Neighbour dispute turns into gun battle (USA)

[Buce]

2 minutes ago, toddybad said:

You read the Daily Mail, don't you?

 

The Mail is far too left-wing for Thracian.

[Thracian]

41 minutes ago, Carl the Llama said:

Stabbing a person requires an extra level of determination to harm them than if you whip out a gun.  The range and ease of use of firearms has a dissociative effect between the wielder and their actions whereas using a knife on somebody is a much more personal and involved method of assault.   I find it hard to imagine that if you took guns out of the equation the 2 men in the video would have been up for a knife fight, as testosterone charged as they may have been - a fist fight perhaps but that's far less likely to result in as severe injuries (though again as DavieG correctly pointed out above even then things can go wrong).

To my knowledge Swiss law has never allowed those on National Service or its alumni to casually carry loaded guns in public and looking at their current regulations it's very difficult for private citizens to qualify for a licence to carry a loaded firearm.  I'd recommend reading that article you linked me to because the overriding principle is that guns are purely for keeping in the house as a national protection measure, or as one of the interviewees puts it:

That last line in particular is very telling.  A rise in levels of public violence in a country with a high gun-to-citizen ratio but which doesn't condone public use of guns doesn't result in a matching growth in gun crime.  If that doesn't blow the defence of American gun use apart I don't know what does.

I coached in Switzerland for a year or so and there was certainly no gun culture or marshall law but there was a lot of people who could shoot straight and had a weapon close by, even if under lock and key. 

 

I don't really see less danger in a knife than a gun. Guns are noisy and so attract attention, knives are essentially silent. A knife across the throat is quickly lethal and a knife across the intestines slowly so. In many hands I'd say the knife was more efficient and the knife culture is one we've imported in recent years. .      

[Thracian]

7 minutes ago, toddybad said:

You read the Daily Mail, don't you?

 

Not very often. Why do you ask?

 

[Carl the Llama]

1 hour ago, Thracian said:

I coached in Switzerland for a year or so and there was certainly no gun culture or marshall law but there was a lot of people who could shoot straight and had a weapon close by, even if under lock and key. 

 

I don't really see less danger in a knife than a gun. Guns are noisy and so attract attention, knives are essentially silent. A knife across the throat is quickly lethal and a knife across the intestines slowly so. In many hands I'd say the knife was more efficient and the knife culture is one we've imported in recent years. .      

Ok so by upholding the merits of a Swiss approach to guns you agree with me on the gun issue and the dangers of letting normal, everyday folk carry one around in public with them even if you don't think you do.  I'd never want a gun in my house but I have no problem with responsible adults having one under the Swiss system (though obviously I'd prefer if nobody had guns), I do however have a big problem with anybody being allowed by law to carry one around fully loaded.

 

As to your point about the danger of knives:  I'm not debating which is the most efficient way to kill a person, I'm suggesting that the average law abiding person is far less likely to use one in a fit of rage or as an intimidation tool.  Also you sound like a psycho knife fetishist.

 

Lastly, this knife epidemic of yours:  Is it normal, everyday people using knives as a weapon or is it the criminal element of society and young kids trying to look hard (and you playing SAS commando in front of the bedroom mirror in your pyjamas)?  Knife crime may have risen but I've certainly never heard of normal people carrying a knife around in this country so unless you have any evidence that suggests otherwise, that point is irrelevant to the discussion of whether regular folk should have free access to loaded firearms at any moment's notice.

[Tuna]

The way these pair seem to carry pistols around like most people would carry a mobile phone beggars belief.

[sk3since03]

Hope he checked his wallet after gunning him down 

[Renart]

12 hours ago, Buce said:

 

The guy made a disparaging remark about the neighbour's wife.

 

The neighbour took a fence..

This is actually a good joke.... (unlike your God-woman-slug joke

 

[Rincewind]

Before the great Train Robbery (1963?) there were few armed robberies becaise the sentence for robbery was something like ten years and murder life. When sentences of 30 years were handed out would be villains thought 3o years or life what is the difference? I may as well go armed to give me a better chance of getting away.

In America even security guards can carry guns. Legally they do not have the same power as the police but shooting someone 50 times when stopping a robbery raking place may be overlooked by sympathetic courts. 

Guns in the USA are often not locked away. There have been cases where children have fired one left on a table or in the back of a car killing a parent. Also it is a lot easier for road rage disputes to be settled with a gun if either think the other was reaching for a weapon. To me that is taking paranoia to the extreme. Wasn't there a case a year or so ago where a neighbourhood watch guy killed someone he though was going to attack him? He may have been asking for directions or a light for a cig.

It is not so much the ownership of weapons I have a problem with. Things have gone too far to change that, but the ease of obtaining high powered weapons. Why would you want in every day normal life need to carry an AR rifle? Yet these can be obtained at convenience stores along with your weekly shopping.

 

'Could I have a pint of milk apacket of tampons and an MK sub machine gun please.'

No problem madam that will be $350. Have a nice day'