Off Topic Politics Thread

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i had a girlfriend that won the golden arrow at Nottingham with the longbow, we lived in a quiet village in Leicestershire. she kept her longbow and training bow with arrows hanging on wall just in case. having seen her shoot, i think i would prefer to be faced by some scumbag with a hand gun, rather than a pissed off woman holding a longbow
 
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Puck said:
Yeah, as Jim Jeffries has pointed out the clue is in the name. The right to bear arms is in the Second Amendment and there’s no reason another Amendment couldn’t be made changing that. The UK’s Bill of Rights 1689 (which the US Bill of Rights is based on) included a right to bear arms, which was amended in 1920 when the words along the lines of “as permitted by law” were added.
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Don't even need to go half that far back. After the assassination of Kennedy, a ban was placed on mail-order weapons. After the Black Panthers took to patrolling with firearms, Reagan (as governor of California) passed a ban on open carrying weapons in populated areas. George HW Bush got a ban on the importation of semi-auto rifles, and Clinton got a ban on some classes of assault rifles (including the stock AR-15, which is the weapon of choice for spree killers). All were accepted as constitutional then, and likely would still be constitutional despite the much broader application of the Second Amendment currently in vogue.

It's not a constitutional problem in the US; it's a political one. And yeah, part of the political problem is that the current arbiters of constitutionality are much more activist conservative than has been the case for much of American history. But for more than two hundred years, it was acknowledged that jurisdictions, from local to federal, had the right to limit possession and carry of firearms. It's only the last couple decades where the near-unlimited right to possess and wield guns has been proffered as the original intend of the framers, and that coincides with the coopting of the NRA as the (well-funded) lobbying wing of the gun manufacturers.
 
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VocalMinority said:
You know we have gun ranges in the UK?

We have 3m licenced firearms in the uk, enough for 1 in 20 people to legally own one. The main difference is you have to prove you have an actual requirement to own one and a fit to do so.

Honestly, I think it's a mentality thing. In the UK we think of guns as dangerous weapons we don't want near us whereas in the US, I believe, it's often taught theyre just tools that every person should own to 'stand their ground' and protect their constitution. Obviously not the same on every place but where they are prolific?

I just think Americans as a whole need to be taught to respect guns more and enforcing gun controls is a step towards that.
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The only badge I got in the Scouts (I am a lazy fecker) was "master at arms." Got at Poacher (the international scout camping weekend) when it was held on the Lincolnshire Showground in the late eighties.

Had to shoot an air rifle 10 times at the target (scored 99/100) and then answer some questions about guns. One and only time I have actually held let alone fired a gun. Good buzz for that 10 minutes. Never felt the need to do it again.

A couple of friends are into Clay Pigeon shooting. One of them is pretty vocal online and campaigning about gun restrictions.
 
VocalMinority said:
You know we have gun ranges in the UK?

We have 3m licenced firearms in the uk, enough for 1 in 20 people to legally own one. The main difference is you have to prove you have an actual requirement to own one and a fit to do so.

Honestly, I think it's a mentality thing. In the UK we think of guns as dangerous weapons we don't want near us whereas in the US, I believe, it's often taught theyre just tools that every person should own to 'stand their ground' and protect their constitution. Obviously not the same on every place but where they are prolific?

I just think Americans as a whole need to be taught to respect guns more and enforcing gun controls is a step towards that.
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There is a range in the grounds where I work. I use my Dad's old BSA 22 air rifle when I want to let off some steam at lunchtime.
I, and others, do get the odd double-take walking through the car park wearing a rifle holster.
 
There are several pubs in the Devizes area that still have shooting ranges - I was in a team for a while competing in a league. We used 22 rim fire rifles, and would shoot down the length of a 2' diameter tube with a target at the far end. It was pretty tricky because the target was a steel plate with a hole in it not much bigger than the size of the round, and only counted if it went through the hole...there was a remote mechanism that allowed you to wipe a roller over the plate which coated it with whitewash so that the hole stood out and near misses could be seen.
Shooting can be great fun but it needs tight regulation
 
It is fun shooting at a range, but for about 10 minutes or so. I can not understand Americans going to the range each weekend and spending the day shooting their 17 guns. When I was a kid I was in the cadets and got my marksman ranking on a Lee Enfield 303, 5 rounds in a 10 inch group at 500 metres with basic iron sights, these days I would not even see the target
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43149694

Trump wants teachers to carry guns..........great more bullets flying about. I wonder how many teachers will resign if this happens. It seems like the NRA run the US not the democratically elected politicians. How many of them have received 'funds' from the NRA? £30m for Trump apparently. 18 school shootings by 14th Feb for 2018 and still nothing gets done.

I'm really hoping that the students manage to band together and through mass peaceful protest force the politicians to make some radical changes.
 
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Whiteley Saint said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43149694

Trump wants teachers to carry guns..........great more bullets flying about. I wonder how many teachers will resign if this happens. It seems like the NRA run the US not the democratically elected politicians. How many of them have received 'funds' from the NRA? £30m for Trump apparently. 18 school shootings by 14th Feb for 2018 and still nothing gets done.

I'm really hoping that the students manage to band together and through mass peaceful protest force the politicians to make some radical changes.
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If IS wants to destroy America, all they have to do is open a few more gun shops and let them legally do it for themselves!
 
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Saints_Alive said:
I really think that gun control could be Trump's poll tax, he is bound to lose a fair amount of his support over this IMO, I don't believe that over 50% of Americans want guns after this.
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I don’t think so. These mass shootings happen nearly every year at a school or night club. A large group of people live in so much fear (most of it put in their heads by people like Trump and the NRA) they want more guns not less. They fear the terrorists are just outside their door and need an AR-15 to make sure they don’t get in.
 
MIsaints said:
I don’t think so. These mass shootings happen nearly every year at a school or night club. A large group of people live in so much fear (most of it put in their heads by people like Trump and the NRA) they want more guns not less. They fear the terrorists are just outside their door and need an AR-15 to make sure they don’t get in.
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Yeah, the British and American attitudes to guns are so different it’s crazy. All too often we simply don’t understand the other group’s view at all.
 
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Whiteley Saint said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43149694

Trump wants teachers to carry guns..........great more bullets flying about. I wonder how many teachers will resign if this happens. It seems like the NRA run the US not the democratically elected politicians. How many of them have received 'funds' from the NRA? £30m for Trump apparently. 18 school shootings by 14th Feb for 2018 and still nothing gets done.

I'm really hoping that the students manage to band together and through mass peaceful protest force the politicians to make some radical changes.
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“18 school shootings by 14th Feb for 2018”

When I read this statement, a few days ago, I thought it was a misprint, but it appears not.
Shocking.
 
What gets me(even more than all the other stuff) is that he says the threat of death will stop these people when many of them go in with the intention of shooting themselves at the end of it. <doh>
 
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MIsaints said:
I don’t think so. These mass shootings happen nearly every year at a school or night club. A large group of people live in so much fear (most of it put in their heads by people like Trump and the NRA) they want more guns not less. They fear the terrorists are just outside their door and need an AR-15 to make sure they don’t get in.
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What a sick, sick country....:emoticon-0145-shake
 
St Badger said:
“18 school shootings by 14th Feb for 2018”

When I read this statement, a few days ago, I thought it was a misprint, but it appears not.
Shocking.
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although the number is correct, it s a bit misleading. the number includes several cases of suicide on school grounds but not students and after school has finished, suicide or accidental shooting like the idiot today, several cases where windows were shot at by people in passing cars, someone shooting a air rifle at a school bus and some university students letting off a gun whilst pissed
 
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