Um. I will try, like I said it is hard unless you are having a conversation in person. Why do I have 16 guns? I havent even fired most of them. I think I have only fired probably 5 of them. My relatives came west as homesteaders in the 1800's. The guns they brought with them have been passed down. Only 2 of them have been purchased in my lifetime. They sit in a gun cabnet in my parents house. They serve no purpose really. When I was young I used to go hunting, but when I went to college I stopped and I dont think they have been used sense. Why would anyone need an assault rifle? No one needs an assault rife. No one at all. The thing is that americans are not very bright. They are coerced by politions and ignorance. To many people think that if you ban an assault rifle that means that your shotgun is next, or your gun that your ancestor once used. It is the slippery slope argument. Is it retarted? Yes it is. Unfortunatly we are not all that rational of a people. We did have them banned in the 90's but the ban expired and I dont see it being reinstated any time soon. The cultural thing? Hard to explain and depending the region you are from it could vary. In general americans hate government. Most of it is historical. We think that you all were the worst dictators in the world. Only by our bravery and guns did we defeat you. It is nonsense of course. We think that part of being an american is this western ideal of a man who goes out on his own with life and death in his own hands. It is our drive west into the native american lands, it is the cowboy with a gun on his hips, it is the gangsters during proibition. The list goes on. To take guns away would mean to take away your ability to be a man, to defend your family or your people. If you came to take them, it would trigger that reaction to defend them. Remember that no american has ever seen war on our soil. We have no concept of mass death, or violence. We dont have the European experience of war. To us it is something in movies, and in movies it is glorious. The problem is that this has been drummed into us since we beat you in the 1700's. Guns are a part of us, a part of what makes us Americans. It is stupid, I know, but it really is part of us for good or bad. Well, mainly bad. Even though lots of people dont have them and have overcome it, millions of us have them, you cant take them away from them, nor eliminate their ability to get new ones. The reaction would be the same.
We do have programs to turn in guns for destruction. They are mainly used in the cities to try and get guns out of gangs. It works ok sometimes, mainly when the gans arent in outright war with eachother. Unfortunatly they can get them easy enough again.
Dont think that I am not understanding that a whole bunch of kids just died. I am, and it really is sad. I wish that we could get rid of our guns. I have had aquantinces killed by guns. I have heard shootings in which people died. I have been to clubs and seen buildings with bullet holes in them. I have had relatives go to prison for killing people with guns. My girlfriend has relatives in prision and relatives who have died from them. I dont say anything above out of ignorance about what guns do.
The emphasis should be changed from 'gang gun control' to a wider spectrum of 'making the country safer for American children.' It only takes a few brave people to get the ball rolling and the results could eventually save innocent lives.
It's America.... As one dumb fool said outside the school , he would pray to God and God will give him the answer. Doh .
We do have anti gun groups. You would have to take out the NRA somehow first. They have unbelievable political power. Perhaps if you could stop the NRA and the gun manufactures you would have a chance. Perhaps.
Those tactics would be doomed to failure. The way to do it would be if the parents of the latest victims were the first to hand in their guns and encouraged parents accross the country to do the same. The NRA are too powerful to challenge in political circles but they would find it harder to deal with action by a huge organised group of ordinary people with the latest victims as martyrs. However the will has to be there.
You say 'only purchasing 2' and 'I havent even fired most of them' like its a good thing!!! In my eyes that's buying 2 too many and even firing any of them is bad. 'Remember that no american has ever seen war on our soil.' Arent the 'Americans' you refer to actually the immigrants who waged war on natives and thus Americans have seen war and the destruction of their own land?
But how do you explain the lack of shootings in Canada? they don't have quite as many guns as america but they have a lot more than the u.k and very few gun incidents.
