Change Your Gun Laws, America

[maxwel]

Caveat:
I'm not calling Angela a liberal.
I think Angela is just in here yelling about gun-control because she's sick of Americans acting superior and talking so much trash about other countries.

So... how about we just knock it off?

 

[jennymae]

Yes, actually, you should. Drink-driving is heavily penalized where I live. It's a serious, serious taboo, and the jail terms are extreme for those people who kill somebody while drink driving. Putting people into jail, is taking their liberty, and I think it's the correct thing. Drink drivers should be prosecuted and have their liberty taken away. They're unfit to drive, and they endanger all people around them.

The same with guns. We have some of the strictest controls in the world (just having a gun without a license carries an automatic 6 month sentence, and any aggravating factors mean that sentence can be up to 7 years), and our violent crime rates are a lot better than the US.

Yes, a lot of European countries have a strict gun legislation, except from Scandinavia, in particular Finland and Norway. Why be this the case? Why do European countries need a strict gun legislation? I think we need to have a closer look at the European societies before we can say anything on the matter. Most European countries are centralized. State rights are not like in the US, and legislation is solely a matter for central authorities. If Gov says to put a ban on guns, then there will be a ban on guns. Simple as that. Now, the next question should be; why would Gov put a ban on guns? Nobody is putting a ban on anything just for the sake of it. Well, the answer is not a very pleasant one. Europe has always been a great admirer of of controlling people. Keep in mind, the folks who emigrated to America, were often people that didn't want to submit to that. If people are free to bear arms, control will be difficult. I think this a part of the anti gun agenda.

Why be this not the case in Scandinavia? I think this is because the Scandinavian countries are rural societies, where guns have always been a natural part of everyday life. Buying a gun in i.e. Norway dont require much effort, and a lot of people owns several guns. Another reason is that Norwegians dont trust central authorities much, and there's always a lot of nagging between central and rural parts.

My impression is that the European way is coming to the US these days...

 

[Angela53510]

I'm just not getting why some people think America is the only free country! We are a democracy, and part of our value system includes caring for the less fortunate. And caring for the less fortunate has a lot of implications. Like curbing violent gun deaths by not allowing guns. Like letting the police take care of the criminals, sometimes to the detriment of the police! As Canadians, we have no wish to bring back mass access to guns. We live in the 21st century, not the 18th! As for hunters, no one has taken away their rights to hunt. Except the are required to get a license for the gun and for hunting and obey provincial laws with regards to hunting seasons and property laws.

We we have the freedom to live without being killed by gunshot! It doesn't get much better than that!

But I think Max has a very important point about abortion. We do not protect our unborn in Canada any more than Americans do! And what a holocaust! Perhaps as Christians, this is a much more important cause, (if we need a cause) to be fighting. Sort of like we are being more upset over the art the Nazis stole, than the Holocaust!

We do need to get our priorities right with regards to stopping abortions, which affect the hidden innocent in numbers too large to contemplate!

 

[Mitspa]

I'm just not getting why some people think America is the only free country! We are a democracy, and part of our value system includes caring for the less fortunate. And caring for the less fortunate has a lot of implications. Like curbing violent gun deaths by not allowing guns. Like letting the police take care of the criminals, sometimes to the detriment of the police! As Canadians, we have no wish to bring back mass access to guns. We live in the 21st century, not the 18th! As for hunters, no one has taken away their rights to hunt. Except the are required to get a license for the gun and for hunting and obey provincial laws with regards to hunting seasons and property laws.

We we have the freedom to live without being killed by gunshot! It doesn't get much better than that!

But I think Max has a very important point about abortion. We do not protect our unborn in Canada any more than Americans do! And what a holocaust! Perhaps as Christians, this is a much more important cause, (if we need a cause) to be fighting. Sort of like we are being more upset over the art the Nazis stole, than the Holocaust!

We do need to get our priorities right with regards to stopping abortions, which affect the hidden innocent in numbers too large to contemplate!

No your not a free country...a free country has citizens with guns.

