Guns, Culture and Crime in the US
We look at why the debate over gun control is so polarized and travel to West Virginia - a place where shooting guns is a sport that has been passed down over generations - to find out what fuels the love for guns in this country.
Are American people as divided as their politicians? The Newtown shooting, which left 20 school children and six teachers dead, has dragged the issue of gun control back into the national agenda.
For the first time in years, US politicians are discussing serious gun control measures. But millions of people in the country's inner cities live with the threat of gun violence on a daily basis.
In Baltimore, one of the most dangerous cities in the US, the police have re-framed their 'war on drugs' as a 'war on guns'. We travel to Baltimore to meet those trying to stop gun crime and others who say owning a gun is sometimes a matter of survival.
The claim that BGCs are not required at gun shows is categorically untrue. The rule is that anyone licensed to deal firearms must ALWAYS do a BGC before selling a gun to ANYONE. Private individuals may — in most states — sell a firearm without a BGC, whether it's at a gun show or anywhere else.
As for the vaunted NRA, anyone who holds the view that the NRA is pro-gun really needs a history lesson.
Lyle gun. now knock it off.
The second amendment is for the protection of Americans against tyrannical threats be they foreign or domestic and while the present administration only wants to restrict access to certain guns can you guarantee the same can be said when the next president is sworn in? Or the next. or the one after that? I fear that we Canadians have become too complacent about our own personal freedoms and rights in the face of Acts of Parliament designed to curb them. Case in point: A new law which requires any Canadian who to have a Canadian passport to fly back to Canada. Suppose I were to drive to Mexico (no passport required) and while there learned there was a death in the family, I would be barred from flying back for the funeral because I don't have a piece of paper with a federal seal on it. That is tyrannical in my view and something definetely impacts my right to self-determination and my right to freedom of association (or dis-association).
5:35......"free society"?????? Post Patriot Act, there is no freedom in the USA, only the perception of freedom built on fear. Well done President Cheney and the Retarded Texan, ( good to see the "No child left behind" literacy program worked :-) )
It is kinda cute that Americans beat their chest and claim they are free as they "liberate" another oil rich country. If You understood the meaning of irony, you would see the humour in that claim.
You have the right to bare arms, it is your country and it is no one else's business how you manage domestic laws, but in fighting to keep that right, don't piss and moan when some nut job Redneck shoots up a school with an AK or M16, live by the sword, die by the sword.
Why should I give up my rights so you can feel "safe"? I feel safer having the freedom to protect myself, but you feel safer having me not being able to protect myself? pleas get professional help
I'm just putting my opinion out here so don't attack me if you disagree, but I personally disagree with Gun culture as a whole. I don't think you should just "accept" shootings are going to happen if we give Americans gun rights. Even if more people can be killed with bombs and such, we have to try to the highest extent we can to prevent any death, even if it is only one, by getting people to understand that gun culture has way more cons than pros. I say this because I believe every life has value so even if only one person is killed in a shooting, it still means something, it still causes pain. We shouldn't measure the severity of an incident by the number of deaths, in fact we shouldn't measure the severity of any incident. Every incident or accident where a life or lives are lost is a severe tragedy, to one or more families. I know that what I'm saying isn't particularly realistic but it is my opinion.
The "gun culture" feeds from the "fear culture." Powerful interests use fear to mold public opinion in order to shape foreign and domestic policy. The resulting enhanced perception of danger creates a fertile market for personal weapons.
Here in the US "the market is king" and the weapons industry has been in max-production servicing that demand for quite some time. A culture saturated with firearms will inevitably have incidents where those weapons amplify the damage that deranged people can inflict. .
That is all part of the fabric of the life we live. Irrational shootings are a "death tax" that we pay for the right to defend ourselves.
In my view the right of the people to keep and bear arms should not be abridged since it ultimately is a check on the tyranny of the state. That's why it is in the Constitution. Like everything else, it has a price: "Freedom ain't free"
To put things in perspective: A mad man can kill more people with 5 gallons of gasoline than he can with an assault rifle.
Guns don't kill people, Americans kill people. You tell me how we can keep killing so many people without easy access to guns. If we didn't have guns we'd just find another way. Americans kill people, not guns. In fact, Americans kill people all over the world. We've got our reasons and it has something to do with freedom. That's good enough for me.
I think if you wanna die a slow death... by smoking or drinking your life away.. by all means go ahead.. the fact that someone can violently take your life.. not the same thing. Everything should be controlled to a certain extent...
Stay Paranoid America. Gun sales depend on it!
The american constitution gives the right of owning guns but was written when rifles were loaded with a long metal stick. Now we have machine-guns, automatic guns, etc,etc. A person can kill dozens of others in seconds. The scenery has changed completely, don't you think ?