Well if you want to fire a weapon from the 1800's all the better to you. I took one look at that and went and bought one that I knew wouldnt explode in my hands. Clearly I was refering to anyone alive. Unlike you all who have the experience of what war is really like, when it occurrs to your people. Wasnt Hull bombed by the Germans? I have driven passed a battlefield, one that had a battle in the 1860's. It isnt the same thing, every one of you has more of an idea about what war and guns do than just about every single american. We know what an idividual gun does but it is the large things that effect a culture. Your experinces have affected Europes gun controls. Our lack of experinces, and our different ones have affected ours.
I have only known a few Canadians. I dont know enough specifically about them to provide an adequate explanation.
This week or next he will be. He shows up every time. Dont worry god works in mysterious ways, if more guns were around it wont happen next time, its us evil liberals who want to destroy their rights etc, etc, etc.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...homicides-compare-with-the-rest-of-the-world/ If you look at this you come to the conclusion that countries like canada, france and in scandinavia, who all have a 30 to 50 guns per 100 habitants ratio also have the lowest homicide level. This "should" back the argument that guns don't kill, people do. BUT clearly it is the psychological aspect that is important. Why do so many american feel it is ok to use a gun? It kind of implies that an American in contrast to a Canadian or Frenchman, will pull out a gun in most minor incidents, while the others would only use it in extreme cases of self defence. I remember being shocked by a story of an old man shooting and killing a young black man who was "on his property" and getting away with it. The black man was trying to rob him but had no weapon whatsoever on him. If that happened to me, my first reaction is to call the police and let them deal with it. An americans reaction is to shoot and ask questions later. Actually, I just remembered, he had call the police but while he was on the phone and being told by the cop to stay put inside his home, he opened fire on an unarmed man who wasn't even inside his house but on his front lawn... Clearly there's a massive issue in education... (which I referred to earlier) Maybe gun ownership would be ok, if people were brought up to use it in case of serious emergency (which was the original reason behind the 2nd amendment, pulling out a gun in a bar fight is not exactly the same type of emergency as pulling one out to fire at armed british soldiers breaking into your house to kill you and rape your wife)
You need to watch this mate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jGtAcDefHg - Bowling For Columbine highlights the huge difference between the attitudes towards guns between Americans and Canadians amongst many other shocking facts. The fact is that Americans have been brainwashed for donkey's years (watch this if you can bear it; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmUzwRCyTSo&feature=related) to be submissive to propaganda while other peoples haven't.
Putting aside this shooting, which was clearly caused by a deranged individual... my biggest issue with gun incidents is that there are too many killings done by guns when no gun should have been in sight or involved. Whether it be a marital spat, a kid arguing with his parents, a bar fight.... which happen in every country all over the world... no guns should be used to solve any of these issues. Nevertheless these cases happen regularly in America because there is a gun somewhere in the house. So instead of smacking someone with a glass bottle or frying pan, a gun is used and leads to a death rather than a few cuts and bruises...
It is a great movie. I havent seen it in a number of years. I just didnt want to comment on the Canadian thing as it is one thing to speak from personal experience as another to comment on something I have no personal knowledge of.
True. My cousin was walking down a street after going to a bar. 2 men came up and tried to rob him, they had no guns. My cousin pulled his gun out and killed both of them. He calmly walked down the street to his truck, got more rounds, came back and when the police came he was still shooting them. He only went to jail because he put 45 rounds in each of them. He shouldnt have had a gun at all. Why did he have one in a bar? Why was that his first reaction? Could have just given him his wallet. Why would anyone allow my cousin to buy a gun in the first place? Its ****ed up. I dont know what to tell you. This **** happens all the time, your post above with our gun deaths every year prove that.
The craziest thing about NRA propaganda is they have somehow managed to make Michael Moore look like some controlling, lying communist. I mean some see Bowling for Columbine as a bunch of manipulated lies... Of course it's edited nicely and creates a strong point but I doubt MM had any evil motives like the NRA to create this film. I think there are plenty of stats that back up his argument of gun ownership in canada against the usa's.
