5-year-old shoots 2-year-old sister with gift rifle

[Blackleaf]

Here are some more sobering facts for Americans:

• There are 89 guns for every 100 civilians in the US;
• That amounts to roughly 270 million guns owned nationwide, far and away the highest gun ownership rate in the world;
• With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. is home to anywhere between 35 and 50 percent of all civilian-owned guns on earth;
• While America certainly does not have the highest firearms-related homicide rate in the world (it ranks 28th), its rate is more than four times that of any other industrialized country (including all of Europe, Japan, Australia, Turkey and India);
• In 2011, there were well over 9,000 gun-related homicides (nearly 70 percent of all homicides committed), or roughly three per 100,000 population, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That’s about 20 times the average rate of all other developed nations, according to the Washington Post;
• In contrast, Great Britain has a gun ownership rate of about 6 guns for every 100 civilians (almost one-fifteenth that of the US). In 2011 it had just 41 gun-related homicides, or .07 per 100,000 population. Meanwhile, Finland, where there are 45 guns per 100 civilians (half that of the US), had only 24 gun homicides in 2011, a rate of .45 per 100,000 population.

The United States of Firearms: America’s Love of the Gun | The Lowdown

 

[JLM]

How many were murdered by people?

 

[Colpy]

Only in America can a five-year-old be given a rifle as a toy. In Britain we give young boys toy rifles, but no way would we ever give them REAL ones.

And then the Yanks they wonder why tragedies like this happen.

The American obsession with the gun still baffles me. To someone from Britain, a country with the world's toughest gun laws, where guns are hardly ever seen by most people and where shootings are much rarer than in most other countries (and the murder rate in England and Wales is the second-lowest in the EU after Germany, although in Scotland where they are all giro-spending drunken thugs, the murder rate is the second-HIGHEST in Europe), this American obsession with owning guns is just completely and utterly alien.

The Americans cling on to the idea that they have some God-given right, thanks to the Second Amendment, to own guns, but it's obvious to most sensible people that the Second Amendment, penned at the end of the 18th Century, is now out of date and was merely to allow people to be armed with weapons to fight the British. There should be no need, however, for such a law now.

Here are some stats:

Annual firearm-related death rates of selected countries per 1,000 people:

UK: 0.25 (Homicides by firearms: 0.04)
Spain: 0.63 (Homicides by firearms: 0.15)
Ireland: 1.03 (Homicides by firearms: 0.36)
Germany: 1.10 (Homicides by firearms: 0.06)
Italy: 1.28 (Homicides by firearms: 0.36)
Sweden: 1.47 (Homicides by firearms: 0.19)
Portugal: 1.77 (Homicides by firearms: 0.48 )
Norway: 1.78 (Homicides by firearms: 0.04)
Canada: 2.13 (Homicides by firearms 0.50)
New Zealand: 2.66 (Homicides by firearms: 0.17)
Austria: 2.94 (Homicides by firearms: 0.18 )
France: 3.00 (Homicides by firearms: 0.22)
Chile: 3.73 (Homicides by firearms: 2.20)
Switzerland: 3.84 (Homicides by firearms: 0.52)
Serbia: 3.90 (Homicides by firearms: 0.62)
United States: 10.20 (Homicides by firearms: 3.20)

List of countries by firearm-related death rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Obviously you do not understand statistics, history, nor the basic principles of liberty.

First off, "homicide by firearm" statistics are a ruse put over on the gullible by the enemies of liberty. Are you somehow deader if killed with a firearm?? If the claim of the control-freaks is that gun control saves lives, then the only statistic that counts is overall homicide rates.

There are 104 countries in the world with worse homicide rates than the USA. Most have strict gun control. The US rate is 4.8 per 100,000.....the world rate is 6.9 per 100,000.

Now, on to history....in the Revolutionary War the Americans first proceeded to kick British **** when they progressed into the countryside to seize arms in violation of the ancient ENGLISH right to keep arms, as recognized in the 1689 Bill of Rights. The fact that Great Britain is rapidly turning into the horror envisioned by George Orwell has much to do with the superiority of Parliament over the ancient rights no longer recognized, but that exist in English Common Law. The Americans had the good sense to enshrine their rights in a document recognized as the supreme law of the land.......superior to the whim of tyrants.

Arms are power, and belong in the hands of the people.

That is what it comes down to.

GUNS don't murder anyone.......and the MURDER rate in the USA is relatively low.

The Second Amendment, drafted in the 18th Century at a time when the Founding Fathers felt that Americans should be able to defend themselves against unfriendly Indians, the British and other threats relevant to the time, has no place in the 21st Century. This is the 21st Century and the time when Americans need to defend themselves from Indians and the British is long gone. It's time the Second Amendment was considned to the dustbin of history. It's an anachronism.

.

First of all.....BALONEY.

Read about Athens Georgia.

Read Negroes with Guns by Robert Williams.

Along with Martin Luther King's pacifist movement for civil rights, the use of the second amendment by more radical groups was essential in the movement towards civil rights in the USA.

There is a process to amend the constitution, which the Americans have chosen NOT to do in any way concerning the second amendment.......and considering that there are 300 million guns in the USA, I suggest that "an anachronism" is the LAST thing the second amendment should be called.

And I thank God that I'm British and over here, and not a Yank and over there.

.

My guess is you are not nearly as happy about that as the Americans are......

