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[KaelGotDwarves]

What makes America so special?

Rednecks, hillbillies, teabaggers, the NRA, and a history of "FUCK YEAR AMERICA, GRAB YER GUNS!"?

On a more serious note, a strong belief in the individual having a civic responsibility to maintain his own freedom.

"You can take this gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."

/snark

[Neonivek]

Not to mention that with the US's huge population the amount of documentation and crazy stuff is rather high.

One of my teachers said that the reason why the US has a lot more crazy insane stupid cases then Canada is because they have a higher population so that means that eventually a stupid cases happen 10 times more often.

[Psyco Jelly]

In Alabama where I live, you get the death penalty for putting salt on a railroad. Sitting on a trashcan is also illegal.

[Neruz]

That's not actually the kind of inane crap i'm talking about, but it'll do.

[Cthulhu]

It's illegal in Arkansas to pronounce it that way.  You have to say Arkansaw.

And anyway, Canada had that guy cut off the other guy's head in the middle of the crowded greyhound bus.

There was also that guy who went through the border patrol with a bloody chainsaw and a sword.  They let him into the US, only to later find a guy in the immigrant's hometown missing a head.

Whoops.

[ChairmanPoo]

what happens if you put salt on a railroad?

[Lord Shonus]

If you compare a car from the northern US to one from the southern part, the one in the north rusts quite a bit faster because the roads get salted every year to clear them of snow. Probably, in the post Civil War era, the KKK and other Confederate supporters were involved in low-key sabotage of that sort, raising the maintenance level of the railroads in a method that was too low-key to justify summary execution.

Considering America was a Democracy last time i checked, the government has plenty of reasons to want to keep the people happy without needing to worry about armies of idiots charging around the countryside and shooting each other.

Other Democratic Western countries get by just fine with gun control laws. What makes America so special? Apart from the paranoia.


I feel i should also add that 'fear' is the absolute last emotion you want the government feeling towards it's people.

You mean the nation that has, within living memory, had to enforce court rulings at gunpoint (Brown v. Broad of Education) , was on the verge of a large scale uprising before a charismatic clergyman took another path (Martin Luther King Jr.), and has severely repressed certain political parties (House Unamerican Affairs Commitee)? I'm not even going to get into the controversial Patriot Act.

[Neonivek]

That Broad of Education is one Classy lady

[Arrkhal]

Just ooooone more thing, because this is degenerating into ridiculous America-bashing, due to culture clashes which frankly cannot be breached with the kind of mindset that certain people have.

EDIT: Thinking about it some more. Another big difference with martial arts and weapons is that they require some level of discipline and often years of conditioning.

So a woman who has never had reason to fear for her life before, is now being stalked by a crazy ex-boyfriend, the police can't be there 24/7, and she can't afford to move, and doesn't have anyone she can stay with (plus she'd need to go to and from work anyway).  She should... spend 3 years becoming a master of some BS martial art (which will get her killed anyway because she's half the size of the psycho boyfriend; weight classes exist for a reason), or... gee, I guess getting a gun and spending about a week practicing point-shooting is completely unreasonable.  And then taking a Filipino martial art that actually incorperates firearms and concealable knives (Atienza kali is my favorite)--heresy!

Gun control: the notion that a woman who's raped and strangled to death with her own panties is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.

Fun fact: 35% of rape attempts are successful if the victim is unarmed.  Fewer than 3% of attempts are successful when the victim has a gun.

Another fun fact: The city of Orlando, FL, in response to rising incidence of rape, offered free gun training to women and waived the $140 concealed handgun licence fee for them.  Rapes dropped by 90% within a month, and stayed low for several years.

[Balor]

Yea, there is a strong statistic evidence that having guns accessible to populace prevents crime.

Of course, there bound to be shooting sprees, children that shot themselves by a gun that a careless parent left somewhere accessible, and if someone is REALLY out to get you - even a machine gun will not help you from someone who just sneak up on you and bash your skull in.

However, the general decrease in crime seems to be worth this - I mean, cynically speaking, 100 people that were didn't killed, robbed or raped far outweigh 1 child that killed himself or his schoolmate by his parent's gun (and chances that his genes are not exactly worthy of being replicated anyway).

