Andy Rooneys outlook

[crisis]

understandable, if a criminal knows every house in this neihborhood is likely to have armed occupants they're gonna go somewhere else

I dont know what type of gun related crimes you have but in Australia the statistics (!) show that the majority of violent crimes are committed by someone known to the victim. A husband who loses it and decides to shoot his wife is unlikley to go next door and shoot his neighbours if he thinks his own missus is packin. It is these types of crimes that the availability of guns is the problem. " I used to know him, he seemed like a regular guy"!
It is really the American attitude towards ownership that I find disturbing. Like its akin to their child or something. When the government cracked down on automatic gun ownership in Australia a mate of mine who was pretty good in his pistol club, trophies and all, sold all of his guns to the government and bought some new fishing gear. Another person I know who is also a club member kept his. The guy who kept them I consider to be of questionable character to own pistols etc.

[Ferrari Tifosi]

Do you think the Brady laws are successful in keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people. I would consider anyone willing to kill someone with a guns , or any other way, to be of questionable mental stability.

As I've already said, some 80% of firearm homicides are committed by people who acquire their guns from either stealing or a street buy. So, yes, the Brady law has worked in that it made it harder for a criminal to gain access to a gun and therefore probably has deferred some from committing the crime.

Crisis, also about your statements about the attitude towards gun ownership here in America. You have to understand something about this country and its citizens, we won't give up our rights for anything. After 9/11 when Ashcroft wanted laws passed, that would reduce our rights, to catch terrorists, the majority of people didn't want them. Just for the simple reason of we want our rights, The constitution guarantees them and we want them perserved.

[ace]

this is a quote by Andy Rooney Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

>>WHO SAYS GUNS ARE DANGEROUS
Subject: doctors vs guns (Based on the United States)
Doctors

Think about this:
Number of physicians in the U. S.: 700,000. Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000.
Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U. S. Dept of Health & Human Services)
Number of gun owners in the U. S.: 80,000,000.
Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups): 1,500.
Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188.
Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but everyone has at least one doctor.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors
before this gets out of hand. As a public health measure I have withheld the
statistics on lawyers for fear that the shock could cause people to seek medical
attention.

This is a cut and paste job and is posted with light hearted intentions although I do like guns and I believe the removal of guns and legislation against them is a band aide measure to appear that the political parties are doing something ,when in fact the problems remain and are deeply rooted in society and are directly related to many party policies i.e.: education, drugs and unemployment . In Australia our government is in the process of removing as many weapons as possible from the population all they're getting are the honest peoples guns and the black market is thriving , it's never bin easer to get illegal guns. the target group i.e.: bad guys are still armed maybe even more so, and the general population no longer has the right or the gun's to even defend themselves ,or there homes .

[IBrake4Rainbows]

I'm sure some of those doctors were trying to save people who had indeed been accidently shot, so even if they didn't cause the shooting, it still goes on their name.

And i don't know where you get the 1500 accidental gun deaths in America P/Y, the figure is closer to 11.500.

Please don't get me wrong, i like the idea of being able to defend what i call my own and defend a percieved threat, what i worry about is that more and more people are taking up arms against [B]each other[B], rather than the percieved threat. People are using these easily recieved weapons to go out and kill those who they feel have done wrong to them, rather than either letting the law, the courts or indeed any other authority handle the matter. I even read somewhere a judge was gunned down by a father who's kids were taken from him and placed into custody with their mother, as per that judges orders.

The general public has been rocked by scandals of corruption, bribe taking and general underhandedness of "The System" and are now not trusting the people they decide to put into power. What i find odd is that
A) These people were voted in
B) People just accept that most leaders are scum who are out for their own interests only.

The system isn't working, people are much more cynical nowadays, i know i am, and there needs to be some trust inbuilt back into the system, or at least some decent leaders.

[crisis]

The general public has been rocked by scandals of corruption, bribe taking and general underhandedness of "The System" and are now not trusting the people they decide to put into power. What i find odd is that
A) These people were voted in
B) People just accept that most leaders are scum who are out for their own interests only.

The system isn't working, people are much more cynical nowadays, i know i am, and there needs to be some trust inbuilt back into the system, or at least some decent leaders.

Oddly it was politicians aka the system that wrote the constitution, and all the laws that enable US citizens to have their beloved firearms. Seems the only politicians we trust are the ones who make laws that please us.
The system that apparently is not working has, despite its flaws , brought better health care, equality and living standards to the majority of people in Western capatalist societies that ever before. Thats progress. While we moan (at least I do) about all of the things we hate about our governments and "the system", I would rather live in the time and pace I do now than anytime previous. The good old days are usually viewed through rose tinted glasses.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Point taken, i guess since i am so young i don't know how the world was before my time on earth began.

my theory is that the Capitalist governments are going too far, like the counterswing from Communism (Save for China/Nth Korea), and soon we will be in such a cut throat world you will have to sell your grandmother, grandfather and any random person that you happen to meet to survive. I am all for Entreprenuership (Or However you speel it) but i think maybe we won't have countries soon, we'll have corporations instead.