And the American gun obsession goes on, and on, and......

[Anchorman]

Yep.
The stats don't lie - unless JC is suggesting a conspiracy by the guys at Wikipedia?
I await his response with morbid interest.

[Nearly Sane]

Tu quoque

By no means; just pointing out that there are many things in Britons' 'back-yard' that need to be sorted out.

Which is a tu quoque

[jeremyp]

America's love of firearms is crazy and then some. However many terrible gun related atrocities there are they never seem to get it!

Unfortunately, Floo, your own nation has its own idiosyncracies - think of its attitude to the European migrant issue.  That's no less of a head-in-the-sand attitude.

It's the Tu Quoque thread.  Any chance of sticking to the topic?

[Hope]

Have to say it again, big O; this thread shows what is to me debate and discussion at its best, where wild claims are sprayed around like cow shit from muck spreader and are countered - in fact refuted - by hard evidence. Top banana.

Whilst I'd agree with you, Shakes, we still await jc's responses.  Who knows what he might come up with 

[Shaker]

I could take a wild guess, and that guess includes the words 'funny' and 'too' though not necessarily in that order

[Leonard James]

I could take a wild guess, and that guess includes the words 'funny' and 'too' though not necessarily in that order

I'm glad somebody else has become aware of his incessant parroting of his latest "catch-phrase".

[Owlswing]

I could take a wild guess, and that guess includes the words 'funny' and 'too' though not necessarily in that order

I'm glad somebody else has become aware of his incessant parroting of his latest "catch-phrase".

. . . and "snork"!

[Harrowby Hall]

I could take a wild guess, and that guess includes the words 'funny' and 'too' though not necessarily in that order

I'm glad somebody else has become aware of his incessant parroting of his latest "catch-phrase".

. . . and "snork"!

Don't knock him. You might put him off responding. I, for one, am very interested to see whether he does respond.

Actually, I don't think that he is comfortable with irony, allusion and other forms of word play which some of use on this forum. It is sometimes said that Americans don't do irony, perhaps Canadians don't either.

[Alien]

Sure, the USA could use more gun restrictions and background checking. That being said I noted the complete absence of this topic being brought up every time, like in gun restricting France, a Muslim terrorist gets a hold of guns and goes on or attempts (as in last week) a shooting spree. Why is that? Because Europeans seem to get their jollies looking down their long snouts at my American cousins while keeping quiet on the fact guns can be bought illegally in every single UK city. I also note that there has been no mention of the fact that this latest nut job was using the fact that he was gay and black and crying discrimination as the excuse to do what he has done. He's dead and now awaits final judgement.
When you stop your killers getting their guns then maybe I'll respect this typical knee jerk UK reaction against America.

Hiya,
I think you do us a bit of a disservice, old chum. If you compare the figures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate you can see that places to go if you want to be killed by a gun are USA, Central and South America, South Africa and Swaziland is where you will want to go. With 30,000 gun deaths per year in the USA (inc. 10,000 gun murders per year, i.e. 30 gun murders per day), it is far, far less likely that someone is going to get killed by a gun in France than the USA.

10,000 gun murders per year is the equivalent of more than three 9/11s per yer.

Imagine 30 terrorist-related murders per day in the USA and what the outcry would be then, yet because it is good old, constitution-guaranteed firearms by Americans themselves there is less outcry. There is much that is good in US society, but this is one thing which is not good.

I certainly do agree with those who say there would be a huge problem getting rid of the guns if they were banned though.

[Leonard James]

I certainly do agree with those who say there would be a huge problem getting rid of the guns if they were banned though.

It's probably one of nature's ways of controlling the population explosion.

[ad_orientem]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

[Outrider]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

But there's only a limited number of BMW Z4's available.

O.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

Didn't readers of Lawrence Krauss's book ''A universe from nothing- Afterword by Richard Dawkins'' get one of those?

[Shaker]

No.

[Owlswing]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

. . . and if it is a woman requiring the gun, she get gets what instead?

[Jack Knave]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

. . . and if it is a woman requiring the gun, she get gets what instead?

Flowers for life.

[Jack Knave]

Guns and the internet, what a potent mix!!!

Gun laws in the States would be pretty pointless now as there are so many washing around that a law restricting them would be ineffective.

[ad_orientem]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

. . . and if it is a woman requiring the gun, she get gets what instead?

A vibrator. Batteries included.

[jeremyp]

Guns and the internet, what a potent mix!!!

Gun laws in the States would be pretty pointless now as there are so many washing around that a law restricting them would be ineffective.

And yet they did it in Australia.

[Jack Knave]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

. . . and if it is a woman requiring the gun, she get gets what instead?

A vibrator. Batteries included.

I think she'd prefer someone to do all the household chores. 

[Jack Knave]

Guns and the internet, what a potent mix!!!

Gun laws in the States would be pretty pointless now as there are so many washing around that a law restricting them would be ineffective.

And yet they did it in Australia.

They weren't as bad as the States is, were they? The States is totally swamped by them.

[jeremyp]

If some geezer wants a gun couldn't they just offer him a free knob extension instead?

. . . and if it is a woman requiring the gun, she get gets what instead?

A gun.

[jeremyp]

Guns and the internet, what a potent mix!!!

Gun laws in the States would be pretty pointless now as there are so many washing around that a law restricting them would be ineffective.

And yet they did it in Australia.

They weren't as bad as the States is, were they? The States is totally swamped by them.

It was pretty bad. 

The point is that throwing your hands up and saying "it can't be done" is defeatist nonsense.  It can be done, all you need is the resolve to do it.

[Owlswing]

The main stumbling block to any restriction to gun ownership in American is the NRA.

This group is one of the few places in America where political allegiances, Republican or Democrat, are forgotten in defense of the right granted under the Second Amendment:

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

This, in a way, is a similar problem to rigid adherence to the Bible or the Koran, times have changed since the words were written.

The population is now greater by many millions than it was at the time of the Amendment being made, American no longer needs a "well regulated militia", and the laws relating to various aspects of gun ownership have been, like so many others, overtaken and, to a certain extent, sidelined, by the internet.

The Second Amendment is being championed by the NRA depite the fact that the reason that the Amendement was enacted is no longer valid. The money and political power behind the NRA is enormous and, like a lot of other political power, hidden from public view and the will to oppose the NRA is either just not there or is so fragmented as to be useless. 

[Leonard James]

The main stumbling block to any restriction to gun ownership in American is the NRA.

This group is one of the few places in America where political allegiances, Republican or Democrat, are forgotten in defense of the right granted under the Second Amendment:

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

This, in a way, is a similar problem to rigid adherence to the Bible or the Koran, times have changed since the words were written.

The population is now greater by many millions than it was at the time of the Amendment being made, American no longer needs a "well regulated militia", and the laws relating to various aspects of gun ownership have been, like so many others, overtaken and, to a certain extent, sidelined, by the internet.

The Second Amendment is being championed by the NRA depite the fact that the reason that the Amendement was enacted is no longer valid. The money and political power behind the NRA is enormous and, like a lot of other political power, hidden from public view and the will to oppose the NRA is either just not there or is so fragmented as to be useless.

Too true! The ovine nature of the public in general will resist any change.