Gun control

[craigiri]

Let me guess the majority of those that believe gun laws dont help are all americans?

pfft *walks out of thread*

I'm American - born and breed. Wouldn't hurt a fly and am not arming up for anything.

 

[Vicky]

I'm American - born and breed. Wouldn't hurt a fly and am not arming up for anything.

Trouble is majority of the American population wouldnt harm anyone in any situation however there are those people that have mental instabilities that would. All it took was for one such said individual here in Australia whom killed 38 innocent people (a family was killed that lived down the street from me whose kids went to the same school as mine do) for the government to act and make the decision that something had to be done.

Many were outraged. Many had to give in their firearms however they learned to live with it. Nothing like that has ever occurred again. Sorry to say this but I wasnt surprised at all that this happened it was just a matter of time. It hurts me though because my children are of the age those kids killed. I cannot imagine what they are feeling and going through.

 

[DRE]

All this stuff proves nothing at all.

We are discussing the results over a population of 310 million people. I lived in a town of 25,000 for 25 years and there was not a single murder there.....other than a family affair. The lack of guns....had absolutely nothing to do with the safety, as would arming up have had nothing to do with it.

When you want to work out stats like this, you'd have to compare to entire other countries or populations where gun ownership and gun culture was less crazy - for instance, Canada or Germany or even Europe as a whole. My guess, off the cuff, is that their lack of arms results in a reduction of more than 90% in the murder rates.....

Check it and see what you find.

"In the US, there are roughly 17,000 murders a year, of which about 15,000 are committed with firearms. By contrast, Britain, Australia and Canada combined see fewer than 350 gun-related murders each year"

So, 15,000 to 350......even adjusting for population, that seems as if it is a rate well over 10X higher.

So, give me the summary. Which is safer, an armed society or an lesser armed one?

Since we're talking about stats, lets throw in our education system in the ring since the core of America's problems begins there.

 

[Digital Doctor]

That's weird.
I don't know even one person, let alone a mother, who has guns like this.
The idea the Bushmaster rifle can even be registered is "beyond any reason".

I know everyone thinks guns will keep them safe.
I guess what happened to Nancy Lanza was just an exception. People almost never get killed by their own gun.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Among them was Karl Swarts, 29, of Washington, who voted for Obama twice, and said he’s disappointed by the president’s reluctance to pressure Congress for stricter gun control. He said he was pessimistic that any action will come, saying “the gun lobby is too powerful” and for lawmakers. “It’s one of those things where you fear alienating your constituents by even bringing it up.”

“If 20 kids at a school killed senselessly doesn't change anything, I don’t know what will,” Swarts said. [source]

 

[whynot]

I don't know even one person, let alone a mother, who has guns like this.

Nice toys. She needed them for self defence.

 

[BGL]

What exactly do gun laws accomplish? We have murder laws, too. Doesn't stop those who break them.

Gun regulations cut gun violence as the evidence of other developed nations demonstrate.

 

[BGL]

Notice that there is never one of the gun carrying advocates at any of the mass shootings? It is the main fantasy of the gun nuts and gun lobby that lives off them but they never show up.

The only person that shows up in the gun nut killer.

 

[BGL]

WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO BECOME A PERSONAL AGENDA!
It's a tragic occurrence. Leave it at that.

It's a preventable tragic occurrence as the stats on gun violence demonstrate.

 

[Sadik B]

People kill people, guns don't. Gun control will not stop criminals from getting guns but...

It will make it very difficult for nut cases to get guns. Remember these people who snap aren't seasoned criminals. It might not prevent every such incidents, but it will prevent many. A single life saved, is worth it...

If these snapped people cannot get guns, they may get knives or an axe, but hey then people like you and me can overpower them. I understand and support the idea of personal responsibility, but a compromise many times should be made. My idea of personal responsibility is that a person should be left to himself as long as he cannot do something to harm others. With Drugs, Marijuana, I can possibly kill myself, but with guns you put innocents in harms way.

