Wow! So, just as unfaithful lovers assume their lover is also unfaithful, and as Republicans assume Democrats also lie and cheat, so Americans obsessed with guns assume the rest of us are obsessed with weapons, just different weapons than guns? Wow!
FTR, I’ve never owned, used or practiced with a knife weapon, nor to my knowledge have any of my non-criminal acquaintances. As I’ve already implied, a gun would be my home-defense weapon of choice. (It does, however, seem obvious that knives would be preferable to guns for society in several ways.)
“struck by his/her obsession with knives” – Wow! Just wow.
Did I say “on the the increase”? I implied it was at a disastrous level compared to the rest of the civilized world.
You mean the statement that “This decline in gun violence is part of an overall decline in violent crime”? The overall decline in crime in recent decades is well known to everyone who studies these issues. So is the extraordinary comparative rate of gun violence in the US compared to other developed countries in the world. The statistics are nothing short of mind-boggling.
I own a gun for self defense, and don’t know how I feel about it. I don’t want to kill anyone, even if they break into my apartment. If someone breaks into my apartment the odds are that it is stupid teenagers or a drug addict more than a sociopathic gang member. I don’t mind wounding someone who breaks in, but wouldn’t want to kill anyone.
So I don’t know where I stand personally on guns for self defense. I have several less lethal self defense weapons too, but also the gun.
Also ‘gun culture’ is kind of a misnomer. You’d assume that 80% of Americans support making the 2nd amendment as lax as possible.
But in reality, only about 1/3 of households have a gun, less than 22% of American adults are themselves gun owners. So 78% of adults do not own a gun.
Of the gun owners, about 3% of Americans own half the guns (that 3% of Americans own 17 guns each on average). So when you hear all this anger and rage about the second amendment, it is mostly the most armed 5-10% of people.
Also I know several people who own multiple guns (they like them and collect them). They are in that 3%, and several are politically liberal and do not mind reasonable gun control.
Gun culture doesn’t really exist. It is a tiny minority of very loud people. 78% of adults do not own a gun in the US.
The Second Amendment is not about Hunting or Trap & Skeet or Bench Rest Target shooting or collecting , its so the Armed American Populace is a deterrent to tyrannical Government (Kinda like the Kluxer Controlled Congress of 1919 & 1924) or Invasion (Foreign or domestic)
I disagree … if I may change one of your statements … its so the Armed American States is a deterrent to tyrannical Federal Government … our forefathers were quite familiar with English history and in setting up our new nation chose a military system more akin to the times when the English barony controlled the military resources, rather than the King …
There’s also the practical benefit of calling up the militia and having the militiamen show up with their own guns and ammo … saves the hassle of distributing them when the need arises …
Today we do have a large standing army and it seems clear to me that in of itself doesn’t infringe on the liberties and freedoms we all enjoy here … as though the problem was with the monarchy, not the military … we can certainly forgive our forefathers not taking that chance …
Considering Congress in the state it’s in today … tyranny is about as removed from possibility as to nearly make such impossible …
I don’t think that makes much practical difference. There’s a transition issue from lots of guns to few guns which is IMO makes it every bit as politically impossible and the subject of magic as no guns.
Also your formula is just confusing to me, and I’m not a ‘gun nut’ (or I’m the kind anti-gunners calls a gun nut and gun nuts call a gun grabber or fellow traveler, which doesn’t mean I’m right, but is the case, I’ve learned). Why would some fewer guns necessarily be a significant benefit? That might seem totally logical first principles assumption to you but I doubt it. A lot fewer? Maybe, but the UK doesn’t have ‘literally no guns’ (in private hands) but the US becoming like the UK on guns is not. going. to. happen. Or that would be magic.
So I don’t think you’ve clarified in a way that would mean a big change in US/guns is not a magical assumption. There can be modified gun laws which are very marginal, like the ones debated at federal level in Obama era, which after all the sturm and drang, and assuming they get passed (which they haven’t lately) and don’t just lose the Democrats enough seats to get repealed soon after are…marginal. Then there’s a conscious course toward making the US a country with few guns in ‘the long term’…which is just not going to happen.
I disagree with much in the opening rant, but agree that this issue is mainly a waste of time relative to all the attention it gets.
Well, this is a pit against “Gunnism” and in your first post you wrote:
“I have a friend who was attacked in a bar two-against-one. In self-defense he reached for his knife, and ended up threatened with a charge of attempted murder.”
In your second post, you commented that the American criminals you knew carried knives instead of guns.
Now you’ve just stated that knives would be preferable to guns “in several ways”.
I probably shouldn’t have stated that you seemed “obsessed” with knives, and I apologize. But you certainly seem to think that knives are an alternative option.
I’ve been stabbed with a knife and it hurt. I don’t want to be anywhere near a gun fight, a knife fight, a fist fight, an axe fight, or a beer bottle fight if I can avoid it.
I’ve spent the majority of my life around knives, being used for their intended purposes, having spent over 20 years working in food. I’ve been cut many, many times, and even stabbed a bit, though I like to think that that was unintentional.
When I go camping, (it is bear country I go, but to be fair, not lion country) I do bring a knife. Well, usually 3, (or 4 if you count a machete). I use each of them pretty extensively. They could well be used as self defense if the need arose, but it never has.
I’ve spent a decent amount of time around guns, being used for the purpose of punching holes in paper. Not all that useful. Fun, maybe, but useful? No.
