Another major school shooting today ... Newtown, Conn

The suggestion that we need "more good guys with guns" is like suggesting the Titanic should hit another iceberg, but on the other side of the ship.

Quote:

In the decade after 1957, the use of guns in serious crime increased a
hundredfold.

1957 is about the time commercial TV broadcasting was legalised in the UK and when rapid economic growth was taking place with a rock and roll soundtrack and the importation of American cultural values along with faster social and economic mobility and the decline in Christian morality.

You are one stupid jerk. Quit while you are behind; only you interpret posts with your own imagination - where stupid people like you can only do.

Val Killmore wrote:

Now Switzerland has gun culture similar to America. Looking at Switzerland just shows us that there isn't necessarily a link between the availability of guns and violent crime in society.

Which I highly doubt: more than 1 million of "private arms" in Swiss households (that's more than 60%) are actually government owned = army weapons.

[There has been a widely published discussion in Switzerland recently, because more than 300 people per year are killed by army weapons and about 50% of suicides are done with them.]

Many members keep their guns and ammunition at home, while others choose to leave them at the club. And yet, despite such easy access to pistols and rifles, “no members have ever used their guns for criminal purposes,” says Max Flueckiger, the association’s spokesperson.

“Social conditions are fundamental in deterring crime,” says Peter Squires, professor of criminology and public policy at the University of Brighton in Great Britain, who has studied gun violence in different countries and concluded that a “culture of support” rather than focus on individualism, can deter mass killings.

Surely we can at least attempt to change attitudes toward both gun possession and gun control.

the gun makers, and their stooge group, the NRA

We significantly curbed the places where someone could smoke, as a public health measure but, thanks to the NRA, the number of places someone can carry a gun has increased, and continues to increase, because the NRA fights the rights of states and municipalities to establish better controls.

And the NRA fights any attempts at better regulation and control of weapons and ammunition--as was clear yesterday, they advocate only for the acquisition and possession of even more guns, and against better restrictions and controls on those who wish to obtain them--they don't care in whose hands those guns will wind up, or how they will be used,

It's time to stop letting the gun makers and the NRA run the show, just as we stopped letting Big Tobacco run the show.

We won't ban all guns in this country,

DrewDad wrote:

The suggestion that we need "more good guys with guns" is like suggesting the Titanic should hit another iceberg, but on the other side of the ship.

The suggestion that we should ban guns in America is like suggesting ships should be banned from sailing the seas after the Titanic crashed into an iceberg and sank.

One of the reasons the crime rate in Switzerland is low despite the prevalence of weapons — and also why the Swiss mentality can’t be transposed to the current American reality — is the culture of responsibility and safety that is anchored in society and passed from generation to generation.

Experts from the Harvard School of Public Health, using data from 26 developed countries, have shown that wherever there are more firearms, there are more homicides.

At the time, the prime minister, John Howard, said, “We do not want the American disease imported into Australia.” The laws have worked. The American Journal of Law and Economics reported in 2010 that firearm homicides in Australia dropped 59 percent between 1995 and 2006.

Those changes gave Britain some of the toughest gun control laws in the developed world on top of already strict rules. Hours of exhaustive paperwork are required if anyone wants to own even a shotgun or rifle for hunting. The result has been a decline in murders involving firearms.

In Japan, which has very strict laws, only 11 people were killed with guns in 2008,

Got that?
Gun control WORKS.
Real world experience proves it.

As I said, it's our attitudes that have to change, so that we can address a gun culture that's breeding gun violence sensibly and rationally, and with determination to do something about it, just as we would for any other pernicious factor or disease that threatens public safety in a significant way. We have to stop viewing it as either acceptable or unstoppable.

90,000 schools in the country. 90,000 volunteers to work full-time five days a week for no wages to provide armed guards? Dream on, Wayne. Public funds to pay 90,000 additional full-time public employees? You volunteering to raise your taxes to pay for them, Wayne? Tea Party types, you gonna vote to raise your taxes? Not to mention the money to provide the training academies to train them in crisis situations. Dream on. The NRA continues to live in fruitloop heaven.

Nice strawman there Val. Too bad it sinks quicker than the Titanic did.

hawkeye10 wrote:

gun control advocates play fast and lose with the numbers to cover up the reality as they drive towards their political goals. those 18,000 are going to die by gun no matter what we do, access to guns is to them a public service and they will always have it.

That's where you are totally wrong. What makes you think political goals to cut the numbers and types of gun ownership is wrong?

You never have the mental capacity to discuss any topic with common sense - because you don't have any.

Committing suicide by a gun is not only wrong-headed, but gives up on life that may turn out to be productive - if given the chance.

Given the fact that the US Supreme Court will soon be ruling that Americans have the right to carry handguns when they go about in public, even in our largest cities, why not just let the teachers and parents carry in schools?

Val Killmore wrote:

Now Switzerland has gun culture similar to America. Looking at Switzerland just shows us that there isn't necessarily a link between the availability of guns and violent crime in society.

Which I highly doubt: more than 1 million of "private arms" in Swiss households (that's more than 60%) are actually government owned = army weapons.

[There has been a widely published discussion in Switzerland recently, because more than 300 people per year are killed by army weapons and about 50% of suicides are done with them.]

You are one stupid jerk. Quit while you are behind; only you interpret posts with your own imagination - where stupid people like you can only do.

oralloy wrote:

Given the fact that the US Supreme Court will soon be ruling that Americans have the right to carry handguns when they go about in public, even in our largest cities, why not just let the teachers and parents carry in schools?

This is far from a "fact".
There is a good chance they'll lose the swing 5th vote they got in Heller,

Val Killmore wrote:

DrewDad wrote:

The suggestion that we need "more good guys with guns" is like suggesting the Titanic should hit another iceberg, but on the other side of the ship.

The suggestion that we should ban guns in America is like suggesting ships should be banned from sailing the seas after the Titanic crashed into an iceberg and sank.

Nice strawman there Val. Too bad it sinks quicker than the Titanic did.