 

[Stravinsk]

I've been saving this article for a rainy day. It was posted by a friend of mine on FB, who is an American Christian. It is written by an American, and published by an American magazine, although probably too left wing for some of the right wing extremists in this forum.

But hey! Maybe it is time to look at a different side of this issue.

"Since 9/11, the United States has responded aggressively to the danger of terrorism, taking extraordinary measures, invading two countries, launching military operations in many others, and spending more than $800 billion on homeland security. Americans have accepted an unprecedented expansion of government powers and invasions of their privacy to prevent such attacks. Since 9/11, 74 people have been killed in the United States by terrorists, according to the think tank New America. In that same period, more than 150,000 Americans have been killed in gun homicides, and we have done . . .nothing.

Our attitude seems to be one of fatalism. Another day, another mass shooting. Which is almost literally true. The Web site shootingtracker.com documents that in the first 207 days of 2015, the nation had 207 mass shootings. After one of these takes place now, everyone goes through a ritual of shock and horror, and then moves on, aware that nothing will change, accepting that this is just one of those quirks of American life. But it is 150,000 deaths. Almost three Vietnams.

After last week’s incident in Lafayette, La., the governor of the state and Republican presidential candidate, Bobby Jindal, pointed his finger at what has now become the standard explanation for these events: “Look, every time this happens, it seems like the person has a history of mental illness.”

But it makes little sense to focus on mental health. The United States has a gun homicide rate that is at least a dozen times higher than those of most other industrialized countries. It is 50 times higher than Germany’s, for instance. We don’t have 50 times as many mentally disturbed people as Germany does — but we do have many, many more guns.

At least we have stopped blaming gun violence on video games. Perhaps someone noticed that other countries have lots of violence in their pop culture but don’t have this tsunami of gun deaths. Japan, for example, is consumed by macabre video games and other forms of gory entertainment. In 2008, Japan had just 11 gun homicides. Eleven. Why? Hint: It has very tough gun-control laws.
We have become so inured to the catastrophic levels of violence in our cities that we gloss over them. People often ask me if I think it’s safe for them to travel to countries such as Egypt or Morocco. The reality is that many major U.S. cities have homicide rates that are many times higher than those in places such as Cairo or Casablanca. (And it’s worth noting that non-Islamic terrorists — as in Charleston, S.C. — have killed almost twice as many people as jihadis have in the United States since 9/11.)

It is not an act of fate that has caused 150,000 Americans to die over the past 14 years. It is a product of laws, court decisions, lobbying and pandering politicians. We can change it."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-give-up-the-fight-to-reduce-us-gun-violence/2015/07/30/5c7b375e-36e8-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html

It never ceases to amaze me why some people seem to think that violence committed with a firearm is somehow worse than violence committed with something else. The assumption seems to be that getting rid of firearms, or trying to with laws will automatically reduce violence in any nation.

It also never ceases to amaze me that some people think that by merely enacting a law against something will force the compliance of the masses. Under Australian law, the average citizen cannot own a gun here except for sporting/hunting purposes, and with a special license. That doesn't mean people don't own them illegally anyway, or that crimes don't happen with them.

At the place I currently work, one of the employees was held up by someone with a crossbow (not legal either). How is this less bad than a firearm?

 

[Desdichado]

America is certainly not the only free country. America has fallen behind in many key ways, especially in regards to economic and entrepreneurial liberties.

But, as the late Charlton Heston said:

"Every time our country stands in the path of danger, an instinct seems to summon her finest first — those who truly understand her.

"When freedom shivers in the cold shadow of true peril, it's always the patriots who first hear the call.

"When loss of liberty is looming, as it is now, the siren sounds first in the hearts of freedom's vanguard. The smoke in the air of our Concord bridges and Pearl Harbors is always smelled first by the farmers, who come from their simple homes to find the fire, and fight, because they know that sacred stuff resides in that wooden stock and blued steel -- something that gives the most common man the most uncommon of freedoms.

"When ordinary hands can possess such an extraordinary instrument, that symbolizes the full measure of human dignity and liberty. That's why those five words issue an irresistible call to us all, and we muster. So -- so, as, ah, we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed -- and especially for you, Mister Gore: From my cold dead hands!"