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originally posted by: badw0lf
and we even have those funny looking lot, the Yanks. Can't quite put my finger on what they are.
originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: PerfectAnomoly
The problem stems from several things:
1) Some people seem to think the US is and should be just like the UK and Australia - The fact is, the US is nothing like the UK or Ozzie land. Not just culture differences and origins differences, but even physical differences (we are not a island nation - we have two other countries that border ours).
2) Banning something does not make it go away here in the US - Both Prohibition and the War On Drugs have proven this over and over. Ban something here, and it will flow across our borders (we're not an island nation again).
3) Banning something does not magically make it go away - Banning guns has no effect here. Guns will still be here. Does not mater how many here on ATS seem to think that all guns will somehow magically disappear if the federal government were to removed the 2nd Amendment and ban all privately owned guns. The guns will still be here (hundreds of millions of them), and they will flow across the border.
4) More laws are not going to change anything. Yesterday's shooting is a prime example of that - the shooter was not allowed to legally own a firearm, and yet he was able to obtain one and kill people with it. Murder is also against the law, but that did not stop him. Too many people here seem to think that more laws will somehow magically stop mass shootings. It won't.
The United States of America is the United States of America. People need to stop demanding that it be the UK or Australia, or Norway, or Sweden, or any other country. It's not, nor will it ever be like them.
The US is a large country with a large population and a large amount of gun ownership. It's a fact of life. We have a very wide amount of demographics and various cultures right within our own boarders.
If you live in New Jersey (a physically small state as far as land area is considered), you have 1,218 people in on square mile. Yet in Wyoming it's only 6 people per square mile.....Alaska? 1 person per square mile.....and those are just numbers. There are places you can go where there is no one for many square miles.
We have tens of millions of people packed into huge mega cities.....but we also have millions of people (millions of them) living in very rural areas....and people living in areas that are not even rural, but are considered wilderness.
The main mindset of most Americans (and has been since this country got started) is that you can do what you want, be what you want, go where you want, say what you want, believe in what you want, and own what you want.....with out the damn government interfering with that. It's what the founding values of this country were.
Trying to dictate to us what we can or can not do, can or can not say, can or can not own is never, ever, going to fly.
I know many of you do not like the US bombing some country and trying to change their governments, right? (which I agree with, I don't think we should be doing that either).
But here you are trying to do the same thing in essence: dictate what laws we should have, what we should and should not be able to do, and what we can or can not own, in our own country.
Stop it. Stop the double standard. The US will never be the UK or any other country for that mater. What works in one place does not always work elsewhere.
originally posted by: midnightstar
Before guns people were being killed with swords and arrows before swords and arrows people were being killed with spears before spears rocks .
originally posted by: avgguy
It's our right to own guns. You don't have that right and never will, that's why we fight to keep our rights so that we aren't disarmed sheep like Europe is.
originally posted by: PerfectAnomoly
Good afternoon ATS.
I have recently reached a conclusion, and I'd like to share my experience with others, to try to stop some of the ongoing debates....
I recently realized that the UK and US's views on gun control are so diametrically opposed, that arguing/debating about said gun controls is fruitless.... It took me 20 years to get to this point... I've spent that last 20 years attempting to point out where the Americans are going wrong, in my opinion, and I've reached this conclusion:-
Americans believe that a society with more guns is a safer society, the more guns the better.
Most other countries, (including the UK and Australia), believe that a society with less guns is safer, seems like common sense...
Unfortunately no headway will ever be made in this debate due to this reason....
So let's extend it to its ridiculous extents.... If no-one had guns, think how hard it would be to get hold of one? Would this result in less shootings or more? Think about it....
If everyone had say, 30 guns, imagine how many more accidents there would be? How would this affect the number of shootings that happen?
I'd be interested to hear all views and opinions on this matter....
PA
originally posted by: nwtrucker
The Aussies are addled by over-rated beer, heat stroke and snake venom.
originally posted by: Kryties
originally posted by: nwtrucker
The Aussies are addled by over-rated beer, heat stroke and snake venom.
LOL.
I REALLY hope you're joking about that. If not, however.....
1. Over-rated beer? Are you talking about that Fosters crap we export? You actually think Aussies drink that carbonated urine? We keep the good stuff for ourselves and you lot get the dregs.
2. Heat stroke - only during summer In winter, where I live 2 hours west of Sydney on a farm it gets into the negatives (Celcius). We had snow here the past several winters.
3. It might surprise foreigners to know but its rare for someone to die here in Oz of snake or spider bites. We have the best anti-venom protocols in the world, all hospitals/ambos are well stocked and we are taught in primary school how to treat bites and get help. Simple, common sense precautions will avoid most sticky situations.