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Originally posted by Omega:
The UK is not the US. If you can survive without anyone needing a gun for self defense, good for you. But all it takes is one story of a woman alone in her house when two men try to break in and rape her to make you reconsider that.

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Because that never happens in the UK.

No logic to that statement mate

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Originally posted by Reverend:
Not being funny mate, but do you have the figures to back up that statement?

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Since Australia banned private ownership of most guns in 1996, crime has risen dramatically on that continent, prompting critics of U.S. gun control efforts to issue new warnings of what life in America could be like if Congress ever bans firearms.

After Australian lawmakers passed widespread gun bans, owners were forced to surrender about 650,000 weapons, which were later slated for destruction, according to statistics from the Australian Sporting Shooters Association.

The bans were not limited to so-called "assault" weapons or military-type firearms, but also to .22 rifles and shotguns. The effort cost the Australian government about $500 million, said association representative Keith Tidswell.

Though lawmakers responsible for passing the ban promised a safer country, the nation's crime statistics tell a different story:

* Countrywide, homicides are up 3.2 percent;

* Assaults are up 8.6 percent;

* Amazingly, armed robberies have climbed nearly 45 percent;

* In the Australian state of Victoria, gun homicides have climbed 300 percent;

* In the 25 years before the gun bans, crime in Australia had been dropping steadily;

* There has been a reported "dramatic increase" in home burglaries and assaults on the elderly.

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And HERE is some decent reporting on the Hitler/gun control stuff.

I have law enforcement members that are in my family and friends. (yes I know, its hard to believe I have friends) And what they've said to me is that in general the police are there to come take your report after a robbery so you can file a claim against your insurance. For the most part it is UNLIKELY that you will be able to summon law enforcement or have an officer that will be able to respond to an incident until well after the danger has passed. The public needs to be able to respond themselves to the situation, whether it is to submit and surrender in hopes of hastening a robber's departure or in defending yourself against an attacker. Yes an officer is putting his life on the line everyday he puts on the uniform, but they simply cannot be everywhere protecting everyone every minute. And when they can't get there in time, they get blamed for something they have NO control over.

The problem is that the public has had it ingrained into them to not resist, just do what the criminal wants to get him away from you as quickly as possible. That has only served to embolden the criminal element. Now that they know the average person will not put up a fight, their consideration has become having a witness that might testify against them if they do get caught. Face it, CSI isn't going to happen in most cases like they show it on TV so the only real threat is someone fingering the criminal. That makes a pretty good incentive to eliminate the threat. What the public needs to do is FIGHT BACK when attacked. Then the Judicial System needs to strike HARD for those who would perpetrate violent crime. Only then will we have less crime.

End rant.

Now excepting all incoming flames....

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There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.

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The number of gunshot wounds from assaults treated in hospital emergency departments fell from 64,100 in 1993 to 39,400 in 1997, a 39% decline.

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Well, I guess guns are okay after all! It's waaay "down" to only 39,400 gun victims as of '97.

Really, I think it's time we, as a species grew the fuck up and realise that a killing machine is not "cool" and to own one bcecuse you think it is is assinine.

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Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering.
-Aeschylus, Agamemnon