WHY?

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Kevin Farnell
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Re: WHY?

Post by Kevin Farnell »

I think there is quite a different mindset between a lot of people in the US (not all) and those of other western nations. Here in the UK, if I go out (say shopping in the city), it never crosses my mind that there maybe someone carrying a loaded weapon. The chance would be miniscule and as such, no one else feels the need to carry a weapon (not that it would be legal to do so). Whereas in the US, the mindset seems to be the opposite with people thinking 'well, if they have a gun, I'd better get one too to protect myself'. As such, I would feel far more anxious going into a US city for shopping (even if I had a gun myself), than I do in the UK without a gun. I'd constantly be thinking 'how many people are carrying a gun, what mood are they in, have they recently had a breakup or been fired?'
I think there is a simple answer. If nobody can get hold of a gun (whether they're a 'good' or 'bad' person), then no one can use a gun! You and everyone else will be much, much safer.

Kevin
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nigelb
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Re: WHY?

Post by nigelb »

Kevin you are certainly correct about the difference in mind sets here! My daughter has even had me call the British Embassy to find out what she would need to do to emigrate. Turns out she has citizenship through me but can't pass that to my two grandchildren. Like me, she is very concerned about gun violence in this country and their safety.

I wept when I heard that they had to use DNA to identify some of the the little children murdered in Texas. Why? The assault weapon used, a weapon of war, does so much damage to a body that it is rendered unidentifiable. Can you imagine being a parent of one of those children? Yet assault weapons are allowed to 18 year olds in Texas with no license or requirement for training. Tragically amazing!

Yet many here want to distract from the fact that guns are the cause of this carnage. Look over there, violence happens overseas in Sweden, China, the UK so we can't stop it. Create enough distraction so we don't have to address our problem and it will go away like it has every previous time. Fact: there have been over 213 mass shootings in the US, including 27 school shootings so far THIS YEAR!!!! I doubt there have been that many incidents of knife violence in Sweden, China and the UK combined in the last ten years!

Oh, we can arm the teachers, as if they don't have enough to do already. Besides, teachers have been accused of being villeins recently for indoctrinating their students, so now we are going to arm them? Typical RepubliTWIT hypocrisy. How about armed guards like the one in Buffalo that tragically lost hi life but failed to stop a shooter armed with body armor and an assault rifle. The numerous law enforcement personnel that took over 40 minutes to eventually stop the shooter in Texas but did not stop the cold blooded murder of 19 children and two teachers in time.

Enough is enough! Repeal the Second Amendment! Oh, I know that is a sacrilege in America but "A well regulated Militia" means the National Guard and "bear arms?" Well, considering the time of its writing that meant muskets where you stuff a ball inside the barrel and then put the powder charge in. Single shot, of course and I bet it takes far longer to reload than it would a shooter with an assault rifle to murder several innocent children.

Nigel²

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Kevin Farnell
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Re: WHY?

Post by Kevin Farnell »

Unfortunately, there has been an increase in knife crime in the UK over the past few years. This has tended to be in the poorer parts of London and other big cities, or gang related. I believe that UK law says that a knife carried in public can only be a manually folding knife (i.e. not a 'flick' knife nor a locking knife) and the blade must be less than 3 inches long. Not that gangs would pay any attention to the law.

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Paul K
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Re: WHY?

Post by Paul K »

An article from The New Yorker, sent to me from the USA:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-colu ... -the-world

I don't think it says anything that we didn't know already, but it's worth reminding ourselves of what can be done if the will is there.

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AllanL
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Re: WHY?

Post by AllanL »

My son pointed out last night that our rate in the UK for knife crime deaths (per 100k) is lower than the rate for knife crime in the US. US Gun deaths are of the order of 100x the UK rate needless to say.

Some of the reporting from Texas of inaction and/or handcuffing/tasering/pepper spraying agitated parents outside the school by police just makes the whole sorry disaster even worse.

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Re: WHY?

Post by TSR2 »

Too many people stand to lose too much money / power / influence from gun controls in the US. It really is that simple and why it hasn’t been done.

There’s no rational justification for the inaction, its simply greed. (at its lowest level).
Ben.:tunes:

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nigelb
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Re: WHY?

Post by nigelb »

! am going to be blunt here so be forewarned. Any thoughts about more guns in schools solves the problem or that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guys with a gun is nonsense. Having just watched the latest press conference from Texas law enforcement all I can say is what an effing joke. Looks like a complete failure to protect lives on the part of law enforcement. This despite children making 911 calls (999 calls) for up to an hour after the shooting began from inside their classroom.
I don't care if this offends any Texas law enforcement people but in my opinion their performance during this scenario lacked courage and was gutless.

Oh, I did some research on mental health spending in Texas. Thanks to the RepubliTWITS and their governor Abbott, it ranks either last in the US or close to last, depending on which ranking you check. In fact Texas has cut health care spending in all areas.

Nigel²

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