Former Australian official - travel warning to US due to gun violence

No, it was a fragment of a quote. That's what the "..." part means. It could have been any country, including the United States and I still wouldn't give a (*)(*)(*)(*) what a former politician thinks.

 

I have a sig 516 pistol for sale if anyone wants it.

It shoots 5.56 NATO



Everyone needs protection these days

 

If Korben is referring to Fosters, he's correct. No clear thinking Australian would drink Fosters or admit to drinking Fosters. Fosters is not indicative of Australian beers. Why do you think we export it?

 

I know right. We should ban guns so only criminals have them. I'll go turn mine in right away! What a genius idea! That will solve all the problems! No more gun violence when only criminals have them!

 

I wonder if American authorities warn Americans not to go to certain towns or cities in Australia because of violence?

 

Failed government policies that have enabled and encouraged the breakdown of the family unit is at the heart of most of the gun violence in this country. This warning was written by a prominent Democrat 50 years ago when those policies were first being enacted:

From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history; a community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future -- that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, disorder -- most particularly the furious, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure -- that is not only to be expected; it is very near to inevitable. And it is richly deserved.
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

I agree that something is very wrong in America, and gun violence is a symptom, not the disease.

 

With so many high schools being co-opted by he radical right wing, creationism and abstinence is interfering with STEM courses, and STEM courses are sorely lacking on a global scale. If it weren't for the H1B, our scientific progress would almost halt. We just don't have the talent. But we're rich, so we import talent -- especially from Asia. About 1/4 of my employees were from Asia. They were the best.

 

The USA Today article is not proof, its anecdotal and hearsay.

There are 2 definitions of mass shootings. The first is crimes in which 4 or more people are killed, which is the technical definition used by law enforcement. The vast majority of those are not random, and strangers are not the target nor the victims. Typically its a man who kills family members, generally over emotional issues with his wife, ex-wife, girlfriend. Sometimes its with co-workers or employers. Some are gang related. The general public is not concerned about being a victim of these types of shootings because the victims are specifically selected.

The recent event in San Bernardino was terrorism, that's a separate type of crime all together.

Its the second definition of mass shootings that gets all the hype, those are the ones in which a person goes into a public space and randomly shoots strangers. Those are very rare, but those are the ones that the gun banners hype and try to scare people into banning guns.

That's why Mother Jones tracks the second type. Unreliable propaganda mouthpieces like USA Today and the Violence Policy Center merge the 2, and exaggerate by claiming there are far more than are reported, but few are fooled.

 

due to recent plane crashes, he probably should not fly either, cause I hear the sky is falling where his is

.

 

I see, so we're relying on definitions as an excuse? There are no excuses; mass shootings are rampant and suggesting that figures are being manipulated or artificially inflated is a poor effort. Also note that I said 'shootings' not 'killings'.

 

The crime rate went down, sure, but please take a look on the total number of gun violence acts of USA in comparison to EU for example!

Further, gunpolicy.org tells that there are nearly 300 million private guns (270 million in 2007) in the USA alone which gave a statistic of 88.8% of all US citizens have a gun, what brings them on place n° 1 ... number 2 and 3 are India and China with 40 millions each.
Of course are these 88.8% statistic nonsense and does not include that there are many US people without weapons as well many with several legal weapons ... but the total number of weapons and the number of gun crimes are speaking its own language and even people can discuss, rate and argue endless about the depending points and facts, the digits alone don't lie!

 

Actually, they can lie. Like the old saying.

Lies
Damned Lies
and Statistics

There is a huge problem counting anything in the US other than polling and I will bet many people lie about what they own. There is no gun registration so the numbers have to be guessed at. One paper used a proxy of how many of one gun magazine were purchased in a State as 'gun ownership'. The 'guess' of how many AR-15s there are ranges from 4 to 8 million. No one knows. Heck, for $1000 you can buy 10 or more AR-15 lower receivers and own 10 'firearms' though they are useless until you add the other parts like the trigger group, hand grip, stock, and upper.

 

In Germany we have the saying "don't trust any statistic which you have not done by your own"!

However ... pure digits show that there are multiple more crimes with guns involved as for example in the complete EU with all depending countries. The pure question about the "why" can and is simply answered with the fact that the gun law in the EU is more strict as in the USA.

Of course, the whole thing looks like a simplification and arguing about can be done endless, but the formula "more legal guns = automatically more illegal guns = more crimes with gun use" is at least something what can be called fact.

 

No, its simple fact that "mass shooting" is a broad category subject to interpretation, with some aspects having a significant social and political impact - that's just simple fact and social science.

Mass shootings in the USA are not rampant, that's just media hype and hysterics. Read the FBI data. Get the facts, not propaganda from NYT.

In Australia, the killers simply switched weapons after the gun ban, but they did not eliminate the shootings.

 

It happens on average... EVERY single day.
It's only a media hype and hysterics when a muslim does it.
Because most of the time a mass shooting doesn't even hit the national news at all.