30 Murders by Firearm in England 2012 (equiv. 164), vs. 8,855 in US

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/05/murders-firearm-england.html

30 Murders by Firearm in England 2012 (equiv. 164), vs. 8,855 in US
By Juan Cole | May. 25, 2014

The mentally imbalanced individual who hunted down UC Santa Barbara students and knifed three and shot 6 of them to death, wounding with gunfire 7 more, on Saturday, used a semi-automatic handgun. The most popular such weapon is a Glock. It is not an automatic weapon, meaning you have to squeeze the trigger each time to fire. But it is much easier to get off many shots one after another than in the case of a traditional pistol. The magazine for the Glock 17 has 17 rounds; one can get a high capacity magazine of 33 rounds. High capacity magazines and some semi-automatic weapons were banned in the Clinton era. But the gun manufacturers have bought Congress, so that that ban could no longer be implemented.

Let us not pretend that this is about hunters and hunting, folks. Anyone who shoots deer with a Glock should be denied sex the rest of their lives the way the Santa Barbara shooter complained he was. Having a hand gun in the house also does not make anyone safer; family members shoot each other with them or commit suicide with them when temporarily depressed; and burglars wrestle them away and shoot the owners with their own weapon, or the owners end up being charged with murder for shooting an unarmed burglar. Plus people are not well. I figure at least 20 percent of the US population has mood disorders or other mental problems such that you really wouldn’t want to see a gun in their hands. Nor is it about the actual, historical, 2nd Amendment. Our current legislative program in the US is “a semi-automatic high capacity weapon in the hands of every mentally unstable person.” But since Congress is also determined to pump 50 billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in the next decade, which will pretty much sink us, the mania about everyone having guns is not the most dangerous hysteria currently gripping our country.

The United States continues to be peculiar in handing out powerful magazine-fed firearms to almost anyone who wants one and not requiring background checks on private purchases even if these are made at gun shows. 80% of civilian-owned firearms world-wide are in the US, and only Yemen vaguely competes with us for rates of firearm ownership; Yemen is a violent mess with Shiite insurgencies, al-Qaeda taking over cities from time to time, tribal feuding, southern separatism and US drone strikes. And even it has fewer guns per person than the USA.

It has gotten to the point where the increasing epidemic of mass shootings now threatens the US military, the most powerful military in the world.


Note to Mods: Please move if necessary.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

1. I brought this very issue up in GD 7 years ago, post Virginia Tech

I asked "Why not use the same laws the UK has and apply them to the US?"

I got responses like

- The US is a very big country and the UK has a smaller population (I pointed out that even if you combined the whole of Europe- most of which have very strict gun laws- it wouldn't even reach the average gun deaths in the US even though it has a bigger population combined than the US)

- The UK doesn't have a "2nd Amendment" law

- The UK has a huge problem with knife crime (fast forward to 7 years later, after restricting knife sales, the UK's knife crime, and overall violent crime, has decreased)

and the post was subsequently moved to the Gun forum where it dropped like a stone and I've never made another post like what I did in GD since. To drive home to the point- the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has only had three mass shootings in 30 years (Hungerford Massacre (which led to the banning of semi-automatic rifles), Dunblane (banning of handguns) and Cumbria).

[groundloop]

2. Hey, but at least I can protect my family with my private aresenal

The NRA has done a hell of a job peddling fear (and pimping for their gun manufacturers). It's simply mind boggling how this can go on.

[greatlaurel]

3. Privatizing profits while pushing the costs-deaths from guns- onto the public

Many countries have protected their citizens from the corporate profit of guns. The US has a lot more in common with third world countries afflicted with the weapons salesmen selling mayhem wholesale.

[Botany]

4. It is the guns end of story

U.S. Has More Guns – And Gun Deaths – Than Any Other Country, Study Finds

[Thespian2]

5. Canadians

are fearful of traveling in the US. We do it, but we try to be extra cautious. We were in Florida when the ex-cop shot a man to death for texting in a movie theatre (Tampa). What the hell has become of America? Mexico is far safer. In America, anyone can be killed at any time for no apparent reason. We come to Florida for one reason only; our son lives there. Otherwise, we prefer going to Mexico where we believe our lives are more secure.