A thoughtful viewpoint from an Australian........ gun nuts won't be (2025 Update)

We have life sentences, you know. And your concept seems to assume that we have a death sentence for the first minor crime or couple of crimes. Is that the new Amerika? There are plenty of obvious things to fix and do that will have positive results and don't require killing anyone.

They pull the cases from actual civil suits filed in small claims court. I suppose if it was on MSNBC, then it would be real? Are you denying that there are people on SSI who could hold a job? Funny thing with SSI too, there was a big spike up in claims circa 2009. Was there some virus or new disease that spread across America? Or was it just that people were going to get laid off, so they suddenly developed a condition whereby they could milk SSI? And that's the problem that libs just don't understand. That with any of these programs, there is huge fraud and abuse and nothing is done to police it.

I'm not, I'm a conservative.

If you don't see the difference, there is no sense talking any more. Were they born out of a revolution that overthrew the government with force and violence?

Did any of those countries have a civil war that killed 3 % of the population then did not deal with the original issue of integrating the slaves for 150 years ... and counting?

Are they walking distance from an active war zone in Central America or the drug gangs in Mexico?

Have they had a failed social welfare policy for a half century?

That beggar might be making a lot more than $11 an hour, cash and he gets to work when he wants.

It was very safe for the average citizen to walk around in Berlin in

It begs the question, why didn't Obama prosecute a single CEO or senior bankster after the 2009 crash?

That still had very little effect in the people who weren't working on the books before the crash.

You just described the "Great Society" better than I did, Thanks.

The policies concentrated the poor in "projects" that quickly became s*it holes. The concentration of unskilled labor was in a city where the only good jobs were for the skilled insured these became ghettoes.

The death penalty is for the worst offenders but once you have sentenced them to life without parole and they commit another crime, is that one free?

But nobody has talked about banning ANY KIND of car. Using your logic on guns, they should ban any car that is capable of going over the speed limit and whole classes of cars, suvs and trucks should be banned outright because nobody "needs" to drive a race car, a truck or a military like vehicle. People should have to show a need to even own a car.

I wouldn't be surprised if you actually support that tho.

No - they were born as a prison colony - which would lead you to expect a HIGHER crime situation. And that damned revolution in the USA was over 200 years ago.

The accepted number is 2% of the American population - About 625,000

- with disease killing twice as many as bullets. That would still be equivalent to killing 6.2 million Americans today - more than VietNam and Korea and both world wars combined.

And who's fault is that????

My logic on guns is that anyone that does not have some lawful reason not to own a gun should have whatever he wants. No restrictions.

Seems like just about anyting can be put on the road if it fits minimum requirements for safety and is not too large. Even the very large things can me moved with the right permit and precautions. I have seen houses moved down the road and the power people have to unhook the wires to let it pass.

I have no real solution to prevent the car accidents. A few does come to mind. Such as no eating, drinking, talking on cell phones. Another is better speed limit enforcement. I was in a town on vacation and the traffic was going way faster than the speed limit. I was about 10 miles over the limit and getting passed by almost very one. A cop got behind me and I thougth he was going to pull me over. After about 15 seconds he saw how he could get in the other lane and pass me. This was a highway with 3 or more lanes ineach direction.

Maybe make people loose their license for a while if convicted of the same traffic offence in 5 years. Drunk drivers the 2nd time around go to jail for 5 years ( you will not let me hang them).

I guess that it would be easy to put some speed limiters on cars to keep them from going over 75. Maybe even easy to impliment sensors along the highways (especially interstates) to limit the speed of the cars as the limits change. I saw a TV show about the Autobon (whatever) in Germany and it looks like they have that highway monitored from some central points and control it very well. Looks like they may even give tickets for following too close. I remember seeing in a Popular Science magazine in the late 1960's that the prediction was on the interstates we would be going 120 mph and doing it safely as it would be monitored better. We are still doing about the same 65 to 70 on most highways now.

Yes. Don't underestimate the power of societal attitudes. Culture can trump character. I'd give some references but people don't read (they hide the secrets............in books!)

And societal attitudes do change over time, and are the real answer to violent crime. Just within my lifetime we've seen some major shifts in attitudes toward drunk driving (a rite of passage when I was a kid, now something no longer condoned), physical abuse of women, racism. Not that these have disappeared - but in much more of our population they are considered wrong.

There are people who argue that the civilian deaths were under counted but it is still a significant event, when you include the destruction of the economy in the south and the corrupt attempts at reconstruction..

One person? Lyndon Johnson but the reality is the democrats as a whole built the welfare society that became the criminal class we have to deal with in our cities.

You also have to look at the effects of slavery. We still have guys like Corey Booker who say we owe them reparations for that 250 year old sin, created while we were still a British colony. The British never did that to Australia, nor Canada. The other places like Jamaica and the Bahamas, saddled with the same sin, are still deadly places to go, in spite of very harsh gun laws.

Sure we have. You can't build a piece of crap, unsafe car, no air bags, no seat belts.

You're confused again. I did not advocate banning any guns. I simply stated many times that we need a uniform permit process across the whole US, before anyone can buy a gun. That process would be for the local police chief to issue the permit, after a real background check, that includes pulling all police files on the applicant, checking with employers, checking with schools if they are a recent grad, checking with references, pulling mental health records if appropriate, etc. And the permit can be denied if they have convictions, history of non-compliance with laws, violence, are alcoholics or drug users, have mental problems, etc. Then Cruz would not have been able to buy his guns. It would dissuade straw purchases too, unless you think cousin Tawanna is going to go to the local PC dept and apply for a permit to buy 6 pistols for her cousin.

You're right, maybe we'll eventually get there with guns.

I don't know for sure now, but I have seen home built dune buggies that are street legal. Some comunities even allow golf carts on the road.

Seems most anything can be put on the road if you build it yourself or have it made just for you.

No - the "dune buggy" is usually based on and licensed as a late sixties or early seventies VW Beetle and therefore only needs to meet the requirements in place at THAT time.

Communities can allow golf carts on their streets, but not on state or other roads.

Bullshit, I can buy a 1954 Chevy tomorrow morning and if I just want to show it at car shows, race it on private tracks or just keep in my garage, I don't even need a license, I don't need to register it (title) and I don't need to get tags. If I am willing to buy tags I can drive it anywhere I want. OTOH if I want a 1954 machine gun there are all sorts of hoops I need to go through and right now, processing form 4s is running around 9 months. If I lived in your state I couldn't buy a 1954 surplus M1 Carbine at all.

You are responding to a note I wrote Bob.