Two journalists have been shot dead during a live TV report

stony said:
I liked everyone I met in America, apart from the **** who was on the plane in front of me on the way over. I had an uncharacteristic loss of temper, called him an old **** and told him to shut his fat fucking mouth. Aside from that everything was great.

I think people in the UK just really struggle to understand the gun laws. Aside from the armed response units, our police over here aren't even armed. In America it's seems like everyone is. Just a quick look on youtube shows you a multitude of nutters who film themselves carrying assault rifles down the street, just so they can argue with the police about their constitutional rights when they turn up to investigate. It's alien to us, but something that will never change in America.
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Spot on. Some folks on here are suggesting that getting rid of guns solves the problem. Like stabbings aren't an issue in the UK??? Crazy people live everywhere. People will inflict harm on other people if they decide to with any means necessary. The old adage that guns don't kill people, people kill people...will never change. Guns in America are seen as the ultimate form of freedom. With firearms, a tyrannical government can't pound a society into oppression. Granted the government will always have more firepower than the typical american citizen, the people fighting in the name of the government would think twice knowing the free people have firearms. Of all of the rights that could be amended in the US Constitution, the 2nd amendment (right to bear arms) is quite possibly the top amendment that, if removed or changed, would truly start a civil war between the people and the government. It will never change here. The vast majority of gun owners are extremely responsible and respectful of guns and their safety.

That being said, this is a terrible tragedy and it makes me sick that someone would be so selfish to take the lives of others, but guns didn't commit this crime.
 
hilts said:
Would I be right in thinking the problem is unsolvable because of the sheer number of guns in circulation as opposed to people seeing ownership as a right?
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No, it is a combination of those factors and others. There is rarely an issue with guns in 80% of the country, but an obscene urban murder rate sprinkled with the occasional massacre on 24/7 TV makes it seem like it is the Wild Wild West. As I've said, most people do not give a second thought to guns...either ownership or fear of them.

Media magnification makes it seem like America lurches from one mass murder to another. Throw in the recent magnification of the mix of police and walking/driving/rioting while black, and we have a perfect storm of "America is shooting itself to death!"

It is simply not like that on the ground here.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Some people who study history feel like Britain is to blame for both issues, but we'll survive just fine.
BTW, how's Europe doing on the racism/nationalism front?

As for your comments, it would take about 75% of the population to agree to remove one of their basic freedoms. If you think that might happen, you simply have no understanding of America, history, or Americans.

As I have stated repeatedly, the only realistic thing that could be done would be to enact and enforce the strictest gun violence laws possible...but even then we would still be faced with the lone nutcase who thinks he needs to act out.
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Wow first point deflection and second point baseless presumptions, I don't believe I stated that I thought anything would happen, I also don't reminder claiming to have any understanding of Americans either

Someone's a tad touchy
 
I get that some Americans would be scared to give up their guns if the law was changed because they know that would just leave the criminals armed who definitely wont willingly hand in theirs(it would take a good few years before they see the benefits the first being the most dangerous). What I think the pro-guns people are missing with their favorite argument: "Guns don't kill people, people do" or "If someone wants to kill another person they will use a different weapon anyway"... the problem is guns are way to quick and effective at killing people and too easy to obtain, one fit of drunken rage with a gun close by could end in disaster for themselves in a very short space of time. Over here we've banned most weapons not just guns, so even carrying a knife, cosh etc will land you in trouble, this means you really have to go out of your way to even arm yourself with anything before you even begin and there's a good chance you will get busted just for trying to do that. There's still headcases who manage to arm themselves with guns here and go off killing people but they are dealt with swiftly and harshly.
 
hilts said:
Wow first point deflection and second point baseless presumptions, I don't believe I stated that I thought anything would happen, I also don't reminder claiming to have any understanding of Americans either

Someone's a tad touchy
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Not at all. If all we are doing is spitballin' then we can go all over the map. I'm just trying to keep it real, because there is a new "guns in America" thread every couple of days on here and the same trite comments are spewed.

I'm not accusing you of ANY of that, because I don't "track" who says what, because I try not to have preconceptions about what anyone posts on any particular thread...I takes 'em as I finds 'em!

As for the deflection and presumption, I was trying to create a point of discussion, as Brits act so "terribly, terribly" about the making of a country and the two main problems that were identified (guns and racism), even though they are the residue of America's colonial past.
 
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