Re: CT elementary school shooting.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BigJoe</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TJ.</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Greg Langelius *</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I want to hear input on this from our forum members who live offshore and do not have Second Amendment protections for their gun ownership rights.
Are we doing this wrong? How can we do better? Does what you have and don't have make you any better off than we are?
Greg </div></div>
As a Brit i will give you my thoughts. I respect your 2A rights and admire your desire to protect your rights. Having said that in the UK there is no 2A. In the last 20-yrs we have lost the right to handguns and semi-auto high power assault rifles both coming on the back of tragic massacres. Yes we have lost a lot but i can honestly say there are virtually no mass murder type crimes in the UK. I think many lives have been saved, although i can't prove it and i would give up those rights again given a free choice. I honestly believe the kids and parents killed in the two worst UK cases went to their graves knowing others have been saved.
To get a shotgun/rifle licence in the UK the police first seek approval and guidance from our local doctor (the benefit of the NHS). We are interviewed in our home by the equiv of SWAT type officers and we have to provide several rigorous references from responsible citizens ie lawyer, doctor, Member of Parliament or Local Council etc. Ultimately, the police manage the process and cant deny unless there is good reason. Our firearms have to be stored in approved safes when not in use. Yes this is a pain but i think it works and ensure responsible ownership.
The one key difference vs the US is you guys have a massive crime problem and a huge illegal gun ownership. Who protects thr good guys when they give up their guns ? The UK never had that problem and i would suggest you have to aggressively take illegal firearms out of circulation before you tackle the legal market. Illegal guns kill more and without them around the arguments for legal defensive ownership diminish.
Ultimately, we didnt get a choice when our guns were taken....i hate to admit it but i am fine with that outcome. Lives have been saved and our society is better off for it. I still get to own firearms, just not all the ones i want.
It isnt't going to he easy to change but i hope you get the outcome you deserve.
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i can apreciate your opinion but we have a HUGE factor playing into this you guys over there don't. its a little country called mexico, which imports drugs by the ton into the US and would just as easily switch to assault rifles of the full auto variety.
we already in california have to do transfers at a FFL, its a pain but I wouldn't have HUGE heartburn if that was the case nationwide. Illegal guns or stolen guns will always be a problem. Keeping your guns in a good safe is and should be what everyone does who is a responsible gun owner. I do it not only because i have small children but because its a very large monetary investment that is portable and can be carried away easily if not locked up.
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And we have the French
Mexico is another issue and it is about the Federal govt stepping up and doing more. I think they can ask for more gun control but they have to give something back, something that ensures your security, protection and helps justify what they are taking away. Two months ago a nutcase in the UK decided to commit a mass crime...he didn't have a gun so he drove his car around a city trying to kill people (he succeeded with a couple). A nutcase is a nutcase and govts shouldn't react by taking everything from everyone. There is a middle ground.
Looking at is another way the US has over 9 deaths from firearm related incidents per 100,000 vs 0.25 for the UK, a multiple of almost 37 times !!!
Here is the much trotted out list of US school shootings. It is horrendous and has to stop. There is nothing like it elsewhere in the world and it has to stop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States
It has become so common and so shocking that it has become aspirational to the head cases out there. They are trying to do it with more violence and more carnage than the guy before them. It has almost become a competition and there will be copycat attacks. Someone somewhere has just learnt or understood something from this tragedy and is probably thinking they too can be famous.
I for one think every retiring member of the US Armed Services should have to spend a few months guarding a local school upon leaving the service. It can be done via concealed carry with training (and post a military doctor review board) and they can become productive members of the schoools...the best and brightest can help in the classroom whilst others can help on the sports-field and perhaps that will also help with the childhood obesity problem. It will be a chance for kids to meet servicemen & women, a chance to hear what they can do for their country when they grow up and for the retiring service member to make a productive transition back to civilian life. It avoids putting cops in uniform in school but adds a simple, experienced and trained layer of protection - it becomes a deterrent to this chicken shits.
As I say, we don't have this or gun violence in schools in the UK and it isn't just the lack of assault rifles that stops this...we can have a semi auto shotgun with extended mag so the firepower is there but the controls on who gets the firepower exist and usually work.
Ultimately, you have to decide what you are preapred to pay or give-up to protect your children...doing nothing is no longer an option.
