I Just don't think someone living amongst a race of people who did unspeakable things to people during the 30s and 40s should call the people of the US uncivilised. That's why.
My point was that the combination of social problems which the USA has, combined with guns, is a lethal combination. The Swiss are equally well armed (nearly) without the same horrible results - that was my point. Whatever may have happened in Germany 70 odd years ago happened then - but is not happening now and that is the point. If the German government had practised something like eg. Guantanamo as recently as the Americans have then I would be attacking them as well. According to your logic the British also would have no right to criticize anyone else in the World now because they once had an Empire which was often suppressed using barbaric means (and if you doubt that then read up a bit on Malaya or Kenya).
I am not defending anything but what has gone has gone and the people I am living with now had nothing to do with what happened then. Please also refrain from personal insults.
The fact is that America is a young nation and has always been a dangerous place and not just because people carried guns. Pioneers moving West in wagons were regularly attacked by the natives and unspeakable things done to them. Guns were needed then for self-defence, and it's become an addiction. Not much more than 100 years ago, men were walking into bars and calling adversaries into the street for a gunfight, when in England, the only danger in a pub was being hit by a flying skittle. Parts of the US are still dangerous, and in many ways lawless and quite uncivilised. Large numbers of serial killers prowl the land, particularly in the South and West. There are also some pretty desperate types that come up from Mexico and the Interamericas. Men away on business often like to leave their wives with a firearm. I was reading recently that a UK journalist with liberal credentials was living in LA with his family at the time that the Night Stalker was butchering women. He bought a handgun for his wife. Never a shot fired, but there's the issue. Americans say, reduce the guns, when the dangers are reduced. They won't give them up otherwise - even though having the guns creates dangers of their own.
I think he has always wanted to do this but has chickened out because of the backlash from the huge number of idiots who want to arm the little girl so she can defend herself. Now must be the politically convenient time for Obama to get his finger out and put legislation to outlaw guns in motion.
Obama does want to do something but because the house and senate are repubulican controlled he can do nothing. A strange system....
But he can come up with detailed legislative proposals can't he? Even if they don't get through Congress now, they may in another form get through after the next election, or failing that later. I know it took years and got watered down considerably, but didn't health care go through something like that?
Jim Jeffries' take on gun laws... An Aussie living in America, do you get him in the UK? remember... he is a comedian. Contains offensive language
Although I don't own a handgun, I support the rights of my fellow Americans to have them. The accidents that occur around the house are a result of poor safety precautions. They are tragic, but avoidable. A locking gun cabinet would have prevented that child's death. The argument I would advance is; taking guns away from good people will not stop the bad people from acquiring them and using them for bad purposes. I know many very responsible gun owners who don't fit your previous (stereotypical) gun owner descriptions. Here in America, the debate rages on gun control. After consideration, my opinion is that gun ownership is not a problem. Crazy and bad people are.
QPR New York, that's a NRA argument. You have to look at all the other countries where guns are banned and see the numbers of gun deaths. In the US over 10,000 killed by guns this year so far.
