My own opinion is why do people need to carry arms, but then it's easy for me to say that. As you say Canada it's not the gun that kills, but if the person didn't have a gun they couldn't do it, but then would they just use something else? It's certainly not an easy topic to discuss, and as Ellewoods says, they are so deeply engrained in everyday life it's impossible to seriously do much isn't it? Even if you had a massive amnesty with everyone handing them in, that would just give the advantage to the criminals etc as they wouldn't participate I'm sure. Just a whole different mindset in the US. Is it right ? Who knows. I know the very ideas put me off emigrating to the US, I didn't think I wanted to bring my kids up with that culture. So I moved to Queensland instead... .??
there's the argument that if they have the mindset to cause harm, they could do it, gun or no gun but then again, the gun makes it much much easier to commit mass horror a gun takes away some of the 'responsibility' i read once in some killer profile book i
Maybe it's mindset that's the problem, but not sure at all how you change that. I do think that if they had guns more freely available here in Oz that it could potentially be very similar to the US, as there is a very aggressive mindset here in everyday life. The roads would be littered with dead bodies, if the normal day to day driving mindset is anything to go by
too many people these days don't value another humans life personally i can't even think about hurting anyone unless it's self defence but then that brings the gun part into it doesn't it nothing you can do, let's just hope in 50 years time the average gun bearer doesn't have some laser type future weapon that can blow a hole through a wall
The vast majority of gun owners are never going to use them in anger, they will hurt no one with them, and who knows, one day their gun may save their lives. Or the life of someone else. Many of the mass shootings that America suffers from are committed by those who the kind would describe as oddities, the unthinking would describe as ****ing maniacs and the medical profession would describe as belonging on a spectrum. So what'ya gonna do America? Every one has the right to bear arms 'cos the Eighteenth century was ****ing dangerous. Fair play, right? The Twenty-First century is ****ing dangerous too. Not because the weapons are far more powerful than the Revolutionary legislators could ever have imagined, but because any deranged ****er can get his hands on one. A man-boy with zero emotional intelligence, a grudge and a semi-automatic. It ain't gonna end well is it? Time and time and time again.
Personally I think that bits spot on, many do not value the human life. I could never get my head round how people could possibly take another life as easily as they do, but then that's coming from someone who struggled to bash the fish on the head, and murder it when he went fishing with his kids at Kilnsea trout farm.
I'd guess that most societies have a similar proportion of wackos, but couldn't vouch for any pro rata distribution rate. However, USA wackos have access to guns. I guess that that is fairly significant when it comes to looking at mass murder distribution statistics.
A wonderful business opportunity?! A 1700 population in America isn't even deserving of the title 'hamlet'.
If you keep a gun in the USA I believe that statistically, if someone dies from its use, it's more likely to be a member of the owner's family than an intruder. They get used in family rows and suicides.
Just out of interest, what really is the point in owning a handgun or assault rifle if you can't shoot anyone with it? What other use could it possibly have? Your country finds itself in a ****ing ridiculous position.
A bit off topic but very similar, when a rabbit/pigeon/pheasant gets in front of me not he road my natural reaction is to speed up and swerve into the bastard. In a pigeons case it's always accompanied by a high pitched screech of "PIGEEEEOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!" and it's a very jolly time. In a rabbit and a pheasants case I get twitchy upon sighting and instinctively go for it but once the moment of impact has been and gone and I've replayed the sound of the thud of it's head getting smashed by my car and the crunch of it's bones being shattered in my head a few times a feel a bit guilty. Nearly nailed a fox yesterday, that would have been a first. I was disappointed to miss it but I'm certain the post annihilation guilt would have set in had I got it. Am I better off?
I sincerely doubt it. Shootings are very rare in this country, and although getting your mittens on a firearm isn't exactly difficult, it's very expensive and not the sort of thing people think "**** it I'll have one of those" and buy on impulse. Generally the only people who own a handgun or an assault rifle in he his country are drug lords and psychopaths on a warpath. Remember young Brady that a shotgun is almost as easily accessible as any gun is over in the states. So long as you're not mentally insecure and you buy a certified gun cabinet with proper installation to go with it, it's every Britons right to eon a shotgun. When was the last time a British bloke went on a savage murderous shooting rampage? Off the top of my head it was the Lake District chap, and I can't even remember another before that. How many have happened in America in that time?
me on tuesday mate. and i meant in terms of population percentage there was raoul moat and the scottish guy in dunblane
Per 100,000 people, there are 10.3 gun deaths in the US. In the UK, it's 0.25. Therefore, you're 41 times more likely to be shot there than here. That's not mass shootings of course, but that doesn't seem to be monitored.
us brits settle things fisticuffs cause we are proper tough men we don't need a thousand mph system to do the dirty work for us