Why More Americans Want to Own Guns

[CapnAwesome]

Scan through the Fucking Cops thread.  Plenty of examples of cops claiming things which don't appear on the videos they didn't know were recording them.

(To me, that implies a basic level of dishonesty.)

Percentages, please.

That's a hard stat to come up with. Obviously it's a wide spread problem though, because whole departments go through efforts to cover up police crime. Chest cameras are mysteriously lost or weren't functioning the day of shootings. Prosecutions against a police officer when they clearly murder someone are extremely extremely rare. That's not just a individual bad cop, that's a bad system in place.

[downbeatplumb]

I reject the notion that gun control worked well in Britiain. The murder rate didn't go down after the various gun control measures there. So by what standard did it work well? Britain has a lower murder rate then the US, but then it has a similarly lower murder rate before it had gun control as well. Britain has always had a lower murder rate then the US, regardless of it's gun control laws. I haven't seen any evidence that Britain's gun laws lowered the murder rate there. If it isn't causing less murders, what's the point?

Well that would be because you do not know about the history of gun crime gun crime in the UK. We have had no mass shootings since semi automatic rifles were banned after the Hungerford massacre. The ban has worked extremely well In my view and has prevented mass murders. Do you think the people who beheaded Lee Rigby would have killed just the one person if they had had access to the array of weaponry that any idiot can purchase in America, no they would have tried to carry out paris style attacks.

[Gawdzilla]

Percentages, please.

That's a hard stat to come up with. Obviously it's a wide spread problem though, because whole departments go through efforts to cover up police crime. Chest cameras are mysteriously lost or weren't functioning the day of shootings. Prosecutions against a police officer when they clearly murder someone are extremely extremely rare. That's not just a individual bad cop, that's a bad system in place.

"Obviously", but  you can't say how obviously. 

[The Grand Nudger]

I've just today heard 4 more stories of gun injury locally just this morning. One was a kid playing with a legal firearm .

Illegally stored.  State laws.  Might be a felony, depending on the specifics, not that the courts will pursue it......

Well that would be because you do not know about the history of gun crime gun crime in the UK. We have had no mass shootings since semi automatic rifles were banned after the Hungerford massacre. The ban has worked extremely well In my view and has prevented mass murders. Do you think the people who beheaded Lee Rigby would have killed just the one person if they had had access to the array of weaponry that any idiot can purchase in America, no they would have tried to carry out paris style attacks.

Firstly, the idea that any idiot can get his hands on overwhelming firepower is a gross bit of misinformation.  Secondly, in the US...mass shooters use handguns, not semi-auto rifles. Completely nuts motherfuckers are a small subset of mass shooters which is, itself, a negligible fraction of -our- gun problem. Banning guns to prevent one or two crimes...while creating an entirely new problem even more serious...as we ignore the initial -endemic- problem....is unlikely to go well - to achieve the results we hope for. It will cost us, though, tremendously.

[downbeatplumb]

Well that would be because you do not know about the history of gun crime gun crime in the UK. We have had no mass shootings since semi automatic rifles were banned after the Hungerford massacre. The ban has worked extremely well In my view and has prevented mass murders. Do you think the people who beheaded Lee Rigby would have killed just the one person if they had had access to the array of weaponry that any idiot can purchase in America, no they would have tried to carry out paris style attacks.

Firstly, the idea that any idiot can get his hands on overwhelming firepower is a gross bit of misinformation.  Secondly, in the US...mass shooters use handguns, not semi-auto rifles.  Completely nuts motherfuckers are a small subset of mass shooters which is, itself, a negligible fraction of -our- gun problem.   Banning guns to prevent one or two crimes...while creating an entirely new problem even more serious...as we ignore the initial -endemic- problem....is unlikely to go well - to achieve the results we hope for.  It will cost us, though, tremendously.

