WOW,even a man with his hands in the air is shot dead.........GUESS WHERE??

[Starman]

Of course you can't comprehend it.  But it's instilled in our culture because without guns we wouldn't have been able to kick the redcoat arseholes off our continent. 

USA is not a continent.

Gun laws in USA clearly need looking at.

[urleft]

Of course you can't comprehend it.  But it's instilled in our culture because without guns we wouldn't have been able to kick the redcoat arseholes off our continent. 

USA is not a continent.

Gun laws in USA clearly need looking at.

Really?  And exactly where was the USA when the Red Coats were expunged from the colonies?   It did not exist. 

[Starman]

Of course you can't comprehend it.  But it's instilled in our culture because without guns we wouldn't have been able to kick the redcoat arseholes off our continent. 

USA is not a continent.

Gun laws in USA clearly need looking at.

Really?  And exactly where was the USA when the Red Coats were expunged from the colonies?   It did not exist. 

My apologies. I read that this thread had something to do with modern day shootings in a country called USA.

[dimple joe]

I have no obsession about guns in the US ,BUT what I can't comprehend is why the typical 'Gun Ho' American thinks it is OK for the Police in the US to kill almost at will.
Whilst guns are almost freely available over there it no small wonder the regular 'bloodbaths' occur.
I wasn't around for almost 3 days towards the end of the week BUT that is pretty irrelevant to me........I post things when I see them & will always pull out a response......Where is Keith??

Who are the “Gung Ho” Americans you speak of ? 

Are they real people, or a figment of your imagination?

None of those I've met, think it's ok for the Police in the US to kill “almost at will” as you put it.

On the contrary; like most normal people, they are saddened by each death but hold the view that while there are some rotten apples; in the main the US Police are do a good job in difficult circumstances.

It's amusing that you only “post things when you see them”, you have regularly posted when black guys have been shot by the Police, but I don't recall any threads you have started when blacks kill people.

Face it, you are just an over the hill Brit, living in the back of beyond, running a grotty bar.

US gun laws do not effect your life, so why keep on about them?

If you look at this http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Murders-with-firearms and you will see that Thailand is far worse than the US in firearms murders, why not rant about that?

[urleft]

Apologies accepted.

[iammike]

removed

[DeputyDavid]

I have no obsession about guns in the US ,BUT what I can't comprehend is why the typical 'Gun Ho' American thinks it is OK for the Police in the US to kill almost at will.
Whilst guns are almost freely available over there it no small wonder the regular 'bloodbaths' occur.
I wasn't around for almost 3 days towards the end of the week BUT that is pretty irrelevant to me........I post things when I see them & will always pull out a response......Where is Keith??

Who are the “Gung Ho” Americans you speak of ? 

Are they real people, or a figment of your imagination?

None of those I've met, think it's ok for the Police in the US to kill “almost at will” as you put it.

On the contrary; like most normal people, they are saddened by each death but hold the view that while there are some rotten apples; in the main the US Police are do a good job in difficult circumstances.

It's amusing that you only “post things when you see them”, you have regularly posted when black guys have been shot by the Police, but I don't recall any threads you have started when blacks kill people.

Face it, you are just an over the hill Brit, living in the back of beyond, running a grotty bar.

US gun laws do not effect your life, so why keep on about them?

If you look at this http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Murders-with-firearms and you will see that Thailand is far worse than the US in firearms murders, why not rant about that?

Thailand, where gun ownership is far more strict.  Go figure. 

[nookiebear]

Certainly livened up the forum!!

[Voodoo]

Certainly livened up the forum!!

That you most certainly did !!! As the Klingons would say..  KaPlaa... Success...

[urleft]

John R. Lott Jr.: Americans are learning that more guns mean less crime

John R. Lott Jr.
12:01 AM, Sep 6, 2015
11:27 AM, Sep 6, 2015



Americans are increasingly convinced that owning a gun makes them safer.

A new Rasmussen poll found that an overwhelming majority of Americans (68 percent) “feel safer in a neighborhood where guns are allowed.” And a series of polls by Gallup, the Pew Research Center, and ABC News and the Washington Post show similar results.

But it isn’t just what people say. They are clearly putting more stock in self-defense. Since 2007, the number of concealed-handgun permits has soared, from 4.6 million to 12.8 million. A new study by the Crime Prevention Research Center finds that a record 1.7 million permits have been issued in just the past year, a 15.4 percent increase.

Nationwide, 5.2 percent of adults have a permit.

