Speaking of Texas, our governor signed the Castle Doctrine law into effect in Austin today.
Paragraphs are your friends ... and you're wrong.
This is an undifferentiated mass of words. Paragraphs would be helpful.
Your formatting went awry, but the article is such a steaming load, I am better off for not reading it all!
With apologies to John Wayne:
Tell it to the father who got stabbed to death by thugs. And yell it real loud cause it's a long way from the United States to Great Britain.
The author is young, arrogant, misinformed and rather stupid. He will get older.
Besides being wrong, what is this student learning in school besides how to be a whiny liberal? It certainly isn't journalistic techniques and formatting.
I think Darren is gay. What a whiny flimsy rant.
is
very
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read.
It is often said that everything's bigger in Texas - and without the assistance of Academy Award worthy films such as "Debbie Does Dallas" - some may believe this saying to be nothing more than a myth. But for the Texans who don't quite measure up ? there is always another way to compensate: own a gun.
Because we all know how Texans love their guns, right? However, the truth of the matter is, that Texas gun laws are no less lax than that of other states. It seems to be a love, hunger, thirst and desire for guns that has swept throughout the entire country - and with fatal results. An epidemic of intended crime prevention has proven to host a whole new genre of crime; one that's faster, easier and comes with a load of alibis.
Now, now, a good American can never pass up a bargain. Maybe that explains why 1,000 people die every day due to guns. Anti-gun control supporters will immediately attack that statement to say, and I only quote the ignorant, to not believe it, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people!" My, with such a mind set, every gun supporter should have a degree in philosophy. Maybe then they could articulate in such a way that the blame game just might work.
Sure, we can continue to blame guns for homicides, suicides, war deaths and freak accidents for as long as we like. But when other nations, such as Canada, reform gun laws only to see a 46 percent decrease in gun-related deaths, America might want to check its facts again. Not that our ego would ever allow any real admittance of having been in the wrong.
We are wrong because guns are wrong. They are deadly, unethical creations that do not save or secure any number of lives that could build a reliable statistic. Instead, there are mountains of statistics telling us otherwise. Take, for instance, this statistic: for women, having a gun in the house increases the chances of being murdered by 172 percent. If that's not good enough, chew on this for a while: one study showed that people who attempt to use a gun in self-defense are four times as likely to die. Having a gun in the home does not make you safer.
It is not an imaginary insurance policy. I'm not sure any statistic could change the mind of someone set on owning a gun. No matter what is said in favor of gun control, it would seem that the Second Amendment has blinded us for too long. I suppose that 300 years ago, on the frontier, out in the West, and in the Appalachian Mountains, guns were necessary.
Today, in 2007, with very few buffalo to eat, bears to fight or Native Americans left to slaughter ? they seem a bit useless. But never fear! Testosterone is here. He's the one behind it all, it would seem. America is fueled by the same male dominance that sees that laws regarding gun control are relaxed, if at all existent. No, there aren't any saloons full of dirty cowboys with spurs and iron belt buckles but the essence of masculinity still makes it smell like the Old West. Of gun-related homicides, 90 percent occur amongst men.
Every 30 hours in South Africa, a woman is shot to death by her partner. It's not hard to understand that if men make up the majority of gun owners, which they do, and men are far more impulsive and badly tempered than females, then deaths associated with guns is likely to be very evident. It's much easier to end an argument, unhappy life, child's crying, spousal cheating or a robbery with a simple click.
It's very rare that I insist that the government intervene in the lives of its citizens but in America, the leader of gun fatalities, something should have been done long ago. Our ambition, ego and greed have brought us this far. Undoubtedly, it will carry us to the end.
This paper will circulate for three short days. Each day, more people will die because of guns. By the time the next issue arrives, anywhere from three to four thousand more people will be dead. Not from heart attack, cancer or AIDS but from something that can be stopped but is instead ignored. And for what reason? So that gun owners can feel more secure knowing that their families are safe, they may still enjoy the pointless sport of killing wild animals and their power is ensured.
The ultimate irony of this entire situation is that the United States currently tops the charts with $533 million made per year on gun exports, and the very people we go to war with are one in the same as those we helped arm in the first place. Our stubborn ways will guide us in our growth. Yet, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
And when the time comes for that fall and America takes a bullet to the back of the skull, we'll wish that we had the luxury of a good old fashioned stabbing in the back. At least then we might have seen it coming. All statistical information used in this article can be found at http://www.iansa.org.
so don't buy a gun if it scares you so much.
Concealed Carry Laws Reduce Crime
Major crime fell dramatically in states which have legalized the carrying of concealed handguns, according to a comprehensive new study at the University of Chicago.
For the first time, researchers analyzed crime statistics for all 3,054 counties in the United Sates between 1977 and 1992, according to one of the authors of the unpublished study, Professor John Lott. After adjusting for a general fall in crime rates, the study found that:
* In the 31 states that now have "concealed right to carry" laws, murders were down, on average, by 8.5 percent.
* Rapes were down 5 percent and serious assaults by 7 percent.
* In cities with populations of more than 250,000, murder rates dropped after the passage of such laws by an average of 13.5 percent.
According to the study, the fall in crime did not result from an increased use of guns, but from potential criminals avoiding confrontations. In fact, criminals apparently shifted to lower-risk offenses, since property crimes increased in those states. Other findings included:
* The most dramatic falls in murder rates were in areas where the number of women carrying firearms was high.
* The study found that for every woman who carries a concealed hand, the murder rate fell by three to four times more than it would have if one more man had carried a concealed gun.
* If states with concealed handgun bans had allowed them in 1992, about 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes and more than 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided.
In addition, the researchers found no evidence of an increase in accidental killings or suicides in states with concealed carry laws.
Sources: Ian Katz, "'Gun Law' Cuts Crime Rate, US Study Finds," Guardian, August 3, 1996, and Dennis Cauchon, "Study: Weapons Laws Deter Crime: Fewer Rapes, Murders Found Where Concealed Guns Legal," USA Today, August 2, 1996.
Lotta made up statistics there.
Darren needs to be your ping list. He needs some educating.
Try not to take to many shortcuts in mountain country, pal. Some people might get the idea that a lip ring is advertising. Or maybe that's the point.
Sounds like a worldwide total. But by inference they try to make it sound like the USA. Never can be honest, can they?
What a load of crap. 365,000 people in this country are dying from guns? B$