[Rory Waterman]

It worked in Australia. You'd need to have a system whereby currently owned weapons are declared illegal and are bought back to be destroyed - which I think is what happened there. It never will happen in the US, though, because there are too many millions and millions of voting gun-adorers and they're not declining in number. And I don't see any such breast-beating about the American people - which would be especially misplaced in a thread about gun massacres, even if it happened to be a thread started by one such gun-toting American at least partly in order to extol the virtues of gun ownership. Tim, for example, is a kind and wonderful man, but I find his attitude towards guns utterly bewildering. There are lots of people with very similar or identical views in the US, quite obviously, and I think they would feel very lonely living in almost any other country on the planet where people do not share and can't entertain their views. I think it is fair and justified to say that the pervasive attitude towards guns in most of the USA seems manifestly insane and reckless and frightening to almost everyone in this country and probably every other country - and to a sizeable minority of Americans, too. But the gun lobby will go nowhere and next year there'll be 11,000 more - or more than a third as many as there are road traffic deaths in the same (car-loving) country - including twenty or so massacres. It's too fundamentally awful to breastbeat about.

[Rory Waterman]

John, when I lived in the US my in-laws took me to see a cricket match in Hartford, Connecticut. I think they thought I'd love that, but unfortunately I don't share your enthusiasm. I'm with Bill Bryson when it comes to cricket.

[Ed Shacklee]

Originally Posted by Rory Waterman

I think it is fair and justified to say that the pervasive attitude towards guns in most of the USA seems manifestly insane and reckless and frightening to almost everyone in this country and probably every other country.

I wonder if anyone has written a history of this idea, and how it came about? Other countries have been settled, had internal strife and gone to war since gunpowder was invented, but none of them have as many guns or cling to them as tightly as we do.

For what it's worth, there are some of us here who are all for following Australia's example. Maybe in a couple of decades the tone of our national conversation will change.

Ed

[Rory Waterman]

Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee

For what it's worth, there are some of us here who are all for following Australia's example. Maybe in a couple of decades the tone of our national conversation will change.

Ed

Yes, including the overwhelming majority of the many Americans I know.

Editing in. I've just seen that they are starting a gun buy back scheme in Los Angeles, in return for food vouchers; though it is voluntary (obviously), and I can't see it catching on in most places, this is a promising start. Another statistic I've seen, though, shows that more guns were sold in the US in 2012 than in any other year.

[Donna English]

Originally Posted by Rory Waterman

Editing in.
Another statistic I've seen, though, shows that more guns were sold in the US in 2012 than in any other year.

...which means the NRA is doing its most important job as PR for the gun manufacturers. Fear mongering is an effective way of promoting gun sales. Some of those big profits the gun manufactures have made will undoubtedly go to the NRA executives in the form of bigger saleries or bonuses, and also more bullshit blah, blah, blah that leads stupid, yes, stupid, and or racist people to believe all their guns will somehow be taken away by the President and that selling more guns to school rent- a- cops and math teachers is a good idea. If one more person tells me that the NRA advocates gun safety, I'm going to puke.

The gun manufacturers are happy as pigs in shit right now.

[Ed Shacklee]

Originally Posted by Donna English

The gun manufacturers are happy as pigs in shit right now.

I'm sorry to say it, but the election and then re-election of our first black president is about the best thing that ever happened to businesses that sell or make guns. Dog whistles abound.

It's strange, but the people here who fear a government takeover are the most likely to reflexively support the troops and law enforcement. Who do they think will be doing the grunt work of taking over? Not that the powers that be need guns, usually -- they've stripped away the pensions and earning power of millions while fanning our fears and bigotry to provide a smoke screen for the heist. Or so it seems from the left side of the peanut gallery.

Ed

[W.F. Lantry]

For those abroad or in-country, who may not be able to appreciate just how, um, unusual, things have become, you may derive some insight from this rather tame video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=O0PF-j-8NdE

It's worth two minutes and thirty seconds of your time...

Thanks,

Bill

[John Whitworth]

Yes, very amusing, Bill. But over here we have people who think that by erecting thousands of five hundred foot windmills just about everywhere, we will be able to give up the wicked petrol and the wicked oil Otherwise - apocalypse pretty soon folks! These hideous bird mincing machines at present generate .04% of our electricity, -00% when the wind is not blowing or when the wind is blowing too hard. But hey, apocalypse is going to happen soon, soon, soon.

When all the lights go out I think a gun might be a good thing to have.

And have you looked around Greece lately?