But in five states, more than 10 percent of adults now have concealed-carry permits. In some counties around the United States, more than 1 in 5 adults are licensed to carry. In much of the country, someone among theatergoers or restaurant customers is likely to be legally carrying a permitted concealed handgun.

But even these numbers don’t do full justice to the change that has taken place.

Recently, Maine became the 10th state to allow concealed carrying without a permit in all or almost all of the state. Kansas and Mississippi also made the change on July 1. In these states, we no longer know how many people are legally carrying guns, and thus the 12.8 million figure is clearly an underestimation.

Women increasingly carry guns and hold more than a quarter of concealed-handgun permits. Since 2007, the number of permits among men has grown by 156 percent, and among women by 270 percent.

There is also evidence that minorities are catching on to the benefits of concealed carry. Blacks now make up 7 to 8 percent of permit holders, but their rate of increase is double that of whites.

Poverty presents an obstacle, as permits can be very expensive. In Illinois, for instance, the total cost of getting a permit, including fees and mandated training costs, is about $450. In neighboring Indiana, it is just $45.

With Democrats typically pushing for higher costs to reduce the number of people with permits, the biggest impact is to disarm the people who are the most likely victims of violent crime, the ones who need the permits the most: poor minorities who live in high-crime urban areas.

Changing attitudes also explain the changing composition of permit holders. Since 2012, when the Pew Research Center started asking people if they think guns make them safer, there has been a 25 percent surge in the proportion of blacks who think so. The increase was 11 percent among women — more than the increase among men.

These new permits seem to have worked well. Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates fell from 5.6 to 4.2 deaths per 100,000 (according to preliminary estimates). This 25 percent drop coincided with a 156 percent increase in the number of adults with permits. A similar drop occurred in other violent crimes.

The data have consistently shown that states with the biggest increases in permits also experienced the biggest reductions in murder rates. Dozens of academic papers have documented that allowing concealed carrying leads to a reduction in violent crime, and the Crime Prevention Research Center report shows that this pattern has continued over the last few years.

Permit holders are extremely law-abiding — even more law-abiding than the police, who are rarely convicted of crimes. The latest data from Texas and Florida continue to show that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth the rate that police officers are.

Recently, former CNN anchor Lynne Russell and her husband received national attention for using their permitted concealed handgun to save their lives. Only after the robber started shooting did Russell’s wounded husband pull out his gun and return fire.

With more than 12.8 million people legally able to carry handguns, the couple’s experience is hardly unique. As dramatic as their story was, it was unusual mainly in that it received national publicity because Russell is so famous. Americans with concealed handguns save lives every day.

John R. Lott Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of “More Guns, Less Crime.”


http://www.commercialappeal.com/opinion/analysis/john-r-lott-jr-americans-are-learning-that-more-guns-mean-less-crime_50961399

[RonTexas]

good post urleft

[Voodoo]

Americans have known this for years.. That's why we don't care what the rest of the world thinks.. Great post Urleft..

[davureborn]

Obama was bitterly attacked for his proposed gun law legislation, I have read through it ( http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/summary-president-obama-gun-proposals.aspx ) and it seems reasonable to me;

Extract from the proposed gun law legislation:
Requires background checks for all gun sales and strengthens the background check system.  This would include removing barriers under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act so that states may more freely share information about mental health issues involving potential gun purchasers. And another:
Bans military-style assault weapons and limits magazines to a capacity of 10 rounds. A few of the crimes committed over the last year or two would have been prevented or limited if these laws were in place, including the one about not letting loonies have a gun.

I can think of a few crimes that have been committed in the USA with magazines of more than 10 (and even 10 sounds excessive to me.) and by mentally unstable p[eople, in the last few years.

[urleft]

Does not sound reasonable to me.  If the current gun laws are not working then get rid of them.  Obama even admits that the new laws would not have prevented the latest shooting. 

The latest is that unaccountable GVT employees can decide unilaterally to confiscate guns from Disabled Veterans: 

BREAKING: Gun Confiscation for Veterans Begins… But First Victim Had a Sheriff, 2 State Reps and 100 Local Patriots Show Up at House Yesterday to Stop It.

http://libertynews.com/2015/08/breaking-gun-confiscation-for-veterans-begins-but-first-victim-had-a-sheriff-2-state-reps-and-100-local-patriots-show-up-at-house-yesterday-to-stop-it/

[Adam]

Let them all keep their guns. It seems to make them happy and barring the murders at schools etc crime is down. Way to go.