It's quite clear from some of the replies that most experiences of Americans are only what they see in the media or on their holidays, you could not be further away from the truth. Most are polite, Even the three drunk Native Americans who said to me "nice kicks there" when my friend said run they want to steal your trainers, I thought were at least polite. I think some forget that when Obama told us if we left the eu we would go to the back of the "queue" many quite rightly said, effin yank telling us what to do but we have no problem telling Americans that we are more civilised, they are more stupid so they must do as we tell them. Of course the British way of spraying acid into another's face, a machette taking an arm off or one of the many knife deaths is so much more cultured. I wouldn't mind betting given how heavy internet use is in the U.K. that we might even beat the U.S. in threats of death or killing? Just for a fairer comparison as some have offered very narrow figures targeting the U.S. I saw this link of wiki, take from it what you will but they would have used the same figure collation for all https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate List of Countries by fire arm related deaths, I believe this was 2015. Firearm-related death rate per 100,000 population per year, for the U.S. it was 10.54, Panama 15.11, Guatamala 34.10, Honduras 67.18, hell even Corbyns utopia Venezuela has 59.13 and yet rightly some will point out that these are not seen as first world country, I would point out that they have massively less populations but still manage to kill more than the U.S. per thousand of population, where is the anger towards those countries? Sometimes, much of the angst against the states is because some dislike the states but you should not confuse being angry with their government with being angry with their people. I lived their for 3 years and I found the subject of guns rarely comes up. I found most Americans more polite than Brits, more willing to be trusting, more full of get up and go rather than most Brits who do a great impression of a sloth and I do feel if you spent some times there, you might be pleasantly surprised. The right to bear arms does need a look at by Americans for Americans. It is possible to have an armed militia without them having the toys the armed forces have, there is a compromise to be had somewhere but Brits telling yanks "you must do this", I think they kicked us out sometime ago for the very same thing.
The 'Right to Bear Arms' over many years is the main problem which led to very lax gun control, leading to a glut in firearms in shops, homes and on the street, which in turn has led to extremely easy access to guns for virtually anyone in the USA. It is too easy to get one without a permit.
your right of course, the right has been replaced with don't look don't tell in a way that alcohol and cigarettes did. There is one loophole , Known as the "gun show loophole," most states do not require background checks for firearms purchased at gun shows from private individuals -- federal law only requires licensed dealers to conduct checks. ... The majority of these such states require background checks at the point of transfer for all firearms. I also remember one time looking at the Local to me craigs list (gumtree this side of the pond) and saw an advert for a man with a RV travelling from his job in the North Dakotan fracking fields back to his home in Scottsdale Arizona and his advert was he wanted to raise some cash on his way home so was selling his gun to any buyer. Crazy people go meet people with guns whilst they have money in their pocket I think as the computer social media generation come through, then guns will slowly wain, certainly the amount of hunters seems to be slowly decreasing according to my buddies normal organised hunting tours. What does seem to be happening is those with guns are buying more but in general sales to others are going down. So I suspect there will be a reduction in guns in the U.S. but more through generational change rather than laws. What also has to be remembered as well though, the U.S. is massive and within that it is not unusual to have places with many many acres and on those acres can be things that need to be shot as with any farm or small holding, just as we have in the U.K.
The trouble with the UK situation is that the firearm licences and shotgun certificates here apply to, in general, very responsible people. Unfortunately this does nothing to prevent the illegal acquisition of firearms whether 'real'; converted replicas and blank firers or re-activated de-activated guns. Neither does anything to prevent the sudden appearance of a nutter in our midst; but the controls process currently implemented, I suppose, does it's best in the 'responsible people' population.
It's costs about 50 quid to buy a gun in London. For the types of people looking to get a gun for bad sh*t it doesn't really matter what laws exist.
How many more instances of cars and lorries ploughing into crowds do we need to see before something is done about vehicular murder?
Onward to the next US mass killing and of course foreigners are not allowed to have an opinion. Even if you have family in usa... they resent each other & absolutely overflow with xenophobia of foreigners having opinions. Only succession of large swathes of the country will bring about modernized meaning to those new entities. Their problems are vast'
I'm still waiting for the Effa Bee Eye to release some useful information on the Las Vegas mass shooting. Obviously, a real report is coming. Any day now.
that's quite a short, almost veiled entry for you Rex - I can't tell if you are a "from my cold dead hands" kinda man from this. Not my business what you are but we won't ju.. sorry, correction - I won't judge you.
Freedom is the best and worst thing to have depending on where you stand on each issue. I do not think anyone mentioned the changes...70's maybe? It used to be illegal here to be insane on the street among people... So we used to just lock them away in prisons or mental institutions. Where they were routinely abused and experimented on. SO, people finally had enough of that because now that it was being exposed it would be... WAY TOO EXPENSIVE to treat them correctly... Doctors... Actual hospitals... etc etc So they changed the laws and let them loose... and since then there has been very little funding for ANY mental health issues. We could not care less what others think of our guns. Anything reported/heard/said often enough becomes the truth. Someone show me the stats for what percentage of guns in the USA have killed someone and compare that to elsewhere. We have Sooo many... it cannot be the guns can it? Self defense? Yes, I reserve the right to shoot you dead for attacking me. My kids/wife/GF etc need me to be around. Why should I let you maim or kill me? Really, why? At what point is your life and what you are doing more valuable than mine? Or do you have the ability to instantly realize that you are only going to receive a beating with a little light hospital time and the associated bills so you can decide if you want to shoulder all of that so some Asshat can get what he wants? Wait, I just figured it out... You want your wives and daughters to be raped... Its the Euro way... Right? In another thread people are going crazy to protect their bikes... but you cannot defend your loved ones that aren't motorcycles? Responsible gun owners always have them secured. Kids getting their hands on them (Un supervised) is bad. I have the legal right to defend myself by shooting you if I am in danger. In some places you have to retreat first. In others (here) we have the stand your ground law. I Do Not have the right to show you my gun to stop you. Law states you pull it, you use it or lose it. I do think we would be better off with more nudity than violence but those thoughts are even more entrenched in our society than the guns. Rex
Aaanndd another elitist ignoring their own issues... Dont they have Balls in your country? Why do you hide them? Rex
I feel all a fluster, I'm elite, how excellent is that??? you mentioned crickets, I gave you one cricket
Didnt they tell you? You should have received a second Cricket at that time too. All the Elite can afford more than one... That way when someone refers to hearing crickets the elite can chuckle and smile to themselves... "Ahh, that's us the Elite at work" Rex
