!!!Anyway we all do things to lessen the possibility that something we do can cause strife to others. For example the pool fencing regs. Now that I mention it I'm not sure if this is a VIC thing or a national thing but anyway at the time it was introduced people were saying how it would ruin their lives but it seems pretty well accepted now.
dodgy edit on my behalf 
Anyway getting back to the States and guns. I think they are stuffed. There's a daisy chain of causality/dependency that's just not going to go away until God comes down and somebody shoots him cos they didn't like his manners.
I think everyone agrees that you don't want people with mental issues (the bad type, I assume some forms of psychosis are not dangerous
) owning firearms, any ideas how to prevent/reduce the occurance/increase the chances of catching the behaviour and then stop such a thing, from happening/continuing?
that is the funniest catch i have ever hooked! warm tea drinker with a wedge of lemon warning!
) owning firearms, any ideas how to prevent/reduce the occurance/increase the chances of catching the behaviour and then stop such a thing, from happening/continuing?
nice firm watertight laws and heavy penalties, i think we are on the right track.
remember....It could be said that the burden of technology is that once something has been invented or discovered it cannot be "uninvented" or "undiscovered" again.
warm tea drinker with a wedge of lemon warning!
Why the reluctance to compare different items? Guns are just tools, the same as axes, knives, CARS, industrial equipment. Many firearms were never designed to kill humans, just as the axes, knives, cars weren't (although google car murders and you'd be surprised). I don't get why guns are the big drama to some people unless you believe what you see in the movies...
They (guns) are already regulated more than these items (eg: knives) anyway, and you might argue it shows due to the number of people killed/injured with knives every year far exceeds those killed/injured by guns.
Everything we do in our culture is weighted against the risk posed by the activity, if its too dangerous we don't do it. So why do we not blink at taking the car for a spin/see the neighbor cutting up a roast, but fuss over a licenced gun owner.
Guns in the hands of criminals though, I can see the fuss and support heavier penalties/restrictions. Note, I said criminals
) owning firearms, any ideas how to prevent/reduce the occurance/increase the chances of catching the behaviour and then stop such a thing, from happening/continuing?
) owning firearms, any ideas how to prevent/reduce the occurance/increase the chances of catching the behaviour and then stop such a thing, from happening/continuing?
US man orders TV, receives assault rifle
US police are looking into how a local resident who ordered a TV on Amazon.com was sent a high-powered semi-automatic assault rifle instead. Washington DC resident Seth Horvitz said he contacted police immediately after a parcel delivery service left the military-style SIG Sauer SIG716 at his apartment door.
"They were a little confused at first. They've never seen anything quite like it," he told Fox 5, a local television station.
"They just took my information and then said: 'We'll handle this weapon because it's illegal to keep here.' It's illegal to transport in a car, so it can't be returned."
While the box was addressed to Horvitz, who had ordered a flat-screen television from a third-party retailer via Amazon.com, an invoice inside the box suggested the gun was supposed to go to a Pennsylvania gun shop.
A spokesman for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said that the case - which comes on the heels of two mass killings in the United States in less than a month - remains under investigation.
On its website, the US subsidiary of SIG Sauer, a major European firearms manufacturer that supplies guns to many US police forces, says the SIG716 is "the rifle of choice when you require the power of a larger calibre carbine."
"We've seen in recent weeks the tremendous damage these guns can do," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which campaigns for greater gun control in the United States.
"We have to be better than a nation where assault weapons are so prevalent and can so easily end up in dangerous hands," he said in a statement. "It's deeply disturbing."http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8513390
I believe criminals get guns through the black market (as shown by a couple of local confiscations, the guns haven't been legal since 1996) and the fact that very few stolen firearms turn up in crimes (I think the figure is ~3%, not that all firearms used in crimes are found, most used are handguns). In the USA its different as there is no degree of firearm registration so anyone without morals can siphon firearms off. And there are that many firearms now, and firearm manufacturing groups that there is no way the USA will ever be without them (so long as you are a willing to break the law to get them).
The following is my biggest issue with excessive gun control (eg: 100% bans no matter what regulative hoops you are willing to jump through, or what you reason want a firearm for).
I don't think the terrible, criminal actions of a handful should shape a society of the many. Its not how we usually do things. This is especially evident to me as a firearms owner, when I hear about innocent people dying every weekend or so, due to alcohol abuse, but no one batters an eyelid...can you see my reasoning?
I'd be much happier to submit to gun control if all the other dangerous things were banned as well (not that society would ever want to be wrapped in that much cotton wool - which I think is a good thing for the reasons Cisco mentioned above).
Regulation, vigilance and education are the keys in the USA, not gun bans.
