Arizona Congresswoman shot in Tuscon

[stappard]

Don't you think people should ultimately have the right to defend themselves in their home?

I mean, forget home invasions and all that, really, a gun would be a very good thing to have in any kind of situation that could lead to widespread rioting and looting. That's pretty much the only reason for why I want one...partially also because this area is slowly going to shit and we've had a steady increase in burglaries over the years.

Fair enough really. There's been a lot of controversy in the past in the UK about the right to defend yourself on your own property. A farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Martin_(farmer)) got sent down for shooting an intruder. A lot of people questioned their stance when faced with a situation like that one.



As for that article, stuff like that is just horrible. Even calling it a tragedy would be trivialising an avoidable event.

[esfandyar]

This is really fucked up:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/0 ... 06319.html

[Pada]

Don't you think people should ultimately have the right to defend themselves in their home?

I mean, forget home invasions and all that, really, a gun would be a very good thing to have in any kind of situation that could lead to widespread rioting and looting. That's pretty much the only reason for why I want one...partially also because this area is slowly going to shit and we've had a steady increase in burglaries over the years.

Fair enough really. There's been a lot of controversy in the past in the UK about the right to defend yourself on your own property. A farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Martin_(farmer)) got sent down for shooting an intruder. A lot of people questioned their stance when faced with a situation like that one.



As for that article, stuff like that is just horrible. Even calling it a tragedy would be trivialising an avoidable event.

Surely the shooting is just a revenge thing though - I think most burglars would run away if you just pointed the gun at the them?

And anyway a persons life > your stuff

[stappard]

And anyway a persons life > your stuff

yeah no doubt

[Phigure]

And anyway a persons life > your stuff

This ^ 1000

[Ayatollah]

I like how noam pretty much described how we keep gun crime and overall homicide rates low in Europe and all the americans jump in and say "No way man! Making guns illegal won't change a thing!"

[Devry_Kaneda]

i'm surprised to see no mention of the sarah palin's website where she:

made a hitlist of candidates that should be eliminated, so they can be replaced with republicans
said "we've diagnosed the problem, help us prescribe a solution"
put crosshairs over the targeted districts on a map
encouraged supporters to "aim and reload"






Fuck you sarah palin. You fucking tnuc

I saw this on huffpost. That commenting community is dumber that SNH

[knell]

I like how noam pretty much described how we keep gun crime and overall homicide rates low in Europe and all the americans jump in and say "No way man! Making guns illegal won't change a thing!"

oh yeh, i forgot that Europe = United States now


sorry, i guess you guys know what's best for a country you dont live in, and most likely have very little experience with.

sorry.

sorry.

sorry. you're right, sorry.

i apologize. you're right, you know what's best.

sorry.

you're right. England doesnt have a single person with a gun, so there's no need to defend yourself, ever. good plan, excellent. will plan again A+





sorry.

[Ayatollah]

oh yeh, i forgot that Europe = United States now


sorry, i guess you guys know what's best for a country you dont live in, and most likely have very little experience with.

sorry.

sorry.

sorry. you're right, sorry.

i apologize. you're right, you know what's best.

sorry.

you're right. England doesnt have a single person with a gun, so there's no need to defend yourself, ever. good plan, excellent. will plan again A+





sorry.

[-dubson-]

And anyway a persons life > your stuff

[Badman Juice]

we need to ban murder so it won't happen any more.

[fretn]

I like how noam pretty much described how we keep gun crime and overall homicide rates low in Europe and all the americans jump in and say "No way man! Making guns illegal won't change a thing!"

oh yeh, i forgot that Europe = United States now


sorry, i guess you guys know what's best for a country you dont live in, and most likely have very little experience with.

sorry.

sorry.

sorry. you're right, sorry.

i apologize. you're right, you know what's best.

sorry.

you're right. England doesnt have a single person with a gun, so there's no need to defend yourself, ever. good plan, excellent. will plan again A+





sorry.

except that the states is filled with offspring of religous nuts, it's pretty much the same society based on the same values...
I don't see why it wouldn't work. If there are no guns people are less likely to kill someone, there's a difference in pulling the trigger or stabbing the knife. Ok, sometimes in Belgium we have agressive burglarys with people using AK74's from Eastern block but these are seldom.

[Ayatollah]

The major difference is that most of our population is not a bunch of gun nuts who think it's a god-given right to own a projectile-firing weapon made to kill at short range. The statistics really speak for themselves http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate

[badger]

some pretty fucking stupid and ignorant opinions in this thread tbh

Isn't the point that in America the attitude leans more to shooting people than the UK's attitude. Just changing the law instantly wouldnt do anything.

this

i said much the same in that thread about the shootings in that court thing a bit ago. guns aren't the cause of the widespread nature of shootings in america - the problem is that in america (or within certain communities at least) shootings are more likely because of the nature of the american psyche. banning guns will achieve nothing unless they also address the deep seated causes of why people are so much more likely to shoot each other in america than in other countries with high gun ownership rates. switzerland is one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and yet shootings are incredibly rare there

[stappard]

some pretty fucking stupid and ignorant opinions in this thread tbh

Isn't the point that in America the attitude leans more to shooting people than the UK's attitude. Just changing the law instantly wouldnt do anything.

this

i said much the same in that thread about the shootings in that court thing a bit ago. guns aren't the cause of the widespread nature of shootings in america - the problem is that in america (or within certain communities at least) shootings are more likely because of the nature of the american psyche. banning guns will achieve nothing unless they also address the deep seated causes of why people are so much more likely to shoot each other in america than in other countries with high gun ownership rates. switzerland is one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and yet shootings are incredibly rare there

penknives dont count as weapons anywhere else tbh

[gnome]

I like how noam pretty much described how we keep gun crime and overall homicide rates low in Europe and all the americans jump in and say "No way man! Making guns illegal won't change a thing!"

oh yeh, i forgot that Europe = United States now


sorry, i guess you guys know what's best for a country you dont live in, and most likely have very little experience with.

Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan not to name the rest invasions of countries that your country went in believing they were doing what "was right" for a country they don't live in.

[badger]

some pretty fucking stupid and ignorant opinions in this thread tbh

Isn't the point that in America the attitude leans more to shooting people than the UK's attitude. Just changing the law instantly wouldnt do anything.

this

i said much the same in that thread about the shootings in that court thing a bit ago. guns aren't the cause of the widespread nature of shootings in america - the problem is that in america (or within certain communities at least) shootings are more likely because of the nature of the american psyche. banning guns will achieve nothing unless they also address the deep seated causes of why people are so much more likely to shoot each other in america than in other countries with high gun ownership rates. switzerland is one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and yet shootings are incredibly rare there

penknives dont count as weapons anywhere else tbh

switzerland has no army as such so instead most adults are given guns instead so that the entire population can be an army if necessary

In some 2001 statistics, it is noted that there are about 420,000 assault rifles stored at private homes, mostly SIG SG 550 types. Additionally, there are some 320,000 assault rifles and military pistols exempted from military service in private possession, all selective-fire weapons having been converted to semi-automatic operation only. In addition, there are several hundred thousand other semi-automatic small arms classified as carbines. The total number of firearms in private homes is estimated minimally at 1.2 million to 3 million.

considering it's population is about 8 million that's a pretty damn high gun ownership rate

edit: the wiki page on this is actually pretty interesting (especially the parts about carrying weapons in public) and shows how the issue can be addressed sensibly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politi ... witzerland

[stappard]

some pretty fucking stupid and ignorant opinions in this thread tbh

Isn't the point that in America the attitude leans more to shooting people than the UK's attitude. Just changing the law instantly wouldnt do anything.

this

i said much the same in that thread about the shootings in that court thing a bit ago. guns aren't the cause of the widespread nature of shootings in america - the problem is that in america (or within certain communities at least) shootings are more likely because of the nature of the american psyche. banning guns will achieve nothing unless they also address the deep seated causes of why people are so much more likely to shoot each other in america than in other countries with high gun ownership rates. switzerland is one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and yet shootings are incredibly rare there

penknives dont count as weapons anywhere else tbh

switzerland has no army as such so instead most adults are given guns instead so that the entire population can be an army if necessary

In some 2001 statistics, it is noted that there are about 420,000 assault rifles stored at private homes, mostly SIG SG 550 types. Additionally, there are some 320,000 assault rifles and military pistols exempted from military service in private possession, all selective-fire weapons having been converted to semi-automatic operation only. In addition, there are several hundred thousand other semi-automatic small arms classified as carbines. The total number of firearms in private homes is estimated minimally at 1.2 million to 3 million.

considering it's population is about 8 million that's a pretty damn high gun ownership rate

edit: the wiki page on this is actually pretty interesting (especially the parts about carrying weapons in public) and shows how the issue can be addressed sensibly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politi ... witzerland

i was just being flippant really

I literally had no idea about all this swiss militia stuff though, I thought no standing army meant no army.

I think my favourite part is

When their period of service has ended, militiamen have the choice of keeping their personal weapon and other selected items of their equipment. In this case of retention, the rifle is sent to the weapons factory where the fully automatic function is removed; the rifle is then returned to the discharged owner. The rifle is then a semi-automatic or self-loading rifle.

I don't know why but that idea seems very Swiss to me

[deadly_habit]

take a look at the per capita stats, take a look at what countries lead it, what their chief criminal exports are, what countries consume said exports the most and have a base of operation for further distribution and why they will use guns to protect said enterprises.
the war on drugs brought a fight that can't be won to our doorstep that spilled over our southern borders and spread like wildfire
hell the UK has the 2nd highest drug offenses by country record while the US is #41

United Kingdom producer of limited amounts of synthetic drugs and synthetic precursor chemicals; major consumer of Southwest Asian heroin, Latin American cocaine, and synthetic drugs; money-laundering center

United States world's largest consumer of cocaine (shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean), Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana; major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine; minor consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine; money-laundering center

gee i wonder why there's so much violence to protect an illegal industry that rakes in billions every year

[esfandyar]

guns aren't the cause of the widespread nature of shootings in america - the problem is that in america (or within certain communities at least) shootings are more likely because of the nature of the american psyche. banning guns will achieve nothing unless they also address the deep seated causes of why people are so much more likely to shoot each other in america than in other countries with high gun ownership rates. switzerland is one of the most heavily armed countries in the world and yet shootings are incredibly rare there