hot dragon

australia leads the way with gun legislation!

i saw a patient today. (i work i a prison by the way)

he was caught and convicted of carrying a gun in a taxi. thats all. he never used it, never pulled it out or threatened anyone with it in any way, he just had it in his bag.

he got 3 months.

i love our gun laws.

garysher

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hot dragon

figures from 2004-5:

30

that is 16% of the total number of murders

for a population of 20 million, it equates to about 1.4 murders per 100 000 people

USA has a homicide rate of 5.5 per 100 000 people

and firearems are used in 80% of them.

Katczinsky

Seems like a day doesn't go by when I don't hear of gun violence here in the states.

Recent personal experiences have left a sobering effect on me. Can't exactly disclose what happened out of respect of the privacy of those involved though it certainly has left an impression on me. Can barely comprehend the magnitude of the impression it left on the involved. Nonetheless, as of recently I have became much more confused on the gun issue. But if one sobering thing came from it, was that I think it exacted the seriousness of this topic, and really the human side of it, and especially the human side to the stories you hear every day on the local news.

I think these events underline the pure nature of unpredictability of the situation. The passion and irrationality involved I think owes itself to a different kind of beast all together. Bringing another gun into the situation could definitely only escalate the problem, and perhaps could bring a fateful resolution out of something that might have otherwise ended more peacefully. On the other hand, there's next to nothing an unarmed family can do against an insane armed intruder. I've became confused, as if I weren't already.

Perhaps I will do as I have always done, appeal to statistics. 30 deaths in an entire country for one year seems like an unfunny joke to Americans who live in cities that rival the violent death rates of some war zones. Research is definitely needed on my part.

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Political Compass:

Economic Left/Right: -9.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.72

Grace

What do you suppose our gun crime rate would look like if you excluded illegals in the country. Or what it would look like excluding unregistered fire arms. I bet it would be similar to other countries. You would also have to consider pound for pound the difference in size of other countries.

pensacola_niceman

Here's gun control for ya: invade my home or threaten my family; BANG! you're dead.

pensacola_niceman

Yes it's true, only good decent God-fearing white people should be allowed to have guns.

Grace

Yea, cause thats what I said

hot dragon

Grace;

What do you suppose our gun crime rate would look like if you excluded illegals in the country. Or what it would look like excluding unregistered fire arms.

every country has unregistered firearms and illegal immigrants. these issues are not unique to america. even if they were, are you suggesting that illegal immigrants are responsible for the majority of your gun crimes? and, BTW, where do you think unregistered firearms come from? they come from shops selling under the counter or from thefts of guns from law abiding people. if you had less guns, you would have less unregistered guns too.

I bet it would be similar to other countries.

interesting speculation. so you need to make border security tighter and remove the unregistered guns from the hands of criminals. how are you going to do that without reforming your gun laws?

You would also have to consider pound for pound the difference in size of other countries.

yes, this is important. absolute number of deaths is not really very useful. the usual statistic used in homicide is number of deaths per 100 000 population. in australia the figure is 1.5 and 16% are gun related

in america it is 5.5 and 80% are gun related.

hot dragon

i hope your family never has a really heated domestic argument. also hope your children never become depressed or suicidal. or one of the younger kids learns where the keys to the gun safe are and wants to impress his friends.

maybe your family would be safer without a gun in the house. i rekon mine are.