bssage said:
Cybele
The way I understand it. The reason guns are hard to get there is because of mass shootings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Schwab
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoddle_Street_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Street_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathfield_massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Coast_Massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(Australia[/url])
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting
And it is also my understanding that the new gun laws are being cited as the reason these incidents have been reduced (even though one of those links involved a knife)
Affirmative.
Don't worry bssage, I remember every single one of them, they all happened in my lifetime and I worked on Hoddle street at the time of the shooting at a late night dry cleaner and I was on shift that night, I remember the Hoddle street massacre way too clearly for my liking.
And that string during the late 80's - early 90's, ending with Port Arthur was the reason why Australia now has strict gun control laws, the general consensus is that they were caused by a lot of monkey-see-monkey-do, because they were just so close together and honestly, in '96, it was as if the government pulled out the parent card and had to go "Okay, you all can't use these properly so you lose them, no ifs ands or butts" which did piss off a lot of people, naturally, but I really do think it was a case of necessity because, obviously, we couldn't use them without going to ridiculous shooting rampages, and as a country on a whole, we really haven't looked back since.
I feel a little strange commenting on Monash Uni, because that was a very strange situation and the Australian public never got the whole story of what happened, simply down to the fact that Australia, as a country as a whole, is still ridiculously racist and the media was so hung up on the fact that it was an international student with very very restricted knowledge of English that it was near impossible to find any facts, just rambling idiots ranting and raving about the "evils" of immigration. What I do know is that following Monash Uni, after it was revealed the gun used was obtained legally for the sport of shooting, was that we got even tighter with our gun laws.
But onto America, because obviously that is the country of topic for gun control at the moment.
The way I understand and interpret with, and I could be way off, but all I really have to work on is what the media reports here, currently the guns laws are one of the loosest in the first world, I believe that the US is too rooted in gun culture for just flat out "No, say goodbye to guns, you can't use them properly" however I really think tighter restrictions need to come into place.
Am I correct in saying that with the shooting at Sandy Hook, the family of the shooter were "apocalypse stockpiling" or something like that and they had 6 loaded guns in their possession? That is really what the media here has focused on, is the sheer number of guns people use. Obviously there is little you can do for those who have unregistered firearms, but I really cannot understand why someone would need to carry more operational guns, ready for use, then people to operate them. My belief is that the first step the US needs to take is restriction in number of firearms.
And sorry Bryan, I know you won't like this, but I also believe that at no point does a civilian have a reason to carry a concealed weapon. There is no legitimate reason, honestly the only pro argument I have heard is "In case an incident happens and I can save the day" or whatever, which I think is a non-argument because generally if one has plans to shoot up a place, they are not in a well enough state of mind to go "Whoops, hold up, I can see that person holding a gun, won't shoot up this place today" whether other people with guns are visible or not, chances are, that person is still going to kill people, and really, add someone not trained to use a gun trying to be a hero into that mix, and you probably will end up with more dead and/or injured innocent people.
I think if you take massacres out of it, because whilst devastating, they are a minority in terms of crime in first world countries and look at general gun crime, the main issue could even be education and security. Keeping guns away from small children, teaching how to use them correctly, teaching restraint. Not "I'll keep a loaded gun under my pillow in reach of my unsupervised two year old".
Just to brush on the topic of "the criminals will always have guns" criminals also make meth, doesn't mean it needs to be readily available to everyone.