Political discussion thread

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

 Gamemako wrote:

I'd also like to point out two things
which micky so eloquently noted. First, guns do make it easier for
people (especially women) to commit murder.

Shakespeare makes an
awesome point because of things noted previously. First, most murders
in the United States are not committed by registered firearms. So you'd
literally be bringing a knife to a gunfight. Second, a 55-kilo 155cm
female can't defend herself with a knife from an assailant who weighs
in at 90 kilo and 190cm. It doesn't work too well.

http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page27.asp

That
said, the vast majority of non-crime-related (gangs, drug dealing, et
cetera) homicides as well as rapes are committed by acquaintances or
family of the victim.

Some Brit will have to tell whether tasers are legal there, but there are so many pushes to ban all other kinds of nonlethal less-lethal weaponry, I'd be surprised to see them legal. Fear effects weapon policy.

Oh,
the other thing micky noted? Nobody here is going to be convinced of
anything but the way they live now. I grew up with guns -- my father
was a naval captain -- and I've lived around guns my entire life. In
the 'States, I go target shooting every once in a while for fun. I
don't fear them: I've yet to lose a friend to a gun, but I've seen
several fall to alcohol and cars. But that's not going to lead me to
seek prohibition and mandatory public transport. Not to be
condescending (as it will inexorably sound), but I won't let fear
dictate my beliefs. And so, I certainly won't support banning guns.
Others grew up in an area where firearms were verboten, and would
certainly not ever consider what it would mean to have them otherwise
(an illogical fear of what could be from my viewpoint, and a logical
conclusion from theirs). We're all products of our respective
environments.

that we are....I grew up with them as well... i don't fear them
either.. just hate them. My reasons are personal for that.  I'll
never touch another weapon again... but that said...  guns are
simply too ingrained in our culture to realistically talk of removing
them.  There is simply no way to remove them, which I would be all
for in a perfect world, but a little thing called reality
creeps in.  We can't, not  without the country becoming even
more of police state... call it a malignant police state.. rather than
the benign one it has become. The 'right' to own as many guns as we can
afford is ingrained in our heritage.   As I like to say on other
more controversial political questions  .. 
you can't legislate morality... and you can't legislate out  the
propensity to violence that has been a defining characteristic of
America since it was founded.  Sure taking the guns away would
drop the murder rate... anyone is a fool if they think
otherwise... but at what cost. The freedoms that are still left to us
after nearly 8 years of fear mongering and subtle stripping away of our
rights.   Americans love guns... idolize violence.. from games we
play as kids.... to the movies we watch as we grow older.  It is
just the way things are.. and will always be. Anyhow.. just rambling....