It's a similar idea to alcohol and smoking. I don't drink or smoke. But if someone is drinking next to me, I won't say anything to them, cos it doesn't affect me. But if someone smokes next to me, throwing smoke at my face, I am gonna ask him to move away.

 

[Slavik]

Regardless of whos or whats to blame, the fact remains that if weapons are easily accessable, they are more likely to be used in any crime. Be it spur of the moment psyco or hardened criminal.

 

[AdamD]

If it's not guns, it's knives, if it's not knives, it'll be baseball bats, if not them, it'll be an improvised weapon.

I personally sleep a lot better at night knowing my brother in the US, has a couple of handguns to protect himself and his fiance (my sister-in-law).

 

[Brad L]

Guns have been common in the US since its inception. Why is this so much more of a problem today than in past generations? I think today's culture has a lot to do with it. When I was a kid I'd see the occasional adult ranting about violence in video games and movies. I thought they were crazy, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[steven s]

It's a preventable tragic occurrence as the stats on gun violence demonstrate.

My post was split from a tragic thread and is no longer relevant to this one.
Violence goes much deeper than just gun control.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

View attachment 38131

I guess we don't need facts anymore DD??

The handguns were the only thing used to kill people yesterday.

 

[TNCclubman]

if you take away guns from people who own them responsibly, the only ones who will have them are criminals and trust me they will get them...and now that they know you don't have one...you are an even easier and more likely target.

This is why americans will never give up their guns and will always lead the world in murders and mass killings. They believe in this like they live in a bubble and dont see the rest of the world with less guns have less problems. Then again, they think the're the center of the universe so it doesnt suprise me. By americans I mean Republicans. Democrats, I feel bad for you living around those hicks.

In canada, our nutjobs run around and curse at people. If they had a closet full of their dads guns that he stashes to protect himself from nutjobs like their son, he'd use it to go on a rampage like what happened in Connecticut.

 

[TNCclubman]

and to add, where was any of the gun toting "we need guns to prevent mass murderers from happening" yesterday??? Thats right, having guns to stop guys with guns is a myth. Leave guns for the cops. Anyone else using a gun automatic 10 years in jail.

 

[craigiri]

It is pretty simple.. The cat is out of the bag. 300 million firearms in America. That means many mentally people, violent people, uneducated people, desperate people, etc. own them....

The result is just a game of odds from there.

It's unlikely to change until the body count goes higher, which it is likely to. In the USA, the solution to violence is usually assumed to be MORE violence. That is, the gun advocates will tell you that if mom and all the other teachers were packing, it wouldn't have been as bad.

IMHO, that's a fantasy world.

However, statistics do mean something. The book freakonomics mentions a scenario:

Molly is 7 years and wants to go visit her friend. But the friends parents have quite a few guns and are bona-fide NRA members. So Amy's parent say no.....and instead she goes over her other friends house.

They feel good about their decision because there are no guns at the other house (but there is a backyard pool). But it's not so:

"But according to the data, their choice isn’t smart at all. In a given year, there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States. (In a country with 6 million pools, this means that roughly 550 children under the age of ten drown each year.) Meanwhile, there is 1 child killed by a gun for every 1 million-plus guns. (In a country with an estimated 200 million guns, this means that roughly 175 children under ten die each year from guns.) The likelihood of death by pool (1 in 11,000) versus death by gun (1 in 1 million-plus) isn’t even close: Molly is roughly 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident at Imani’s house than in gunplay at Amy’s."

 

[jmurrayhead]

Well, I'm leaving this conversation to the wolves. You have those that are too far on one side and those that are too far on the other side - very few of us in the middle. Then you have those who come across threads like this and find another opportunity to hate on America, likely fueled by misconceptions and lies from their media outlets. There's just no winning in threads like this. Anyway, I recently decided to go back to school to obtain another degree, so I'm going to spend my time studying instead of arguing with people who are too close-minded to have an actual discussion with.

Enjoy.

 

[signal500]

I guess we don't need facts anymore DD??

The handguns were the only thing used to kill people yesterday.

Who needs facts when trying to use tragedies to shove personal beliefs down everyone else's throats...