gun control

Schraf,What do you expect from a cowboy culture? Are you going to try and ban spears in Africa next?Guns are made solely for killing. Homicide is a crime, ownership is not and shouldn't be. So let's say you and the rest of the anti-gun simpletons succeed in banning firearms and the following situation occurs:A knife wielding meth head breaks into my house in the middle of the night. I get up out of bed to investigate a noise downstairs. The knife wielding meth head and I engage in hand to hand combat. I put up a struggle but he is able to over power me pretty quick. I get gutted and left to rot. The burglar goes upstairs and stabs my five year old to death in his sleep. He proceeds to my wife's bedroom where he rapes her at knife point for 5 hours and finally slits her throat.Just another knife statistic I suppose.Why don't you move to the UK and stop trying to destroy core American values.I'm willing to bet you are anti-gun and pro-choice.*edited for spelling*[This message has been edited by jdean33442, 02-27-2003]

quote:

---

Perhaps I need to expand a little on my message #3 in which I cited the comparative homicide statistics for US and Australia so as to point out the bloody obvious.
Americans and Australians have close cultural affinities. They have comparable social and economic systems. They show similar rates of homicide using weapons such as knives, blunt instruments, by hand etc. However the glaring anomoly is that the rate of homicide by firearms in the US is 10 times that in Australia.

---

The US population is 90+ million greater than Australia's. Similar if you exclude math from the equation I guess. What is the homicide by boomerang or poisoned tip blow dart statistics there?

quote:

---

Not so co-incidentally, gun controls are much tighter in Australia than the US. Ownership of military type weapons is banned. Owners and users of handguns and firearms are required to go through a licensing process. There is a cooling off period for any purchase of a firearm. Firearm owners are required to store their firearms in approved containers.

---

I woulnd't want firearms readily available to a population of ex-convicts either.

quote:

---

Firearms are the preferred weapon by military forces for arming their ground troops? Could this be because they offer the greatest effectiveness with the least risk to the user? Surely this make them also the most effective means of committing homicide.

---

Of course they are the weapon of choice. Guns are produced solely for killing. Not a hard concept. Not an evil one either.

quote:

---

I don't know if it is too late for America but it should at least recognise methods whcih operate elsewhere which have prevented those countries from following the American trend.

---

Too late? The firearm gave birth to American society as we know it. Americans should not forsake their heritage but instead embrace the right to bear arms.Here is another bloody obvious tip: Don't pull facts out of your ass if you're going to write an arrogant post.

quote:

---

So the US shoul ban firearms in the state of Georgia, since it started as a penal colony too. Makes perfect sense

---

The Georgian accent is enough excuse to ban firearms there.

quote:

---

Australia's population is about 20,000,000, US population is 290,000,000. Mathematics isn't your strong point, is it jdean. Of course the relevent fact is that I was referring to homicide RATES, not total numbers. Rates such as 3 firearm homicides per 1,000,000 population for Australia and 41 per 1,000,000 population for the US.

---

It was late and I obviously wasn't paying attention to detail. I am with fault and without apology, however, the math holds true. Hence the plus sign. Where did you get this information? I will have to assume a passing kangeroo handed you a flyer with these statistics until otherwise proven wrong.

quote:

---

Would the characterisation of Americans as being build by slaves and slaveowners be a suitable one?

---

Absolutely.

quote:

---

It seems a pity that American society cannot grow out of its toys. Heritage is something to be acknowleded, not blindly followed. And I think there is some debate in the US on the "right" to bear arms.

---

No the realy pity is Americans allowing non-citizens, such as yourself, dictate our laws. Perhaps the US should change it's name to New Europe and adopt all of your silly socialist values.

quote:

---

Those core values being that we have a right to shoot people for taking our parking spots!

​

We have a right to want to engage in shoot-outs in the street!

​

We have a right to be able to brandish firearms when we argue with out neighbors!

​

And, most importantly, we have the right of the weak and ineffectual to inflict their will upon others!

​

THAT is the American way!

---

A right to bear arms and the decision to use those arms in an illegal manner is unrelated. I would hope an educated person such as yourself would be able to differentiate between right and choice.[This message has been edited by jdean33442, 03-03-2003]

quote:

---

Yes, I can do so. Many, unfortunately, do not seem to be able to. They are the ones that worry me.
Of course, bearing the arms in the first place sure makes it tempting for some to use them in the manner that they were, after all, intended.

---

So you believe gun control laws should be imposed because a very small minority use guns illegally?Sorry, too Orwellian for me.

quote:

---

Hears a novel thought... How about we hold the criminals responsible for theft and illegal use of the weapon rather then punish the law abiding individuals that choose to arm themselves in order to fend of the multitudes of repeat offenders that our court system releases every day?

---

Quite novel indeed. The crackpots trying to ban firearms are the same who allow criminals to reign free.