A pistol IS overwhelming fire power. We have to register for airsoft guns here. The amount of gun crimes that haven't happened because there are no guns available is a hard one to gage but the simple fact is that if guns were available people would die by guns more often. In the US there is a massive problem with guns, banning outright may not be the answer but something should be done.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

I reject the notion that gun control worked well in Britiain. The murder rate didn't hi down after the various gun control measures there. So by what standard did it work well? Britain has a lower murder rate then the US, but then it has a similarly lower murder rate before it had gun control as well. Britain has always had a lower murder rate then the US, regardless of it's gun control laws. I haven't seen any evidence that Britain's gun laws lowered the murder rate there. If it isn't causing less murders, what's the point?

Well that would be because you do not know about the history of gun crime gun crime in the UK. We have had no mass shootings since semi automatic rifles were banned after the Hungerford massacre. The ban has worked extremely well In my view and has prevented mass murders. Do you think the people who beheaded Lee Rigby would have killed just the one person if they had had access to the array of weaponry that any idiot can purchase in America, no they would have tried to carry out paris style attacks.

Why do you think anyone who would kill by beheading does so in such a symbolically gruesome way on account of not having access to guns? Do you think that's the case in ISIS beheadings?

Having a gun does not mean having the motive to kill any more than you have, when you go on any sort of a killing spree.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

I reject the notion that gun control worked well in Britiain. The murder rate didn't go down after the various gun control measures there. So by what standard did it work well? Britain has a lower murder rate then the US, but then it has a similarly lower murder rate before it had gun control as well. Britain has always had a lower murder rate then the US, regardless of it's gun control laws. I haven't seen any evidence that Britain's gun laws lowered the murder rate there. If it isn't causing less murders, what's the point?

Well that would be because you do not know about the history of gun crime gun crime in the UK. We have had no mass shootings since semi automatic rifles were banned after the Hungerford massacre. The ban has worked extremely well In my view and has prevented mass murders. Do you think the people who beheaded Lee Rigby would have killed just the one person if they had had access to the array of weaponry that any idiot can purchase in America, no they would have tried to carry out paris style attacks.

I understand that law-abiding British civilians don't have guns. Does this mean that British criminals don't have them either?

[The Grand Nudger]

Firstly, the idea that any idiot can get his hands on overwhelming firepower is a gross bit of misinformation.  Secondly, in the US...mass shooters use handguns, not semi-auto rifles.  Completely nuts motherfuckers are a small subset of mass shooters which is, itself, a negligible fraction of -our- gun problem.   Banning guns to prevent one or two crimes...while creating an entirely new problem even more serious...as we ignore the initial -endemic- problem....is unlikely to go well - to achieve the results we hope for.  It will cost us, though, tremendously.

A pistol IS overwhelming fire power. We have to register for airsoft guns here.

I'm not sure that comparisons are going to be very useful...we've already seen how different the us gun problem is, and how different stats play out in entirely opposite manners.  

The amount of gun crimes that haven't happened because there are no guns available is a hard one to gage but the simple fact is that if guns were available people would die by guns more often. In the US there is a massive problem with guns, banning outright may not be the answer but something should be done.

There's a massive problem with suicide and drug related crime/cops.  Every available stat -in our country-  tells us that the guns aren't the causative factor.   Altering the rates of ownership -as we have in the past- does not have a noticeable effect on crime rates or murder rates.

[FebruaryOfReason]

It's a bit like God really.

If you really want to believe in him, you'll find a reason that isn't "I'm afraid of dying - this looks like a good way to bury my head in the sand".

If you really want a gun, you'll find a reason for that too. One that isn't "guns make me feel big and powerful."

Hello from the UK, btw.

[Minimalist]

Today's news:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/loca.../80282174/

Two 15-year-old female students are dead, and there are no outstanding suspects, after a double shooting Friday morning at the Independence High School campus in Glendale, police said.

Right about now some parent is wondering where they put that gun they got to keep their family "safe."