I agree with your comment, with exceptions. Although law-abiding citizens are less likely to perpetrate firearms crimes, they are, in some cases, more likely to react on impulse in certain situations - mostly from fear and confusion.

I believe that law abiding people should be able to bare arms, but not without thorough training and consequent certification.

We Americans are perhaps the most violent people ever to walk the earth. We are certainly top contenders.

Since I was old enough to talk, I have been subjected daily with images of stylized violence and sex, as have most other Americans. From the old westerns (and the attendant 'real men' behaviors, strongly rooted in violence) that were the staple of reruns when I was a kid to the emergence of the 'ultra-violence' of the 70's (Dirty Harry, Shaft, Clockwork Orange, etc. etc. etc. to the graphics obscenities of modern times, Americans dig violence and indoctrinate our children in its culture.

I grew up a gun afficianado, as my father before me. Guns were in our house, on the gun rack, out in the open and in use most nice weekends. We shot game and clay birds from the time I was old enough to point a 410. By the time I was 15 I'd already hunted more than most adults who consider themselves hunters.

I dreamed of owning pistols and shotguns and rifles. I dreamed of being in combat. I dreamed of being a man.

But coming of age I turned away from firearms. I don't own any now and haven't fired a weapon in more than a decade. I earned a marksman medal in the military because being a good shot is a lot like riding a bicycle (so long as you can see and your hands don't shake), but by then I'd already turned a corner.

I totally lost the will to hunt. And I turned away from gun worship in lieu of other toys... climbing toys!


DMT

If only we could have the same level of peace and tranquility enjoyed throughout the Middle East, Africa, southeast Asia, eastern Europe, Central and South America. :roll:

As far as violence in sports goes, let's look at the behavior of US fans vs. soccer fans in Europe and South America.

Yeah. We're "the most violent people ever to walk the earth". Sure thing. :wink:

If only we could have the same level of peace and tranquility enjoyed throughout the Middle East, Africa, southeast Asia, eastern Europe, Central and South America. :roll:

As far as violence in sports goes, let's look at the behavior of US fans vs. soccer fans in Europe and South America.

Yeah. We're "the most violent people ever to walk the earth". Sure thing. :wink:

(Washington, DC) Although the exact number of Americans killed by gun violence in the 20th century will never be known, it is now all but certain that it will, by any measure, vastly exceed the number of Americans shot and killed on battlefields since 1900. In fact, more Americans were killed with guns in the 18-year period between 1979 and 1997 (651,697), than were killed in battle in all wars since 1775 (650,858). And while a sharp drop in gun homicides has contributed to a decline in overall gun deaths since 1993, the 90's will likely exceed the death toll of the 1980s (327,173) and end up being the deadliest decade of the century. By the end of the 1990s, an estimated 350,000 Americans will have been killed in non-military-related firearm incidents during the decade.*

DMT

In 2003, 91 percent of African-American murder victims were slain by African-American offenders.
• In 2002, African-American males accounted for 47 percent of all homicide victims, while they only account for 6 percent of the entire population.

Playing around with these numbers can get pretty offensive, doncha think?

The most intelligent and accurate posts in this thread, were Boonies!

the price of natural gas is way high.

I didn't play around with a goddamned thing. I quoted the first paragraph, in its entirety, from a well respected pro-gun control site. I'll defer offensive comparisons to the experts. Did you have a point?

DMT

I don't know what he meant about the offensiveness of your post either, but it certainly disproves your "European blood = violence" theory.

I personally blame it on human nature, doesn't matter the culture, race or religion.

I agree we all have a capacity for violence. Especially us Americans!

Let's face the hard facts here... this sort of American death is inevitable. We certainly shouldn't express surprise some old whacko shot an innocent kid over virtually nothing.

Since I was old enough to talk, I have been subjected daily with images of stylized violence and sex, as have most other Americans. From the old westerns (and the attendant 'real men' behaviors, strongly rooted in violence) that were the staple of reruns when I was a kid to the emergence of the 'ultra-violence' of the 70's (Dirty Harry, Shaft, Clockwork Orange, etc. etc. etc. to the graphics obscenities of modern times, Americans dig violence and indoctrinate our children in its culture.

We Americans are perhaps the most violent people ever to walk the earth. We are certainly top contenders. When we're not fighting other nations, we fight ourselves or merely pretend to (football and pro wrestling).

Also, in the case of our daughters, and even with my parents, violence of any sort, any sort at all, is not tolerated in our house. We've tried to teach our daughters that NO VIOLENCE is warranted against them, for any reason, ever, by anyone, including their parents. If more of us were brought up this way, far less of us would purchase tickets to Dirty Harry movies, or Ultimate Fighter Pay-per-views, or any of the other million ways we teach our children to be killers.

Education, one child at a time. Old killers like this dude are already lost. An entire generation of inner city kids is already lost. Only through children, only through voluntary action will people surrender their guns.

If tomorrow the Fed declared all personal weapons illegal, my very first response would be to secure a handgun however. I'm not going to sit around in a civil war with a big target painted on my head without some means of defending myself!

Americans are violent, incredibly violent. That's the root here, not personal firearms.

DMT

Dingus, it almost sounds like you're flacking for Michael Moore, a la Bowling for Columbine

Get it... flacking?

Never watched an episode of the Simpson's either!

DMT

Boon, you've once again made yourself look like an effing retard. ::roll:

Don't know, maybe I am. Couldn't tell you as I've never watched a Michael Moore documentary in my life. Never watched an episode of the Simpson's either!

DMT

please shut up while the grown ups are talking ...


if tim agrees with me on a gun related thread you have no room to talkl

Let's face the hard facts here... this sort of American death is inevitable. We certainly shouldn't express surprise some old whacko shot an innocent kid over virtually nothing.

...


DMT