The Americans and guns, it’s a strange old subject…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18980974

I think Binners put it best when he said that the best argument against general gun ownership is that everyone knows someone that shouldn’t be allowed a gun.

I don’t see the standard issue Benelli M4 there … 😡

Well, you need Benelli M4 to rid the zombies.

In the UK we have fairly strict gun control and one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world.

In (some parts of) the US they sell automatic weapons next to the baked beans in the supermarket and they have around 40 times as many firearm homicides as we do per capita.

A naive observer might think that these facts are somehow related.

In the UK we have fairly strict gun control and one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world.

In (some parts of) the US they sell automatic weapons next to the baked beans in the supermarket and they have around 40 times as many firearm homicides as we do per capita.

A naive observer might think that these facts are somehow related.

You and your crazy theories.

THose french cheeses could kill someone

GrahamS – Member

In the UK we have fairly strict gun control and one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world.

Bloody exaggeration again. Typical! Just like “… one of the best …” in the world … bloody distortion.

Errmmm … Japan is practically nil. Singapore is also practically nil and some South East Asia countries having a gun without license means death penalty.

That wiki … “The discourse on gun politics in …”. Discourse my foot by excluding so many countries in the world.

To be fair Japan does have a sword problem!

Sandwich – Member

To be fair Japan does have a sword problem!

Well, at least that’s part of the art of slicing the traditional way …

…and they have specific frotteurism bars. Perhaps that has some bearing on the homicide rate

*trots off to apply for a research grant*

Bloody exaggeration again. Typical! Just like “… one of the best …” in the world … bloody distortion.

Taken straight from wiki:

“The United Kingdom historically had one of the lowest rates of gun homicides in the world even before gun control legislation became stricter from the late twentieth century.”

– with a citation to “Malcolm, Joyce Lee (2002). Guns and Violence: The English Experience. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01608-4.”

Seems a legit statement to me.

If you look at the “Intentional homicides by country” table on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_crime you’ll see that England & Wales rank joint 5th for the lowest % of gun homicides, behind Hong Kong, Singapore, Ukraine and Moldova.

So how exactly is it a “Bloody exaggeration” or “distortion”?

I don’t like cheese. Ban it all.

But everyone in Japan can stop bullets with their hands.

You don’t need to go to the UK or Japan anyway. Just look at the good old US of A and compare figure of gun ownership per state against gun crime. There is a simple and direct correlation between gun ownership and people getting shot. It’s not rocket science (although it is ballistics)

mcmoonter – Member

both depict offensive weapons..

On a more serious note I have been to the US once, I got lost whilst trying to find my hotel and decided to ask a cop parked at the side of the road for directions. Having got out my car I started walking towards him, he reversed away from me and un clipped the shotgun on his dashboard! I stopped and held out my hands in a questioning/alarmed/WTF? gesture which prompted him to relax, upon approaching me he said “You had me real worried there, don’t approach a police car like that!” 😯

I have also met and worked with a lot of Americans over the years and 5% are very switched on 5% are clever enough to keep quiet and the rest are Mental!

Pop a capita in his ass yo.

GrahamS – Member

So how exactly is it a “Bloody exaggeration” or “distortion”?

Here we go again … manipulating using % …

“Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2000” indicated that only 2 whereas England & Wales 8 similar to Azerbaijan … Japan is not even in the list! Of course it’s bloody exaggeration when many countries are not listed. How about gun crimes in Afghanistan? 🙄

Mind you Columbia makes the US look like It’s go access to cottage cheese as a primary weapon.

Thing is, if we banned French Cheese, would the gun crime rate go up or down? I suggest a 2 year trial…..

So chewkw … if we were all suddenly allowed unlimited access to automatic weapons and could mail order thousands of rounds of ammo, you don’t think the murder rate would go up at all?

If I’d have had access to automatic assualt rifles for the last week, say. I reckon there would be at least 7 people who would no longer be with us

Would any prefer that our gobby Friday night drunks,became gobby Friday night drunks with guns?

Japan is not even in the list! Of course it’s bloody exaggeration when many countries are not listed. How about gun crimes in Afghanistan? 🙄

Yes, it’s not an exhaustive list of every country in the world. (Where’s Scotland?) But do you have any reason to suspect that it isn’t representative?

Of the countries not listed, how many do you reckon would be above the UK (like Japan), and how many below it (like Afghanistan)? I reckon we’d stay in a fairly similar relative position on a longer list, don’t you?

Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that by that list, 65% of intentional homicides in the US involved guns versus 8% in England and Wales.

Increased gun access = increased gun deaths.

IIRC it was in Bowling For Columbine that it was pointed out that whilst gun ownership per capita is similar to USA in Canada, the gun crime/homicide per capita is most definitely not. 😕

(Slightly concerned that Slovakia sits at 82%, given that last time I was there we narrowly avoided a bar fight with a terribly rough-looking Yugoslavian gentleman who’d had rather too much to drink)

Dick Rutan, owner of Gunners Den in the Colorado town of Arvada, said sales were “off the hook”.

“What they’re saying is, ‘they want to have a chance’,” he told the Denver Post. “They want to have the ability to protect themselves and their families if they are in a situation like what happened in the movie theatre.”

Brilliant, because if there’s one thing you need in a crowded cinema full of smoke/tear gas where there’s a madman shooting people, it’s a load more people panicking and shooting aimlessly through the smoke.

Perhaps gun crime is higher because they are easy targets in the US.

What with being so fat and all, you couldnt miss.

Its video games surely

or

Marilyn Manson

or

Violent TV

It can’t be the fact you can get guns and ammo from Tesco surely?

Didn’t the gun lobby (or Mr Heston) blame one of the mass shootings on the fact schools allowed long coats to be worn, thus allowing assault rifles to be smuggled in?

It’s not rocket science (although it is ballistics)

GENIUS

if there’s one thing you need in a crowded cinema full of smoke/tear gas where there’s a madman shooting people, it’s a load more people panicking and shooting aimlessly through the smoke.

**** Liberal

You canot say the f word used in father ted but they can send me a mag with the f word in …… WTF ar ethe playing at here?

Move the guns away from the baked beans and into the liquor aisle, job done!

My favourite shop i visted in America was a Gun and Liquor store

one half of the shop was all guns the other half alcohol

genius!

You could certainly start a trial ban of goats cheese and that revolting Halloumi rubbish. But Cheddar or those lovely smelly sloppy French cheeses……no way!

Why would anyone want / need one of those automatic firearms other than to kill someone?

I think the fundamental problem is that for a nation of that size, they’re apparently incapable of making any decent cheese. Not only that but it would appear that to mask this crushing failure, they’re depriving their citizens of decent imported cheeses

Is it really any wonder that people are shooting each other?

And Dairylea.

No Daiylea? Dear god! That’s just inhumane! Can they get cheese strings and babybels, or laughing cow? My kids would be mutinous to the point of anarchy if deprived of all those. I dread to think what it’d be like if they then had access to firearms 😯

they’re apparently incapable of making any decent cheese

ps how about as a post ride snack?

But triangular “cheese”? It’s not normal. Ban it!

Can I just cheesy peas? Do they enter the general gun-banning equation?