America's 'safety catch' - Despite the fact there are more than 200 million guns in circulation...

BBC NEWS ^ | 22 April 2008 | Justin Webb

[DuncanWaring]

An armed society is a polite society.

[robomatik]

i don’t know about the “doors left unlocked” part here in cincinnati, but when i lived in colorado, i never locked my door for 10 years. decent article from a euro perspective.

[Ilya Mourometz]

I guess this guy has never been to Philadelphia. I’m sure gun ownership leads to more tranquility in smaller towns, but in Philly, it is a bit more like the wild west and only idiots would leave their doors unlocked. I don’t know if more legal guns would help, but frankly I think Philly is way past redemption. There pretty much are no more public phones since cellphones became ubiquitous, but those that are around are too filthy to consider touching. All that having been said, it’s nice to see that someone from across the pond actually has an understanding of the purpose of gun rights.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Despite the fact Because there are more than 200 million guns in circulation, there is a certain tranquility and civility about American life.

[theBuckwheat]

How much violence is reported at the typical gun show? The biggest threat now seems to be from peaceniks who have been known to slip a live round into a display weapon, in an effort to “prove” how dangerous guns are.

[Travis McGee]

Folks will have guns in all of these places and if you break into their homes they will probably kill you. They will occasionally kill each other in anger or by mistake, but you never feel as unsafe as you can feel in south London. It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream. What surprises the British tourists is that, in areas of the US that look and feel like suburban Britain, there is simply less crime and much less violent crime.

[MarkL]

Virginia Tech had the headlines in the last few days and reminded us of the violence for which the US is well known.

That's because incidents like what happened at VT are tragic aberrations, rather than the regular occurrences that many in the media try to make it out to.

Mark

[Nomorjer Kinov]

Robert A. Heinlein, “ an armed society is a polite society.”

[workerbee]

It is an odd fact that a nation we associate - quite properly - with violence is also so serene, so unscarred by petty crime, so innocent of brawling.

Thank your left-leaning anti-American media for that, bozo.

[Neoliberalnot]

I would expect most European nations to look down on private gun ownership in the US since in regressive European countries, only the politicians, their bodyguards and their pathetic militaries have all the guns they want and can point them with ease in the faces of unarmed citizens.

[mark3681]

“In Montana, we like our guns... most of us own two or three”

Slackers!

[BullDog108]

No kidding! No home is complete w/o a dozen.....

[PsyOp]

Two words BBC... Lexington & Concord!

The shot heard round the world...

[mark3681]

“No kidding! No home is complete w/o a dozen.....”

Oh! So you’re a slacker too?! (haha)

[The Woim]

Excellent article from a BBC point of view.

I remember reading a few years back an anti-gunner from Britain was writing a three page long article for, I think, The Nation. In the midst of this article, one sentence has stuck with me forever. The writer mentioned how surprised they were at the high level of civility and politeness in Chicago, IL.

How common is rudeness in England if Chicago is your definition of a “polite” city?

It’s more than just our ownership of guns, which correlates to our self-autonomy and even self-respect. We trust ourselves as a people and we refuse to be treated like cattle - must of us, that is!

My advice to all my fellow FREEPERS is to buy a gun sometime during 2008. If you’ve never owned one, buy one for the very first time. If you own 25, well, there’s nothing wrong with owning 26.

Yours truly,
The Woim

[School of Rational Thought]

“I guess this guy has never been to Philadelphia. I’m sure gun ownership leads to more tranquility in smaller towns, but in Philly, it is a bit more like the wild west and only idiots would leave their doors unlocked. I don’t know if more legal guns would help, but frankly I think Philly is way past redemption. “

This read like Nutter wrote it. It never has been about the number of guns. It is about who has them. It is a cultural thing, not a tool thing.

[aruanan]

Yeah, we’re definitely getting a bum rap over there. I know a Rwandan refugee who got separated from his wife and two kids when they were fleeing for their lives. He eventually found her and the kids in England. They were afraid to come to the U.S. even to visit because they thought there would be gangs shooting it out on every corner. She was surprised when they finally did come for a visit. I think they’ll finally be able to be reunited as a family after all these years.

[Ilya Mourometz]

That’s my fault in how I wrote it. I’m not saying that the number of legal guns would not help the crime rate in Philly; I’m saying that Philadelphia is unsafe—unlike the town the article’s author lives in. I do believe Philly is beyond hope, however. The crime rate is a direct result of weak judges who will not impose sentences on unrepentent offenders. More guns will help defend the law abiding citizens, but until they actually lock up the scum, the crime rate will not go down.

[ccmay]

Interesting article. Somewhat optimistic in my opinion— I have certainly seen public drunkenness, and I do lock my doors. But I have been burgled only once in my life, whereas in England it happens every couple of years on average.

I think the Europeans don’t take into account the fact that gun violence is very unevenly distributed. If you take states with a large majority of residents of European descent, e.g. Vermont or Montana, you find that they are armed to the teeth but even more peaceful than the Europeans who stayed in Europe. It’s only in minority communities where the level of violence even approaches the European perception of the U.S.

Also, there was a time in living memory when England’s gun laws were at least as lax as our own. Before 1904 there were essentially no gun laws, and it was only in the 1920s when significant handgun regulations came in as a response to the Bolshevik scare. As late as the 1960s, no license was needed for a shotgun. Of course, I like to point this out to Britsh friends and relations, and contrast the peaceful conditions of those days with the Mad Max society the UK is fast becoming, gun control or no.

-ccm