Home protection?? How about a really noisy burglar alarm?
Yes i have that... an lights that come on outside... an 2 flood lights that shine down the hallway in ther eyes.!!!
Home protection?? How about a really noisy burglar alarm?
It goes back to when we needed them to keep the redcoats off our necks. We Yanks kind of invented the personal gun, you know - along with the felling axe and the sodbusting plow, the log cabin and corn whiskey, the "Kentucky long rifle" was an ordinary man's access to the tools and means of the wealthy in Europe - and possibly the best rifle in the world, for practical use.paddaboy said:I'm truly lost for words as to how hard some Yanks want to fight to be able to keep their guns.
It's not "so called". It's the right to keep and bear arms.paddaboy said:Is it the bloody constitution and this so called right to bear arms?
You have no clue why I posted that article, do you? Did it ever occur to you that I might be showing an example of the statistical skewing that the anti-gun crowd employs to shore up their position? No... You're not that smart.But why are you quoting that bizarrely fantastic statistic Randwolf didn't check out before posting - the "just - - - wow" thing not remotely accurate? Is that your conception of Yanks and their guns?
A lot of factors. Some people just want guns for hunting, or need one for their jobs or because of where they live. Some identify strongly with the right wing political party, and they promote guns, so they own guns as a way of showing their allegiance to the right wing. Many people in the US are afraid and feel powerless, and for some of them, a gun makes them feel powerful and in control. This is reinforced by a media that accepts and promotes the axiom "whoever has the gun is in charge." (And they like showing guns.)As an outsider [non USA citizen and an Aussie] I actually find it quite amazing that our two nations, so much alike in many ways and both quite well off and successful.....brothers in arms in two world wars, Korean war, Vietnam war, and the present middle East turmoil, can have attitudes so different when it comes to guns.
What is it with the US?
No, it didn't. Check back in this thread, and understand what this debate is like - you've got Poe's Law operating here, and too clever malfunctions. Sorry about that, if you posted it as self-evidently nonsense, but really - KISS.randwolf said:You have no clue why I posted that article, do you? Did it ever occur to you that I might be showing an example of the statistical skewing that the anti-gun crowd employs to shore up their position? No..
I do? What study, and where have I questioned the "veracity" of a study?randwolf said:OTH, since you continue to question the veracity of the study:
Is it supposed to be news that suicidal people frequently obtain their means via purchase in the immediate runup to a suicide attempt?study said:In the first week after the purchase of a handgun, the rate of suicide by means of firearms among purchasers (644 per 100,000 person-years) was 57 times as high as the adjusted rate in the general population.
There's the emergency fantasy - the idea that if things go to hell, you could rob a bank or something and feed your kids. We saw that played out after Katrina, and also after various race riots: remember the grocery store families guarding their stores during the reaction to Rodney King's beating and police exoneration? Those stores were not burned - those rifles and shotguns saved them their life's work, as well as the community's food supply in the aftermath, and they didn't kill anyone. That feeds a common fantasy, with some roots in the deep racism of American culture.billvon said:Note that often the latter rationales are embarrassing to admit, so often complex rationales
That's a good point; cultural inertia will mean that you may not always see the result you expect based on current societal drives and values. A large part of it is inherited.Men in the US inherit firearms, are given their father's 30-06, their grandfather's shotgun he used to keep loaded on a couple of nails over the kitchen door to the garden (and trim the trees over the machinery lanes with). Being able to blast nuisances at need is a kind of warm, fuzzy, sentimental, nostalgia-infused family tradition, in America.
The best known and most effective were the American rifles - personal weapons, owned by individual adults living in rural communities, used for hunting and for the defense of house and family against actual threat.bells said:I am pretty sure that back when America won its freedoms, the guns used were muskets.
If you look into the history of the AK, you will find some direct parallels and similarities with the circumstances and invention of the American frontier rifle - the biggest difference maybe that it was one named inventor, and combat was his central goal (rather than hunting).And my most reliable weapons are a Romanian AK-47 and a Brazilian Beretta 92 clone. Hm.
There's an interview with the inventor of the AK floating around if you care to check it out - it isn't difficult to romanticize the event.bells said:Then again, try as I might, I cannot find how one could romanticise an Uzi or an AK47
Bells said:There are so many things that I could say about this completely fucked up situation, from gun safety to gun culture that would have someone leaving a loaded gun in a bag within reach of children to what the hell is wrong with people, but really, the only thing that conveys my sentiments about this is "bleh".
Did she have Skittles in her pocket? Because murderous thugs are known to carry them; perhaps the child just wanted to be judged by twelve rather than carried by six.We could be looking at this all wrong as well...all the facts aren't in. I'm sure this two year old has already received gun training and therefore knows how to handle a gun. He knew how to smoothly and efficiently slide the safety back with his thumb and he hit his target. We don't know what the mom was trying to do. This may have been self-defense.
I suppose it beats the obvious crack about Darwinism.
Oh, right.
But, yeah, he's got a point in a way.
At least the child was protected from crime.
Or something.
You know, until this very bitter, horrendous end.
Why do you hate guns so much? Why focus on one little bad thing? How often do you publicly rejoice all the good guns do? You know, like keeping our parks safe from children? Or defending white adult men against unarmed dark-skinned children?
Think about the thousands of non-fatal firearm injuries each year. That's good news! Why focus on one death?
Guess he wasn't shooting blanks after all..Oh, well, that's alright then, he only shot her once - and it is Georgia...
And also, incidentally, probably the one thing that kept England from taking over the American colonisation for their own purposes. An unarmed society is a defenceless one in the face of an authoritative government, and yet the general opinion among leftist anti-gun activists is that "it can never happen here".It goes back to when we needed them to keep the redcoats off our necks. We Yanks kind of invented the personal gun, you know - along with the felling axe and the sodbusting plow, the log cabin and corn whiskey, the "Kentucky long rifle" was an ordinary man's access to the tools and means of the wealthy in Europe - and possibly the best rifle in the world, for practical use.