The reason the gun control advocates are loosing this campaign is because they became too over zealous and over killed with their demands! If they want success, thet have to use the right clubs as in golf! One should not use the driver to put a 30 footer!
I'm sure we're all aware that the worst massacre at a school was committed in 1927 with a car bomb. How about Oklahoma City no guns there. The gun is not the problem and never was, unless you're a tyrant.! It's sad to think that people are so out of touch with history. Imagine a world with no murder even by the governments. Dream on, dream until your dream comes true.
I'm not so worried honestly nobody is taking my guns.
Are American people as greedy as their politicians.
This gun controversy is just something to occupy the lime lite to keep our minds busy and try to let us forget the real issues of today. Might as well bring in abortion, the pill, gays,immigration you know ( all the stuff that gets the people to fight each other ) while the real issues are totally disregarded. I think the sheep should replace the eagle as our national emblem, let me rephrase that, the sheep represent the people and the eagle represents the private banks. Every time the gun issue comes up it actually increases gun sales across the country, which I don't think is a bad thing, but it is a response to another fear tactic and help the rich get richer. If and when we need guns there will always be plenty around we can get them from the black markets, I am sure they won't be on the governments side. Have you forgotten about the 911 cover up, illegal wars all over the world for oil to back up the private banking "petro dollar", the slaughter of millions of innocent woman and children and citizens of the world. Hey gun control, global warming, abortion rights, gays, immigration thats the real important stuff. WAKE UP SHEEP or should I say BAA BAA BAA.
Michael Moore had it right in Bowling for Columbine. The number 1 employer in Columbine is Lockheed Martin, (makers of weapons of mass destruction)yet the parents cannot understand how their little darlings would carry out such a devastating act of insanity. (disconnected, brainwashed, and hipocritical) The bottom line is the American public does not have to worry about needing guns to protect them from their government, because they have already surrendered their freedoms/safety to fight for the corporations. On a final note: Has anyone in America seen the latest release of the movie Red Dawn. You know, where North Korea invades the USA, (yeah right) and the citizens use guerilla warfare to fight back. I keep waiting to see them redefined as 'terrorists' under the same measuring stick the U.S uses to define those who take up arms to defend themselves against their attacks. Yes, I am so surprised why America has such gun violence, (14,000 a year) and more incarcerations per a capita then any other country in the world! Personally, I think the USA needs less alcohol, more dope, and a lot less guns. The only real solution to reduce violent crime is global cooling. This is why Canadians live in relative peace by comparison. People are to busy trying not to freeze to death 7 months out of the year.
So our increasingly militarized police forces, in this case in California, only had to shoot at a few pickup trucks with innocent civilians in it. They did not have to murder the cop-killer cop - they didn't - they said so!
He just happened to jump into a burning, smoke-filled crater that happened to appear in a cabin he took refuge in on a last-ditch escape effort, and after hiding out in a different cabin yards from the police command post for days.
Good job, coppers. Top notch case work - this is one for the books. They'll be teaching this in cop war college soon.
The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist
John Maynard Keynes
Why use philosophy when everything else is working so well.
I both understand and appreciate your defense of philosophy. Unfortunately I was not waxing philosophic. It's not talking theory if it is reality.
Yet none of the present laws and none of the proposed laws and none of every law, rule, or regulation proposed on this site would prevent me from walking next door and borrowing my neighbor's gun. She would be more than happy to lend it to me.
Laws can be written ad infinitum but there are 300,000,000 guns at my disposal. In America if you can't get your hands on a gun you quite literally are the person who cannot get laid in a whorehouse. Law or no law.
Why dont the US state sue the gun manufactures like they did with the tobacco industries, they could even use simular arguements in some aspects. And you Yanks love to sue. I'm sure the gun makers would soon alter the way they conduct there business if it started to effect there profits
I actually just sent an email to CREDO, asking to be the first person to register as a non-gun owner. I think it would make a great webpage.
You heard it here first! And maybe last...
Maybe if everyone that bought a gun was forced to be an organ donor fewer people would buy guns. That or the donor shortage would be over :)
'Guns make the woods more interesting' says the man looking at a cardboard box. Apparently that's how boring the woods are, the wilderness is much improved by bullet holes. What a plonker. Can't help but wonder what people would think if others took to pootling about with swords hanging at their hips, or a machete slung over their shoulder. And 300 million guns in the country does not look much like gun control. Why even bother with a background check? Who doesn't have a gun there and if some don't, why do some need two or more? All sounds a bit slack to me and in a slack system things go missing, must be millions of guns floating about waiting for the wrong hands to find them. It also seems that along with owning a weapon, goes the idea that it's ok to dish out a bit of justice when it suits.