
Absolute crap!!! Americans need to grow up and start sacrificing their toys for the sake of their kids.
Like I said, it has touched just about everyone in some way. It doesnt have to be defensible. It is just the way it is and it isnt going to change. It is easy to look at something like that and say, make them all illegal. Forget the 2nd ammendment and the fact that would stop any law, forget the fact that it would take a change to the constiution which would never happen for this. How are you going to enforce it? What you going to do? Come to peoples houses and try to take them from people? First you dont even know who has them, what are you going to do? Search every house, every shed etc? The people who came to get them would be killed, and then the government would be overthrown.
Im sorry man, but I just laughed at that. If you think that would mean anything to an american you clearly dont know any.
So? what are you trying to say? I know full well that you stubborn yanks won't do anything... I'm guessing some out there think "if only the teachers had a gun on them, this could have been avoided" I read those arguments for the aurora shooting, "if I had been there with my gun it wouldn't have happened" WHat a sick mentality... Fight fire with fire and all that crap... education doesn't seem to mean much to americans. Really far too short-sighted of a society. Either way, you cannot hide behind the 2nd amendment every time something like this happens. That's what many are doing. You don't have any indians to kill any more and no more british threats, excuses aren't valid. On top of that I disagree completely, if you are raised in bumblefuk town montana then yes perhaps you are surrounded by hunting and fishing but I have been to america plenty of times and I don't think everyone in the big cities own a gun. Why do you think this always happens in small towns? So to generalise and hide behind the " Guns are part of our culture" is to generalise for the millions of americans that live in the bigger, more advanced and civilised cities of the U.S. The threats americans have are no different to the rest of the world, burglars and drunk or drugged up criminals. yes a ban will not happen but the "more guns" philosophy is completely flawed.
I am not hiding behind it. People in the US do of course. I am simply saying what exists and the reality behind it. I am not saying more guns is the answer. The NRA will, they will say that every teacher should have a gun. Is it stupid? Yes of course it is. Lots of things are stupid, lots of things are stupid here. I am not making an excuse, it is jus the way it is. Also who says that the US is a great place? Certainly not me. We are ****ed up, and our wealth hides our problems. One can not explain what it is to be an American and our attitudes in a forum. It speaks for itself that we have been dealing with school shootings since the 1950s. This is not anything new. You dont know anything if you think people in cities dont have guns. You dont know anything if you think gun violence only occurs in rural areas or that school shootings only occur in rural areas. Sorry but you visiting does not give you an insite into what people have in their homes. It isnt the fact that millions dont have guns, it is that millions do have guns. You cant dictate to the other half the country what to do, not here.
I don't care what you say really, hiding behind some excuse and saying " nothing can be done/ will change" is cowardly and pathetic.
On this issue Americans are just ****ing alien to us. Come on then ellewoods, rather than just say it will never change and 'people who came to get them would be killed, and then the government would be overthrown', explain why this is? Why is it 'everyone has guns here' and why do you 'have 16 guns yourself'? What is the reason? As we are ignorant try and make us understand. And why would ANYONE have need for an assault rifle in their home? You dont protect yourself with that. You dont go hunting with it. A handgun does that. As an ignorant outsider it seems nothing but ego massaging, posturing and 'because we can, it's in the constitution'.
Exactly. Not at the idea of gun control. At the idea that anyone would think that it could be changed. Your argument is correct, for most they are nothing more than silly toys that sit in a cabinet, our friends and family members die from them, children find them and kill themselves playing with them. Would I want stronger gun laws, yes I would. If it could be changed it would be changed. Like I said we have been dealing with this for generations. Clearly it has occurred to us to change how we approach them, if we could we would but it wont happen.
Actually I have a dozen american friends, I used to work for an american firm, I have relatives that live there in a variety of locations and I have stayed there for 6 months at times, I think I get a decent grasp of the culture and "what it means to be american". I think it's an absolute piss take to just say " this has happened for decades, nothing we can do about it, there'll be plenty more to come" I mean if something serious like that happens in the u.k I'd like to think the government would take some sort of action and the civilians equally. I think the fact you are such a vast nation with so many habitants, makes most americans detached to the issues. In a closer knit society, in a smaller country, if this happened everyone would get involved to rectify it. When you live in Oregon and **** happens in Connecitcut, it seems it's the equivalent of living in the U.K and **** happening in Switzerland.
I agree that reversing the trend would be impossible ellewoods but the scary thing is that an enormous amount of americans don't even think something should be done. They still go on about "guns don't kill, people do". You can't even start to try and rectify an issue if very few people are on board. I think a lack of willpower is most likely the issue here rather than "physically impossible". You seem to agree that there's an issue but seem to think nothing can be done and therefore shouldn't waste our energy,money and breath. I think that's an insult to the children that died today. Even if the attempts fail, not trying is just plain wrong.
Intelligent American's could do something about gun control today by voluntarilly handing their guns in for destruction. If someone started doing this word would spread and it could become huge. The shame of the NRA and it's gun-happy members would become intense and with the groundswell of public opinion turning against guns the government would at last be able to start bringing in gun control legislation. However this is unlikely because the American population has been brainwashed into seeing guns as representing freedom by skillfull media manipulation.
A lot of Americans are convinced that they need AR-15s and AK-47s to protect themselves from government feds; of course, a good deal of the politically active gun-rights people tend to be Tea Party/Obama is a Muslim socialist/millenarian Christian types, but not all. Remember, there are also a lot of Americans who think the opposite, that gun ownership should be banned outright. They just all live in Greenwich Village and San Francisco. I have a lot of old friends in the States, many of which are military guys who firmly believe in their right to keep whatever kind of weapon they want. They usually couch their argument in terms of a libertarian philosophy and a need to protect themselves from criminals and cops alike. Frankly, I think in a lot of ways we British are far too soft in terms of our state-society relationship. I think a better way of looking at this is, why are there so many nutters in America? We've had Moat, Bird, etc in recent years granted. But in a lot of places in America you can pick up a rifle at Wal-mart; perhaps they need mandatory psych evaluations along with criminal record checks. Ultimately, people don't give up rights easily, and they won't give up their gun rights. The only thing federal govt can do is attach caveats, responsibilities and obligations to that right. I'm afraid that the American philosophical approach will always be liberty over security - and despite the obvious drawbacks, I can see the rationale behind that.
I think the fear is: "if i hand in my gun over but the "bad guy" doesn't, then how will I defend myself" and to some effect that would certainly be an issue. But you don't defend yourself with a gun, You kill and very few cases are actual self defence.
