A gun is a machine for enforcing your will on another human being, under threat of death.
A gun is a multiplier of killing power, but not of reason, patience or compassion.
Number of guns per 100 residents: United States 120, Serbia 40, Yemen 52, Switzerland 27 (has no standing army), Canada 34, Cyprus 34, Saudi Arabia 16, Iraq 19. (source: 2021 Wikipedia)
Note: America has TEN TIMES AS MANY GUNS PER PERSON AS IRAQ !!!
The Australians share many aspects of American culture but they, as with covid, when they see a problem act decisively to solve it. Time America learned this valuable Australian cultural characteristic...after all it is supposedly part of the anglo-saxon make up.
This is spot on. “We don’t have a gun problem, we have a man problem.” Along with having to carry a gun to feel like a man, apparently you have to have an ungodly loud vehicle and a 4-wheeler. I could list so many more examples but I’ll spare you all. I think I’ve made my point.
My heart aches for all the impulsive suicides and the horrific tales of accidental household shootings. The mass murders just get all the press . .
Suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2017, six-in-ten gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (23,854), while 37% were murders (14,542), according to the CDC. The remainder were unintentional (486), involved law enforcement (553) or had undetermined circumstances (338).
And then there is the 1% of gun deaths that are accidental.
If gun ownership goes so deep into a culture I don't really know how in a democracy it can be removed. And lest we think that that young voters are less pro-gun, Pew studies say they are about the same as their elders.
But we had cultural attitudes change drastically toward smoking. Perhaps in the US they can can have a similar change toward the love of handguns.
As an older resident of a mid-Atlantic state, I’m saying now that I HATE the jackasses that pass for today’s men. These are the ones that yes, may be mental, but also include those super gunners who can only feel like a man by carrying a piece that is totally unnecessary for hunting in a civilized society but who feel it necessary to dignify the adjective ‘manly’. These also include the hyper-militarization of the many law enforcement agencies all across our country. It’s these agencies that still feel it necessary to kneel on the Black man’s neck until he breathes his last, force a woman to give birth in a nasty jail cell, unnecessarily harass people of color-because that’s what can help relieve boredom on a late night shift(happened in my ‘progressive’ hometown, or do any other number of outrages to anyone who isn’t white and male. As for the Boeberts, MJ-Greenes, Cawthorns and others of their ilk who invaded not only Congress but the Capitol, if not directly with their firearms they insisted on carrying onto the House floor until Speaker Pelosi put a stop to that with metal detectors and fines, but certainly with their incendiary rhetoric. As for their voters, I really hope they finally realize they voted for pigs in a poke with these nasty pieces of work.
I’m no goody two shoes who wouldn’t know a revolver from a semi automatic pistol, a rifle from a shotgun. I’m almost 75 years old and grew up around my grandparents using shotgun, rifle and revolver. They all had their place and purpose on a farm. My husband bought a pistol and we both learned how to properly use it on the local law enforcement firing range with their own instructors. As long as our boys were children though our pistol always had a trigger lock on it and the key was kept in the safe. So to say that what I’ve been seeing over the years and what I’m witnessing now sickens me.
A gun is a machine for enforcing your will on another human being, under threat of death.
A gun is a multiplier of killing power, but not of reason, patience or compassion.
Number of guns per 100 residents: United States 120, Serbia 40, Yemen 52, Switzerland 27 (has no standing army), Canada 34, Cyprus 34, Saudi Arabia 16, Iraq 19. (source: 2021 Wikipedia)
Note: America has TEN TIMES AS MANY GUNS PER PERSON AS IRAQ !!!
The Australians share many aspects of American culture but they, as with covid, when they see a problem act decisively to solve it. Time America learned this valuable Australian cultural characteristic...after all it is supposedly part of the anglo-saxon make up.
This country's gun fetish has always been a mystery to me.
Mystery to me too Ian
Some idiot said 40, 000 gun deaths per year was the price America had to pay for freedom. God spare me from American freedom.
This column will put you on someone's hit list. Do one similar on the forced birth crowd and you will need security.
This is spot on. “We don’t have a gun problem, we have a man problem.” Along with having to carry a gun to feel like a man, apparently you have to have an ungodly loud vehicle and a 4-wheeler. I could list so many more examples but I’ll spare you all. I think I’ve made my point.
My heart aches for all the impulsive suicides and the horrific tales of accidental household shootings. The mass murders just get all the press . .
Suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2017, six-in-ten gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (23,854), while 37% were murders (14,542), according to the CDC. The remainder were unintentional (486), involved law enforcement (553) or had undetermined circumstances (338).
And then there is the 1% of gun deaths that are accidental.
If gun ownership goes so deep into a culture I don't really know how in a democracy it can be removed. And lest we think that that young voters are less pro-gun, Pew studies say they are about the same as their elders.
But we had cultural attitudes change drastically toward smoking. Perhaps in the US they can can have a similar change toward the love of handguns.
As an older resident of a mid-Atlantic state, I’m saying now that I HATE the jackasses that pass for today’s men. These are the ones that yes, may be mental, but also include those super gunners who can only feel like a man by carrying a piece that is totally unnecessary for hunting in a civilized society but who feel it necessary to dignify the adjective ‘manly’. These also include the hyper-militarization of the many law enforcement agencies all across our country. It’s these agencies that still feel it necessary to kneel on the Black man’s neck until he breathes his last, force a woman to give birth in a nasty jail cell, unnecessarily harass people of color-because that’s what can help relieve boredom on a late night shift(happened in my ‘progressive’ hometown, or do any other number of outrages to anyone who isn’t white and male. As for the Boeberts, MJ-Greenes, Cawthorns and others of their ilk who invaded not only Congress but the Capitol, if not directly with their firearms they insisted on carrying onto the House floor until Speaker Pelosi put a stop to that with metal detectors and fines, but certainly with their incendiary rhetoric. As for their voters, I really hope they finally realize they voted for pigs in a poke with these nasty pieces of work.
I’m no goody two shoes who wouldn’t know a revolver from a semi automatic pistol, a rifle from a shotgun. I’m almost 75 years old and grew up around my grandparents using shotgun, rifle and revolver. They all had their place and purpose on a farm. My husband bought a pistol and we both learned how to properly use it on the local law enforcement firing range with their own instructors. As long as our boys were children though our pistol always had a trigger lock on it and the key was kept in the safe. So to say that what I’ve been seeing over the years and what I’m witnessing now sickens me.
Thank you, Diane