An Australian on American gun laws

[Schuetze]

Why? Well, because they don't know if you're the next guy to snap and go on a killing spree. They don't know if one of your friends is going to steal your guns and be that person. They don't know if your guns are secure enough not to be stolen by a burglar who then uses them to kill someone. The existence of the guns is a threat, regardless of your assurances of their safety.

Then those people should rent a padded room inside an asylum to protect themselves from everything out there that they cannot control. What you want to do, is completely control every aspect of a person, as long as you are not sure if that person cannot fart without authorization you will always be afraid of smelling it.

The point is: You cannot control EVERYTHING, I own my guns and I know the responsibility that lies with having them, what other people think is not my problem. They can call the cops on me for owning legal guns and the cops will laugh at them.

If people really want to be safe maybe they should go live in a bunker, close the door and live without a single risk.

If I was that scared I wouldn't even get out of my house for fear that I could die outside!

[Deleted]

So because restricting the availability of guns will not prevent all forms of mass murder, no restrictions should be put in place? Brilliant!

[Titan2k10]

Then those people should rent a padded room inside an asylum to protect themselves from everything out there that they cannot control. What you want to do, is completely control every aspect of a person, as long as you are not sure if that person cannot fart without authorization you will always be afraid of smelling it.

The point is: You cannot control EVERYTHING, I own my guns and I know the responsibility that lies with having them, what other people think is not my problem. They can call the cops on me for owning legal guns and the cops will laugh at them.

If I was that scared I wouldn't even get out of my house for fear that I could die outside!

Struck by a meteor!

[Deleted]

You cannot control EVERYTHING

True. You can, however, control who gets to own a gun, how many guns, and what kind of guns.

[Titan2k10]

So because restricting the availability of guns will not prevent all forms of mass murder, no restrictions should be put in place? Brilliant!

We should ban all smoking and all alcohol then as well......

- - - Updated - - -

True. You can, however, control who gets to own a gun, how many guns, and what kind of guns.

The who is the biggest.....You can admit the person is the problem in this statement but continue to blame the guns in others. What giveS?

[Wildtree]

It's not that I don't care what the rest of the world thinks. I just don't like it when someone with little to no knowledge of other issues in America make blanket statements on how to fix something.

Yes, as an American I will freely admit we have issues. Yes we have problems with mass shootings, but are those problems because of guns or underlying social issues that we still need to work out? I think it has been pretty much proven by other countries that guns themselves aren't the problem.

Then there is also the fact the most of America is rural areas. Places where police response time it very slow. In many areas it can take at least 10 if not 30-60 minutes for police to respond. Just read this in the news this morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/two-men-girl-h...040007545.html

Sure it could have turned out worse, but the same is true if they didn't have guns.

As for tighter gun control I'm not strictly against it, but has it really shown to help much? Look at Chicago for example, a place with stricter gun control ends up being one of the worst areas for gun violence.

Now on to these mass shooting. Most (not all) of the people that commit these crimes are people that would be allowed guns even with tighter control. Most of them showed no previous signs of mental illness, and even if they did it wasn't recorded properly to get the person help. Meaning they would still be able to get guns.

I cannot agree more with you. It's a very well worded summary.

[Deleted]

We should ban all smoking and all alcohol then as well......

/palm, seriously. So now we swing the other way completely and ban everything under the sun? Brilliant

[IKT]

So because restricting the availability of guns will not prevent all forms of mass murder, no restrictions should be put in place? Brilliant!

^

We are just as spread out as America and we at least gave it a shot.

[Wildtree]

So because restricting the availability of guns will not prevent all forms of mass murder, no restrictions should be put in place? Brilliant!

Who said that?
Those strawman replies don't contribute anything positive, instead they make it rather worse.
It's as bad as someone who's an outright gun-crazy nut.

[Schuetze]

True. You can, however, control who gets to own a gun, how many guns, and what kind of guns.

Not a problem in Switzerland. Check the my other post about gun homicide, homicide and gun ownership. We have no problems with guns.

If you come to Switzerland and basically pee yourself because somewhere, someone might come out of the house with a Stgw 90 and start shooting, maybe my country wouldn't be the one for you.

Meanwhile I think you guys have a high amount of homicide in Finland, mostly stabbings. Just think about that.

Let's see some sources on Finland VS Switzerland:



http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/co..._possession/65



http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/co..._any_method/65



http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/co...un_homicide/65



http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/co..._any_method/65

Really interesting how you have higher murder, higher suicide and the same amount of guns per capita.

I wonder why this happens in Finland. Now this is a case to check it out, it would be interesting to see what factors contribute to these stats.

[Deleted]

You can admit the person is the problem in this statement but continue to blame the guns in others. What giveS?

No, no. The gun is obviously always the problem. The person is just the method through which that problem materializes. Saying that it's not the gun that's the problem but the person is like claiming nuclear weapons aren't a problem, only those who use them. Of course nuclear weapons are a problem. And so are guns. And just like with guns, nuclear weapons are only used by the craziest among us, who then make the problem materialize.

Not a problem in Switzerland. Check the my other post about gun homicide, homicide and gun ownership. We have no problems with guns.

If you come to Switzerland and basically pee yourself because somewhere, someone might come out of the house with a Stgw 90 and start shooting, maybe my country wouldn't be the one for you.