[Leafsnail]

Do note gangs can and will just stab eachother if guns are not present. Guns don't change much between two groups that will use their bare fits to kill eachother.

It has a couple of effects -

- Reduces innocent casualties in the crossfire signicantly
- Allows the less hardcore members of these gangs to flee more safely

I've heard bystander victum statistics before but frankly I don't know if it is accurate.

The one I heard basically says: "There is a higher chance of a bystander getting shot in a shoot out then the participants"

Not to mention that with the US's huge population the amount of documentation and crazy stuff is rather high.

It doesn't fully explain it.  America has four times as many people as Britain, but far more homicides as a rate.

So a woman who has never had reason to fear for her life before, is now being stalked by a crazy ex-boyfriend, the police can't be there 24/7, and she can't afford to move, and doesn't have anyone she can stay with (plus she'd need to go to and from work anyway).  She should... spend 3 years becoming a master of some BS martial art (which will get her killed anyway because she's half the size of the psycho boyfriend; weight classes exist for a reason), or... gee, I guess getting a gun and spending about a week practicing point-shooting is completely unreasonable.  And then taking a Filipino martial art that actually incorperates firearms and concealable knives (Atienza kali is my favorite)--heresy!

Sorry, but taking up a gun sounds like a horrible idea.  Let's say her ex-boyfriend does break into her house.  Let's say he smashes his way into her bedroom, armed with a gun.  Who's going to be more prepared to fight?  Who's going to be able to shoot first?

Fun fact: 35% of rape attempts are successful if the victim is unarmed.  Fewer than 3% of attempts are successful when the victim has a gun.

Possibly because it's far more likely to turn into a murder.

Yea, there is a strong statistic evidence that having guns accessible to populace prevents crime.

Where?

[Arrkhal]

Sorry, but taking up a gun sounds like a horrible idea.  Let's say her ex-boyfriend does break into her house.  Let's say he smashes his way into her bedroom, armed with a gun.  Who's going to be more prepared to fight?  Who's going to be able to shoot first?

So she should... give up and die, because it's useless.

That's a really horrible justification.  "It don't always work, let's ban it!"

Between statements like that, and "I suppose he spared the ones that resisted," it's pretty obvious that you do think the "give up and die" approach is the best way to deal with crime, even if you're not going to phrase it that way.

Possibly because it's far more likely to turn into a murder.

Completely incorrect.

[Leafsnail]

Between statements like that, and "I suppose he spared the ones that resisted," it's pretty obvious that you do think the "give up and die" approach is the best way to deal with crime, even if you're not going to phrase it that way.

No, and I think you know that isn't my position.  Better law enforcement is far more effective than giving everybody a gun and telling them to fend for themselves.

[Arrkhal]

No, and I think you know that isn't my position.  Better law enforcement is far more effective than giving everybody a gun and telling them to fend for themselves.

Guess what, that's a social issue rather than a legal one.  If there were "adequate" policing, it wouldn't matter what everyone was armed with.

How far from this theoretical woman's house do you think the police are?  How fast could she get to and dial a phone compared to her reaching a gun?  How fast would the police get there compared to a bullet going from her gun to the attacker (and just what do you think the police would do to someone they found murdering a woman, anyway, use harsh language)?  Just how much manpower do you think it'd take to allow the police to actually prevent crimes, and intervene as they occur, rather than responding 10, 15, or more minutes after the fact?

Oops, that's not a good idea at all.  She would be totally unprepared to reach a phone and correctly dial it, even if the attacker were unarmed.  Police obviously should be illegal, because they do no one any good, ever.

Every single person in the country would need to be a police officer, and they'd need to be on 12 hour shifts, one watching the other, to make personal self defense obsolete.

It's not like anyone even is arguing for "giving everybody a gun and telling them to fend for themselves," as your blatantly straw man argument goes.  Carrying a gun is a choice, and some people actually want that choice to be available to people who don't do policing as their only job.

[Neruz]

I assume you realise that the purpose of Police is not to prevent crime and that you're just being a dipstick.