In the news

I think that the single thing most likely to initiate change in the US with regards to gun availability would be if large numbers of African Americans started purchasing long guns, AR-15's, all the military wank-fodder.

Wonder if there is correlation between car ownership and road deaths?
#bancars

You know the theory that Boris wants to get sacked so he can then re-enter the fray as a contender for PM?

Sirte can become a holiday destination if it 'clears the dead bodies',
says Johnson

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/03/sirte-can-become-a-holiday-destination-if-it-clears-the-dead-bodies-says-johnson

Interesting graph. What are Cyprus doing right and Canada wrong?

Less Americans nearby.

Less Americans nearby.

Fewer

can anyone suggest a reason as to why a normal human being needs guns like these

could the us not regulate sales of automatic weapons / assault rifles

Technically, it does. It's semi-auto guns that it barely regulates.

I don't buy it. Surely no one is reading comments like that and thinking "there's my future PM". Does he really have that much of a support base, even in the Cunt Party?

They must think that it would be too difficult for the average gun-toter to keep pulling the trigger that amount of times......

Or mod it using a bump stock, as this fella seems to have done.

Just did some digging about the history of the 2nd amendment.

It was likely lifted from the English Bill of Rights that is most notable for separating the monarchy from parliament but also granted the right to all civilians to bear arms. At the time, only Catholics were allowed to carry a sword so the idea was to allow protestants to be armed also. It was a statement of religious equality.

They didn't even start using firearms in a widespread way for another 150 years ffs.

Good research. As an aside there was an interesting exhibition at the British Library last year on the Magna Carta, and it showed how the Magna Carta influenced subsequent laws, bills, acts, etc. around the world. There was a discussion of the former colonies, and while bringing some variant/derivative of the Magna Carta to those regions was at the time seen as beneficial in helping them become more 'civilised', it was later viewed in a negative light by having served as a way of imposing colonial control.

Also, when the Constitution was written, it made the formation of a standing army unconstitutional. The congress were concerned it could be used by the government as an instrument of tyranny, as they saw the British Army. They envisaged a continuation of the use of militias, so arming bears was a necessity. Once they decided they should have an army, and changed the Constitution to allow it, one could argue the 2nd Ammendment effectively became redundant

so arming bears was a necessity

I never saw the episode where Yogi and Booboo had guns

Oh yeah. They just don't have an open carry policy in Jellystone

Make bullets horrendously expensive.

I don't think that's why he wants to get sacked. It's because he's realised he can't hack this, has multiple breaking scandals (other than his remarks designed to be sacked) swirling over his head that will attract so much more attention when they come out if he's Foreign Secretary, and he doesn't want to admit that he's simply failed.

That's quite an interesting idea. But wouldn't that mean more people just start making their own ammunition at home?

The number of people making their own ammo would go up yes but not to the same degree as the drop in gun use from everybody else who has guns but don't make their own ammo. Which I suspect would be the majority.

and only the rich will be able to afford to indiscriminately murder people. like yer man in vegas.

It's time for a civil version of the davy crockett, that would have stopped the shooting.

Making ammo really expensive doesn't really solve the problem either, just like making guns expensive won't solve the problem. Millions already have the guns and stockpiles of ammo, which they'll be willing to sell (for less than the commercially available stuff).

Also, I don't think the cost of ammo is a big concern for someone willing to kill themselves at the end of their spree.

What are Cyprus doing right and Canada wrong?

My hypothesis was that it's to do with National Service and being a nation on a war footing.... A recognition of the need for weapons combined with a reasonable level of discipline and training in their use...

I then looked for where Israel sit in the graph - this debunked my theory....

(I once took a train from Tel Aviv to Rehovot and was shocked by the crazy number of serious weaponry toted by young men and women alike - I requested an explanation from a soldier and was told it's part of public life with discipline instilled from childhood - every kid grows up knowing their dad's got an Uzi, but it's in a safe place and would only ever be used in service of the state).

https://youtu.be/LWjhTWv9eUs