"Not a problem in Switzerland", yet "someone might come out the house and start shooting." That's the definition of a problem. Of course your country has a problem.

Meanwhile I think you guys have a high amount of homicide in Finland, mostly stabbings. Just think about that.

I think my country has a problem, as well. Do you have a point, other than guns are problematic in every country which allows them?

[Romanesca]

Deaths is 10+. Homicides is 3+ (US)
Deaths is 1+, Homicides is .13 (Australia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ted_death_rate

22.68 million (2012)
Australia, Population

313.9 million (2012)
United States of America, Population


More than 10 times the population, so gee I wonder what that means. Also, Americans really don't give a shit about what other people think of us. "Guns don't kill people, I kill people".

[Afrospinach]

I did this post a while ago but it was ignored mostly by everyone where I showed real sources that the problem is the culture and social stability in a country and not the gun ownership:

One simple question, who can own a gun in Switzerland vs who can in the US? I know the answer, but it makes your entire post completely disingenuous and is the point a lot of people try to get at.

We should ban all smoking and all alcohol then as well......

I am noticing liberally shitty interpretation of concepts is a bit of a pastime for gun rights people. You are better of saying you should remove all speed limits because someone might break them. Doesn't really make much sense, does it?

[Schuetze]

One simple question, who can own a gun in Switzerland vs who can in the US? I know the answer, but it makes your entire post completely disingenuous and is the point a lot of people try to get at.

Anyone that passes a background check can own a gun in Switzerland. Of course if he/she is over 18 years old.

This is basically what you have to fill out in order to get a Semi-Automatic gun in Switzerland:

http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/dam...such_wes-d.pdf

[Twotonsteak]

WARNING: Inflamatory topic. No troll intended, but I'm going to piss some people off saying this. I think it needs to be discussed.

I'm an Australian and I was browsing an Aussie news website a few minutes back. My eyes flew over the following headline: US High School Shooting in Oregon. My reaction? A half second of "Oh. Heh. Another one. Stupid Americans and their guns.". Then I moved on.

Only after I did a double-take did I feel really saddened by that reaction. I've talked to friends and colleagues, and they've admitted they've been having similar reactions lately.

Do those of you in the USA know what that means, US? This is happening so bloody often now that the rest of the world has given up on you. And that's just sad. The world has become as desensitized to American mass shootings as Americans have to war, disease and famine in Africa.

The big difference between Africa and the U.S. of course is that the U.S. problem has a simple cause and an obvious solution. We enacted it here in Australia after Martin Bryant (Who frighteningly used to live in the house right behind my school bus stop when I was growing up... Random aside) killed 35 people at Port Arthur and haven't had a single mass shooting since 1996.

Australia has 1.06 firearm deaths per 100,000 compared to the United States' 10.3 firearm deaths per 100,000. Just think about that for a minute.

Seriously America. Get your shit together on guns and stop an ugly, totally unnecessary problem.

Austrailia has a population of 36.25 million people. The US has a population of 318,892,103. Not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.

[Deleted]

If you don't live in the US, it is not your fucking business...

When we talk about business, you talk about selling guns, dont you?

They kill people in Germany too with weapons. And if you paid attention, those that kill children with guns are... almost all of them .... children themselves.
Stop making an idiot out of yourself....

We got no guns publically available. And no NRA that sells guns to militaristic idiots.

[Fullmetal89]

Dear Aussies,

We don't give a fuck what you think.

Yours Truly,
America

I second this, settle your own problems first before telling us how to deal with ours.

[Titan2k10]

No, no. The gun is obviously always the problem. The person is just the method through which that problem materializes. Saying that it's not the gun that's the problem but the person is like claiming nuclear weapons aren't a problem, only those who use them. Of course nuclear weapons are a problem. And so are guns. And just like with guns, nuclear weapons are only used by the craziest among us, who then make the problem materialize.



"Not a problem in Switzerland", yet "someone might come out the house and start shooting." That's the definition of a problem. Of course your country has a problem.



I think my country has a problem, as well. Do you have a point, other than guns are problematic in every country which allows them?

WTF? You continuously say that the person is not the problem but then point to them as causing the problem. What is it? That gun isnt going to shoot itself just like that nuke isnt going to launch and detonate itself....

- - - Updated - - -

One simple question, who can own a gun in Switzerland vs who can in the US? I know the answer, but it makes your entire post completely disingenuous and is the point a lot of people try to get at.



I am noticing liberally shitty interpretation of concepts is a bit of a pastime for gun rights people. You are better of saying you should remove all speed limits because someone might break them. Doesn't really make much sense, does it?

Owning a car is not a right protected by the constitution.......

[MerinPally]

I second this, settle your own problems first before preaching to us about ours.

I really hope you see the irony in this, considering your foreign policy consists of charging in screaming with guns waving your penis about like you're the best thing on earth. If you don't realise how dumb it is, then you've just reinforced a different negative american stereotype.

[Titan2k10]

When we talk about business, you talk about selling guns, dont you?



We got no guns publically available. And no NRA that sells guns to militaristic idiots.

NRA does not sell guns......You are showing how ignorant of the social and sociopolitical landscape in America you are....Just stop.