The past - no shortage of American Gun Violence, with the Gun Culture, and high rates of ownership...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country
(interesting that Australia is listed on par with Mexico... look at what Mexico is going through... but weapons are probably flooding in from the USA...???)

I was intrigued to watch The American President painfully select his words in some of his interviews... Flip side of the coin... American Military... A very large defence force, which is active away from its shores... also responsible for moderately high level of deaths...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel


In concept, there are some parallels to Mining, and Oil & Gas...
Mining - many people don't want coal mining to occur... but many of those people aren't prepared to sit and freeze in the dark... (Solar and wind do not stack up on base power load, with our current high consumption rates!)
Oil & Gas - same as mining... people don't want oil or gas rigs off their shore lines, but many people aren't prepared to swap a car for a bicycle...
Guns - similar, many American's will fully support gun ownership restrictions on one hand, but they may also want to retain their "right" to bear arms... own guns... even the president was eluding to tougher background searches on people before they could own a gun.... this would only be the first baby step... I would think...

The Future:
Cars - Micro-light electric cars
Guns in America - I expect they will slowly phase in several layers of beurocracy... but I expect it will take them about 20 years to instill big changes... change the way people think...

What do you think...???

Doc, that's exactly what was going through my thoughts...

theDoctor said...

Yep.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/08/psy-lyrics-anti-us-anger

Jim Morrison was right: "And all the children are insane."

lightwood said...
Had dinner with a mate over from Texas last night, he said that the feeling isn't that too many people have guns, it's that not enough do. If more people had guns somebody would have stopped him sooner. Go figure.

I've had several work stints in the southern bell, and yep, they're pretty much like that.
Here's an anecdote from many such.

This co-worker tells us he just bought a truck. We're talking tech field, smart diplomaed guy. So we go have a look in the lot, and geez, it's a humongous Ford pick-up, like I did not even know they made them that big for city driving. Huge wheels, gigantic back part, HUGE.

Asked him what vehicle he was after. He said: "the biggest I could get - money no object". I asked why. He goes: "Coz when the war starts with the gov't, I have to take as many weapons as possible and my family to the bunker so we're ready for the liberal bastards...". Apparently a bunch of those nuts had a place to mount "resistance" from.

(this particular story from civilized Boca Raton too.)

Mark _australia said...
I find the Doc's Obama meme a little off.

Firstly, they do not deliberately target kids unlike the terrorist wankers who aim to kill as many people as possible as publicly as possible and don't care if they are kids etc.

Obama shedding a tear for murdered little kids has nothing to do with his bombing insurgents and terrorists overseas and accidentally killing civvies in the process. Not to say the latter is right and just etc.... but they are not related.

I think the picture is borderline offensive as it seeks to get political mileage in an unrelated area ('war against terror') using the death of little kids in a stateside massacre. Very poor form.

Using the same logic we also need to make one for every leader since the dawn of time.

Joe Biden has the poison chalice. It will be interesting to see how he copes and what he comes up with.

They have already said they will respect the 2nd amendment, which doesn't sound like they will work too hard.

No it's just sensational guesswork, you know, fantasy. He's a conspiracy theorist.

Mobydisc said...
The gun control lobby in America has failed over the last 40 years. Criminal Gangs have more firepower than local police forces. Gun ownership is just as high as it ever has been. It's just as easy to buy a gun as it ever has in America.

There is almost no such thing as the gun control lobby - it's a loose collection of people with a non-pecuniary agenda.

On the other hand, the NRA (as well as numerous right-wing nuts in bunkers) is the pro-gun lobby, funded and supplied by gun makers. Powerful lobby, with a strong agenda to flood the streets with as many as possible. They have won the battle over the last 40 years, but want to sell even more, of course.

Same as used to be with smoking: the anti-smoking lobby was a collection of well-meaning doctors and others. The pro-smoking lobby was the sum of companies wanting to make money with the product, regardless of consequences.

It's a hot topic in the suburbs.

This debates has been around for decades in the States , I believe even if they did bring in regulations to control high powered semi automatic assault style rifles and hand guns , there are simply too many out there now , there are hundreds of millions of guns in America , even if they had a buy back scheme as we did here in Australia , and they got back say 80% of these dangerous automatic weapons and hand guns , there would still be tens of millions of these type of guns in the system .The outlaws or criminals aren't going to hand their guns back so it's a checkmate situation .
I can appreciate both sides of the argument to some degree , just can't see a viable outcome .


Here's a music video from the mid 90's from very policily outspoken Dave Mustaine from Megadeth.I remember when I first saw this video when it came out the statics blew me away . That was nearly 20 years ago , so I imagine the statics are even worse.

dinsdale said...

Gorgo said...
"I quit. You people are just too stupid for me to be your leader."

Isn't that how they got him as their leader?

PMSL this guy with the sign has a 99% more chance of his gun being used on a member of his direct family than the guy next door has of being shot during a robbery or similar.
I love the yanks they make me laugh lots
W

worrier said...

dinsdale said...

Gorgo said...
"I quit. You people are just too stupid for me to be your leader."

Isn't that how they got him as their leader?

PMSL this guy with the sign has a 99% more chance of his gun being used on a member of his direct family than the guy next door has of being shot during a robbery or similar.
I love the yanks they make me laugh lots
W

Live by the gun
Die by the gun

"guns don't kill people, people kill people" is a flawed and unrealistic argument to deflect the discussion away from guns and assumes there isn't a problem of shootings.

For the current USA constitution relating to guns to work it assumes that all people in a community are mentally stable, reasonable and obey the law.

And because this is only possible in "dreamland" limiting the availability of guns seems a realistic solution to reduce shootings.

This is the Gun Association's answer... to be said with a thick Yankee accent...

"The best way to stop a bad guy with guns, is with a good guy with guns!"