...and there lies the problem with gun control.

The crooks already have guns and/or will just get more - illegally if need be. The common, law-abiding person will not be allowed to defend himself, his family, and his property against the insane criminals and/or a tyrannical government.

well we should put these crooks away forever,or in the ground, when they are caught with a weapon...

I'm all for gun control...and knife control, and rock control...just as long as such weapons are controlled in a way that it takes these weapons away from criminals and not from law-abiding citizens.

True.

Unfortunately, we know that's not going to happen. Criminals will find a way to be criminals - even if they have to MAKE their own guns (which some do).

Whether it is essential or not may be debatable, but either way, I see no reason we should surrender the right to bear arms. We'll pay for it eventually.

You're already paying for the right to bear arms

The US murder rate is 5-6 times higher than peer industrialised nations

I don't believe that is due to the right to bear arms. How many of the weapons used in those crimes are legal? And how do restrictive laws stop criminals from getting and using weapons? They only effect law-abiding citizens.

Then how do you explain the low rate of gun ownership and usage in many other western countries?

The fact is by creating a culture of gun ownership and usage you are bound to increase the level of gun related crime

It can't be changed oevrnight but it is possible to change the culture over many decades

That's a pretty complex issue with a complex interplay between politics and society.

Part of the answer, in my opinion, is that we have outsourced a lot of skilled manufacturing jobs and high-paying jobs. Taxes which disproportionally affect working people (payroll taxes) coupled with the decrease in real wages means that it's harder to escape poverty. Then you have predatory lending practices (payday loans, high-rate credit cards and sub-prime mortgages) which disproportionally affect the poor.... Then there's policies like the decreased funding for Pell grants and federally-subsidized education loans which now make it impossible for some people to afford to go to college and improve themselves. Also, lack of investment education means that as a country we can't make the strides in science and technology that we used to (which is why Japan and China are eating our lunch, technology-wise), which in turn makes it difficult to educate or hire engineers or scientists here in America...

and that's just what i can think of off the top of my head.


i think "laziness" is just too simplistic an answer.

oh, i'm sure that there ARE lazy people. but i think those people are few and far between.

Yeah, someone can get quite lazy sitting around his or her home wondering how they can compete with workers overseas who are willing to do the same job for a small fraction of his or her pay.

And, it takes an awful lot of work for someone to play the Stock Market Bingo once he or she has earned excess money over and above what it costs to live...that is, if he or she manages to not get out-sourced to cheaper overseas labor before they have earned that excess money.

Ummmm...<sarcasm filter/ON>