In other words, all thanks to your out-of-date Second Amendment, which is anachronistic in the 21st Century, you over there in Yankeeland are 41 times more likely than me, here in good old Blighty, to be killed by a firearm and you are 80 times more likely to be murdered by a firearm than I am.
.

So I guess you DO believe you are deader if shot........

Makes about as much sense as the rest of your post.

 

[Zipperfish]

Bottom line for me is that the Americans want the freedom to bear arms, and they are willing to pay the price for it--manifested in tragedies like this. That's their choice.

 

[EagleSmack]

Ah yes but in the US pools have to be fenced off because they are a danger to children!

Yes... from the outside world. What about the family toddler (for example) that is walking around the backyard? No law there Christianna.

And those are the kids who are drowning... in their own family pools.

Bottom line for me is that the Americans want the freedom to bear arms, and they are willing to pay the price for it--manifested in tragedies like this. That's their choice.

And we want our motor vehicles, swimming pools, and household cleaning supplies too.

The Second Amendment, drafted in the 18th Century at a time when the Founding Fathers felt that Americans should be able to defend themselves against unfriendly Indians, the British and other threats relevant to the time, has no place in the 21st Century. This is the 21st Century and the time when Americans need to defend themselves from Indians and the British is long gone. It's time the Second Amendment was considned to the dustbin of history. It's an anachronism.

Another silly brit that knows ZIP about the U.S Constitution.

I count myself lucky that I live in Britain and not America.

There's no England Anymore...

There's No England - YouTube


All the stories...
Have been told...
Of Kings and days of old...
But there's no England Anymore...

 

[Christianna]

Yes... from the outside world. What about the family toddler (for example) that is walking around the backyard? No law there Christianna.

Exactly , no law against a child picking up a gun and killing someone as long as someone is in the family. Really amazing isn't it? It seems that nearly every day we read about a child shooting and killing someone, yet no one is ever legally forced to be responsible for leaving that gun where the child could get it. Here in Canada (thankfully) guns must be locked up, the ammo locked up separately. While on occasion people are shot, we do not have children accidentally killing anyone.

 

[EagleSmack]

Here in Canada (thankfully) guns must be locked up, the ammo locked up separately. While on occasion people are shot, we do not have children accidentally killing anyone.

Oh really? Never? Never happened? Do you want to stick to that?

 

[JLM]

Oh really? Never? Never happened? Do you want to stick to that?

She's right more than she's wrong. (But there are exceptions to every rule-)

 

[EagleSmack]

She's right more than she's wrong. (But there are exceptions to every rule-)

Damage control JLM?

No... she's wrong. Just another one being all uppity and "that doesn't happen here" attitude, when I am looking at articles online that show in fact that it does.

And you know it too.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Oh really? Never? Never happened? Do you want to stick to that?

Little trolling on this fine, bright afternoon, Smacky?

 

[EagleSmack]

Little trolling on this fine, bright afternoon, Smacky?

Hey its Ward Churchill trolling again!

Again T-Bones... nothing to add and trolling away as usual.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Hey its Ward Churchill!

Oh, dear.

 

[Colpy]

Accidental Death in the USA in 2011:

122,777 total

34,677 Motor vehicle

33,554 Poisoning

26,681 Falls

851 Shooting

Accidental Death -- Do You Know the Risks?

Put it in perspective for you???

 

[EagleSmack]

Perspective from anti-gun extremists? Oh you're asking for way to much Colpy.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Accidental Death in the USA in 2011:

122,777 total

34,677 Motor vehicle

33,554 Poisoning

26,681 Falls

851 Shooting

Accidental Death -- Do You Know the Risks?

Put it in perspective for you???

Puts me in mind of the guy who tried to commit suicide. He wanted to make extra-sure he offed it, so he. . .

1. Swallowed poison.
2. Tied a rope around his neck and fastened it to a tree trunk.
3. Jumped off a cliff above the sea.
4. Was holding a gun to shoot himself.

So, he jumps, the rope doesn't break his neck, and he's slowly strangling. So he tries to shoot himself, misses, and the bullet cuts the rope. He falls into the sea, injuring but not killing himself. The salt water he swallows makes him puke up the poison, and he's ultimately rescued and taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Which got into a crash that killed him.

 

[petros]

Puts me in mind of the guy who tried to commit suicide. He wanted to make extra-sure he offed it, so he. . .

1. Swallowed poison.
2. Tied a rope around his neck and fastened it to a tree trunk.
3. Jumped off a cliff above the sea.
4. Was holding a gun to shoot himself.

So, he jumps, the rope doesn't break his neck, and he's slowly strangling. So he tries to shoot himself, misses, and the bullet cuts the rope. He falls into the sea, injuring but not killing himself. The salt water he swallows makes him puke up the poison, and he's ultimately rescued and taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Which got into a crash that killed him.

I like Faerie Tales.

The Curious George where he almost blows his melon off because the Man in the Yellow Hat was an idiot and left a gun laying around is a good one.

What is the moral of that story?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I like Faerie Tales.

The Curious George where he almost blows his melon off because the Man in the Yellow Hat was an idiot and left a gun laying around is a good one.

What is the moral of that story?

"Responsible pet owners put their monkeys through the NRA's Eddie Eagle safety program for kids (and monkeys)."

 

[petros]

Training a monkey is kind of like training a kid?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Could be. Course, you should always remember that spanking the monkey is nothing at all like spanking a kid.

Seriously, you don't want to mix those two up. The legal consequences are really, really harsh.

 

[petros]

How many monkeys have you raised and trained?

What were their scores on the 200yd benchrest?