Nice post as always TGregg. Still I have some concern about the direction of dear ol USA. Did you know Americans can no longer play online poker . I have to play against liberal Europeans and the like...
The Sydney Morning Herald Australians top the world when it comes to crime March 29, 2006 AUSTRALIANS are more likely than those in any other developed country to find themselves the victim of a serious crime, including that of a sexual nature, an international report has found. The OECD, in its annual report comparing the group's members on a range of issues, found Australia had the highest rate of victimisation. Between 1990 and the time of the study, the number of victims of crime had increased in Australia, it said. Of the OECD's member nations, Australia had the highest proportion of victims of assaults, threats and crimes of a sexual nature, the second highest proportion of burglaries, and high rates of robberies, car thefts and thefts from cars. New Zealand had the second highest proportion of victims. The US, which recorded a fall in victimisation rates, was mid-range. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...-comes-to-crime/2006/03/28/1143441155861.html I thought crime was supposed to fall after the gun ban, but crime has been increasing. I wonder if it has anything to do with the gun ban? Let's see... take away guns of law abiding citizens so that they may not protect themselves and so that the criminals will no longer fear their victims.... let's see... I wonder...
Gun deaths are always unfortunate, but there is a bigger picture. One is that, as Pabst pointed out, the vast majority of shootings in the US are related to inner city drug trafficking or gangs. No amount of gun control is going to affect that, as the participants are already violating numerous laws. Two, there is a natural right to defend one's self, family and property. Americans seem to value that right more highly than most other countries.
If we're going to allow certifiably crazy people to live and walk among us without restriction, the end result is highly predictable. The only surprise is that mass killings don't happen more frequently. Those people that would have screamed bloody murder had Cho been expelled are the same ones that now blame the cops and VT administration for a poor response. Can't have it both ways. Cho should be in a rubber room right now and should have been there years ago. The deaths of his victims fall squarely in the laps of the ACLU and their far left counterparts.
Forgive me, but the bigger picture is that your point of view is so full of shit that you have become immune to its fragrance. Are you actually proud of the gun culture that has evolved to where it is now in modern society? Rather than repeat myself, I refer to another recent post of mine: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1444479#post1444479 Honestly, I don't mean to be offensive. But I feel strongly enough about this matter that I need to make my position clear. I'm Canadian, so I guess my opinion "doesn't matter," but there is a world view. I think the US is slowly going third world on us, and it is a rotten shame because it has such potential for greatness that it is slowly and systematically disregarding. This unhealthy gun obsession is but one spoke in the wheel. I am not as familiar with your country's history as you are but, generally speaking, I don't think that the US has been this polarized since the days of the Civil War.
Freedom is about free choice, the constitution allows the citizens to choose how to protect themselves. Those don't want to have fire arm can have no gun. It is their choice. If I want a gun, I can have one. Freedom is also about not having to wait for the government to save me. If I want to protect myself and fight back with fire arm, I want to be able to do so. Or, I can have the phone in my hand, bullet in my head waiting for the police to come. I have not see any argument how gun control will NOT make the law abiding citizen become a sitting duck for the criminal who have guns. The citizens of North Korea and Cuba are not polarized and never complain about anything. Can you imagine that kind of harmony in the U.S. The U.S. is a free country. We have freedom of speech. We speak out a lot. We are always polarized about something, abortion, civil right and gun control...etc. We resolve our different in court, by suing.
Think it through. That's a bit like being in an airplane that has no smoking for one seat and smoking for another, or Jerry Seinfeld's non-urinating section of the pool. Everyone gets caught up and saturated in the other guy's smoke and urine, whether they want to or not. One man's freedom at the expense of another. Great system.
Oh, and about that, perhaps Bush should bring the troops home sooner rather than later and have some of them "liberate" the gang-infested neighborhoods in one way or another. If you admit that it is a major problem that is out of control and not going away, then you need to confront it and control it by whatever means necessary. Taxpayers who live in those neighborhoods, and cannot afford to leave, are owed more than just a passing reference to the second amendment. What's good for the goose...
You are using smoking and urination in a confined area to compare with gun ownership? This is comparing apple and water melon. It is not even close. That is the best example you can come up with? The last time I checked, smoking and urination in the public is not protected by the U.S. constitution. Lets say you are in NY and I am in CA. How is my owning a gun affects you. Cars kill also. Do my car affect you freedom? People who own gun is not at the expense of another. What kind of argument is that if I have a gun, it interfere with any body's freedom? I am a law abiding citizen. It would require the criminal or the crazy to attack me and threaten my life to cause me to shoot and defend myself. Gun control take aways one's ability and option of self defence. Which part of self defence you don't understand?