I read the news today oh boy! Page 310

Quote: keewik @ January 15 2011, 6:24 PM GMT

It's sometimes advised that you're best NOT to take a knife if you think you hear somebody in the house because they might snatch the knife and turn it on YOU. So the gun could provoke the burglar to use his if he has one, and what if he's a better shot?

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It's impossible to take someone's gun from across the room. And if I find myself face-to-face with a gun-wielding intruder bullets are going to fly. I'm quite confident in my shooting ability and I have the Army medal to prove it.

Percentages don't mean much until actual numbers are added

Results: 38% of households and 26% of individuals reported owning at least one firearm. This corresponds to 42 million US households with firearms, and 57 million adult gun owners.

That is a lot of guns which ever way you look at it

Quote: keewik @ January 15 2011, 6:26 PM GMT

Da Butt, you said "I waited until my kids were grown before I bought one". What was the thinking there? Why was that a factor?

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I trusted my kids to be around firearms but not their friends who might not have been equally responsible. Once my kids were grown I purchased a pistol.

Quote: sootyj @ January 15 2011, 6:29 PM GMT

problem is you have exponentially increased your chance of impulse suicide or murder

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I'm quite certain that I'll never participate in either and I could quickly find a different means of carrying them out if I did.

Quote: DaButt @ January 15 2011, 6:33 PM GMT

It's impossible to take someone's gun from across the room.

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Not if you have a bullwhip!

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ January 15 2011, 6:34 PM GMT

That is a lot of guns which ever way you look at it

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And with 8,500 firearm homicides every year you arrive at at the conclusion that only one out of every 6,700 firearm owners commits a murder with his/her gun. That's a tiny 0.015% of firearm owners, but we're not finished yet. The majority of those murders were committed by gang members, drug dealers and convicted criminals who are not legally allowed to possess a gun in the first place. The percentage of law-abiding people who like myself who commit gun crimes is positively microscopic.

Quote: Schwen @ January 15 2011, 6:42 PM GMT

Not if you have a bullwhip!

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If you say so, Indy.

And compared to the percentage of firearm homicides per head in England?

Quote: Schwen @ January 15 2011, 6:57 PM GMT

And compared to the percentage of firearm homicides per head in England?

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I'd reckon that the ratio of handgun murders by illegal owners to those committed by legal owners is many thousands if not millions of percentage points higher in the UK than in the United States. You guys seem to have a problem.

I did some googlings and found that the UK has 1/4 of the national murders of North America per capita and only 1% of US's the gun murders, also per capita.

Quote: Nat Wicks @ January 15 2011, 7:15 PM GMT

I did some googlings and found that the UK has 1/4 of the national murders of North America per capita and only 1% of US's the gun murders, also per capita.

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Mexico's murder rate is triple that of the U.S. and 12x the UK's, yet they have very strict gun laws. Perhaps we should look at cultural and social aspects? It's not politically correct to say so, but murders in the United States have strong ties to race, gangs and drugs. Homicide is actually the leading cause of death for young African-American males. It's tragic.

Quote: DaButt @ January 15 2011, 7:49 PM GMT

Mexico's murder rate is triple that of the U.S. and 12x the UK's, yet they have very strict gun laws. Perhaps we should look at cultural and social aspects? It's not politically correct to say so, but murders in the United States have strong ties to race, gangs and drugs. Homicide is actually the leading cause of death for young African-American males.

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It's neither PC nor non PC, it's just a fact.

I can see that Palin will eventually be president. Sarah I mean - not Michael. It's inevitable really in a country who elected Reagan.

Any thoughts on student getting 29 months for chucking a fire extinguisher off a building

I think ok, when everyone commiting GBH or affray gets at least a year in clink

He'll probably only do a couple of months.

He looks like a wrong'n anyway.

I think he's gonna do a year or so.

And he's the first in his family to go to uni, so they're probably too stupid to use combs.

He must have been pretty thick not to realise he could have killed some - probably innocent person but all credit to his mother.