I’ve had my share of fights too, fortunately, none of which any of the participants were irrational to use lethal force.
I think it sad that a number of Americans don’t recognize that the right to own guns is one of the most precious freedoms granted by the Constitution. Many countries, especially in Europe, don’t have this freedom. In those countries only the state is armed. The general public is treated as a small child who should not be allowed access to dangerous things in case he hurts himself.
I guess it’s true, you don’t know what you have until you lose it. Look for an assault on freedom of speech next, that too has gone in Europe. “Speech can hurt people”, “You shouldn’t be allowed to say nasty things”, etc. Of course the state gets to determine what’s nasty. “It’s all for your own good”, just as it’s all for your own good to take away the guns. Beware the state telling you what’s good for you.
I’m curious: Are the citizens of France, Britain, etc. filling their blogs with lamentation about their need for guns? Or have they been so cowed by suckling from their socialist anti-gun dictators that they just don’t know what they’re missing? Do studies that show Europeans are generally more contented than Americans reflect their brainwashing? Or are these studies the fraudulent output of scientists — as everyone knows, science has a libtard anti-gun bias.
As I’ve said, I’ve no problem with hunting, defense, collecting, etc. If you own your Colt-45 to hold off the Russkies when they show up, go for it baby! I Pit the gun grabbers who forfeit the most critical elections because of their obsession with this stupid issue.
I think my rage here is driven by the obsessed Americans who think their love for guns makes them God’s special snowflakes, and allow their confused stupid “thinking” to pull the lever for a monster like Trump. Greedy sociopath? No problem. Misogynist who brags about his sexual harrassments and has been accused of forcible child rape? No problem. Ignorant? Ready to appoint the most heinous advisors and cabinet members he can dredge up from the cesspool? Happy to destroy Obamacare, SocSec, etc.? Eager to partner up with Vladimir Putin, though perhaps too stupid to know that’s what he’s doing? No Problem! Anybody but the Bitch Witch who talked bad about my special snowflake gun, bah, bah!
And here we have aldiboronti joining the snowflakers. I guess you got your wish, dolt. Why don’t you go out and buy some more guns to celebrate Trump’s election?
I’m curious, aldiboronti, have you ever lived outside of the States? Or visited for more than a few days?
I mean, you are aware that practically every first-world country has more restrictive gun laws than the US?
What’s sad, actually, is conservative wingnuts not being able to recognize that the citizens of these countries actually want the gun laws they have. The world’s other industrialized nations are all democracies, after all, and indeed arguably they are democracies that are more responsive to public sentiment than the special-interest dominated US corporatocracy. In fact even in the US, despite intensive lobbying and misinformation by the NRA and the like, there is frequently a majority of public sentiment in favor of stronger gun control, but thanks to overwhelming NRA influence in Washington, there is rarely any meaningful response to those public wants.
Furthermore, in none of those countries are guns prohibited – they are simply responsibly regulated. And the results are clear in the vastly lower rates of gun deaths – the statistics that gun nuts are always trying to deny, where the US is a remarkable outlier with gun violence rates more typical of a lawless banana republic.
The idea that responsible gun regulation is some conspiracy of a looming Orwellian dictatorship is one of the most ridiculous of the many right-wing delusions we frequently hear, and you’ve highlighted it very nicely. Another one is about health care – remember that the poor oppressed citizens in these other countries also have universal and generally free health care “inflicted” on them by the same freedom-hating dictatorship that took away their guns!
That’s so sad to hear … with all the injustices in the world … you’re angry about a tiny fraction of blowhards … is this because they say thing that hurt your feelings … does not your TV show enough bloody massacres … maybe you need a hobby or something … maybe target shooting … get a lil’ pea shooter and cap some bull’s eyes …
Kinda wish you’d control your temper … you’ve got wolfpup piddling the carpet again …
Slightly more than a few days. In fact sixty-odd years. I’m an Englishman and I’m only too well aware of the freedoms we’ve lost over the years in this country. I would hate to see the US go that way.
As for the citizens love for the gun-laws, that is one of the saddest things about this. People get so used to the lack of a freedom that become happy that they lost it.
Actually, no. As I said previously, the vast majority of citizens in those countries have democratically expressed their preference to not get shot. If they wanted gun laws to be different they would vote for political parties that offered to give them what they wanted.
I responded to your earlier post assuming you were American. Since you say you’re in the UK, I can only say that you sound just like an American Republican, my comments to you stand, and I assume that you are like the small minority of radicals that exist in every country that would like to move politics far, far to the right of the current middle of the road. There are certainly a minority of conservative extremists in Canada, for instance, who are gun nuts and want to see looser gun laws, just as there is a similar minority who would like to see a greater role for private health insurance. But most of us prefer not to get shot and to have unconditional first-class health care for all, and so we vote accordingly.
That said, I have the impression that a few minor things tend to get over-regulated in the UK, and I prefer the more American-style culture of Canada, such as (for instance) the private health care services sector. But when it comes to gun laws and culture and the health care system, I would never in a million years hold up the US as a model for any sane nation to aspire to, as fine a place as it is in many other ways. Your praise of gun nuttery is sadly misplaced.
The overall decline in crime in recent decades is well known to everyone who studies these issues. So is the extraordinary comparative rate of gun violence in the US compared to other developed countries in the world. The statistics 