http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5401478.stm I dont live in america or recieve american news so was wondering what reasons people are giving for guns in america to be as available as they are - is the freedom to shoot people you dont like something all administrations of the white house going to follow blindly? Clearly it shouldn't be that 3 schools in 1 week are being reported as having gun related crimes under their roofs.
It won't solve all the gun crime, but simply changing the law so people can't simply walk into a store and buy a gun/s and take them home will cut gun crime in half. Make it illegal for anyone to carry a concealed weapon, and you half it again.
Most of the people that actually carry out the shootings probably just bought the Ammo, the weapons were stolen from family members, or the black market. What are you going todo search every single person? The problem is that the schools that have been struck did not have the protection that (I believe) is in a lot of the "lower" section of the schooling system. I.e. they are in the "We are a good school, it won't happen to us" mode. They need to start thinking that it could happen to them and take steps to prevent it, such as metal detectors when people goto school. It will increase the time it takes for students to come in, but how much value can you place on a human life? Never mind hundreds.
If the family member had not been unable to buy the gun in the first place, then there would have been no gun to use. There will always be a black market, can't do much about that. Well yeah, if you suspect them of carrying a gun, they do it over here for knifes. And bollocks to added protection, the first level of protection is getting rid of the guns.
Most other countries of the world dont need metal detectors on the way into their schools though, just America. You'd have thought someone might realise that the gun is the problem not the kid or the lack of metal detectors or whatever. If the kid's mum or dad didn't have a gun they'd probably go back to self-harm or bullying or some other fantastic way of relieving stress.
You can't stop someone from buying a gun if their references check out. The problem resides with the person who owns the gun legally not taking responsibility. If they start to prosecute gun owners for crimes that their weapons have been involved in, it would quickly make people take responsibility. The main source which I see of most of the worlds problems is that people are not taking responsibility for their actions, it can go from a small scale, i.e. a person owns a gun, its not secured, its stolen and used in an armed robbery. To the massive scale, such as governments putting money into training for others and then not realising that it may come back and bite them on the arse. Pick any country you want for this example.
A relative (of sorts) of mine is quite keen on his guns. Although raised in rural Tennessee/Virginia and a voting Republican, he's quite a reasonable and open-minded individual. He's fairly moderate on most things, he's a bit on an anglophile (likes mild and yorkshire pud etc), and fairly outward looking (he's been abroad and knows where Belgium is). But he does like his guns. He'll quietly and calmly argue the case with you... he knows what damage guns can do, but he reckons the problem is the person with the gun and not the gun itself. I can agree with that. But he refuses to take the next logical step, and accept the only solution is to restrict the availabilty of guns. He thinks it's something rather darwinian to allow anyone (virtually) to own a gun. Ironically, it puts America in the same boat as much of the developing world where guns are a way of life - every household has one - though the US can't really argue that they are/were in the middle of a warzone. I'm really here to bash the US, but what has to happen before it gets acknowledged as a problem. Anyway, thats six responses so far - all from Brits. Desnt anyone from across the pond (or elsewhere) have an opinion? CJM
A colleague of mine just mentioned a good point. When he went to the US, he was in a superstore type place. And found the gun section right next to the kids section. He was looking at the weapons, as you do, and a bright and friendly staff member approached him and said "Ah do you want to buy a shotgun sir? Excellent choice". When he pointed out he lives in the UK, the assistant promptly chirped "Do you want to take one out and get a feel for it, I'm sure they'll let you take it home?". Which he did. And remarked how easy it was that he was in a toy section, had a shotgun and there was ammo on the counter.
that really has left me dumbfounded, test drive a gun, what sort of crazy person just lets you take a gun out and walk about with it, im sure it wouldnt have been a huge hassle to get hold of ammo, or bring your own then kill everyone in the store. it's all the fault of doom anyway so i dont know what the fuss is.
There certainly needsto be tighter regulation of what types of weaponsand ammunition are sold, how their soldand who their sold to. A large chunk of the weapons sold in the US should not be in civillian hands. the only weapons the average joe should be able to buy should be low powered airguns for target practice. You should have to pass a qualification for a hunting licence which would allow restricted use of hunting rifles - but the ammunition should be tightly controlled. Theres no need for handguns, semi or full automatics,or shotguns to be sold to the public. The weapons already out there should be taken back under an amnesty.
The data is based on the number of deaths per 100,000 for each country. In the US you are 34 times more likely to be killed by someone using a gun than in the UK. I would tend to believe that the ease of access to guns in the US is to blame for that statistic.
But what of Canada and Switzerland (and maybe Israel actually), who have a higher ratio of guns per citizen than the United States, yet significantly lower homicide rates?
Again, much higher death rates than that of the UK, especially suicide (for some odd reason). Agreed that the availability is not the sole reason for the number of shootings, but the cavalier attitude towards them contributes greatly, so for the sake of the American population, remove the tool that enables them to do so much damage.
Exactly, plenty of countries have lax gun laws, maybe not as lax as the US, but murders with assault rifles and LMG's aren't exactly common even stateside. The gun problem isn't related to guns, it's related to the US. And yoda, canada has a gun death rate of like 70 people a year, the UK has over 100 IIRC, ok if you balance that for populations the canadian one is a few dozen higher, but they have a country full of guns, we have a country mostly empty of them, the idea that more guns = the same ammount more gun murder just isn't correct. A marginal increase maybe, but that's it, apart from the US. It lets the people protect themselves from tryanny, an example you hear reasonably often from rednecks is that if they jews had been armed as highly as modern redneck america is the holocaust would have never happened. Maybe an exxageration, but it gets the point across. The people shouldn't just be allowed to have weaponry, they should be encouraged to be good with it, and to always be able to protect themselves.
Canada has gun related homicide rate some 5 times that of the UK based on population, and some 10 times the gun related suicide rate. No where near that of the US, but it is still substantial enough to draw a quick conclusion that the number of guns in circulation is relative to the number of gun related deaths.
It wouldnt be the longest or most difficult thesis to write, would it? More guns = more deaths. Fin. I've lived in some places in the UK where the natives would kill you as soon as look at you, but it's not so bad if you get assaulted with a pork pie or a Burberry cap... Now if the neds down Ormsgill Road were tooled up, it would be a different story... I wonder what the figures for Nottingham are like?
You got a source for that dude? I'd be intrested to see. I'm not sure we should count suicide as a valid addition to the arguement for banning guns, if people wanna kill themselves that's their choice, if they really wanna do it(which they obviously do if they're using a gun) then they're not gonna get stopped by something as small as needing a different tool are they? Canadas gun death rate is miniscule compared to the US though, there definately isn't the same correlation between guns and murders that you can see in the US. I mean, the US has something like 11,000 gun murders a year, canada has under around that 70 mark IIRC, even balancing for population, it's obvious that the US has a unique gun problem.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/issues/?page=waitxstate Read up a bit. Um, it IS illegal to carry a concealed weapon unless you have a concealed weapons permit. You're always going to have psychotic people who go and kill a handfull of people. It just seems alot worse then it did, say 20 years ago, because of just how fast news can spread things to the internet and mass media outlets.
