Non Americans speaking on Gun Issues

There are times on this forum when I feel like a trespasser in an old English Movie script - where the Duchess looks through her glasses and says "Reginald! There is someone here who is not one of us!!! Go chase them away!!"

Really this is a discussion board and more - it is an INTERNATIONAL discussion board. Other people from other places can and will comment. That is the essence of discussion - differing opinions

 

Suck it up? When you apply your moral compass to another country, expect to get backlash. I don't complain about Australian gun laws. I think they are draconia, but more power to you to be whatever they are.

 

just 'cause your international don't make you special
it is just an easy point of attack and dismissal
but if you were american, they would attack with the same ferocity
it is not your nationality they dislike
it is the fact that you have different opinions

sometimes they into defending diversity of opinion
like climate change or evolution or states rights etc.
but if you ever try to disagree, you discover what a filthy low life scumbag you are

 

Yes I agree that we should all participate in a wide range of discussions. Its just "different" to obsess so much over another country domestic policy. What if I started thread after thread discussing the horrible way Aborigines are kept isolated and deterred from the opportunities easily accessible to whites.. Thread after thread, several times a month. Wouldn't that be weird?

 

Yea. It's as if you read a pile of travel brochures before going to visit another country, so you could tell the people there all about themselves.
I myself have invited you, more than once, to visit some of the American gun forums, so you could get a first hand "feel" for the environment. Try calguns.net, or AR15.com, or thehighroad.org Have you tried it?

 

Well, yeah, it's gotta' be hard for any foreign national to fully understand and grasp American individual inherent and unalienable rights endowed by their Creator, and not by government, politicians or mere men.

As bad as I hate to say it, there are many Americans nowadays that don't even know that our government's main responsibility is protecting our inherent rights, our liberties and our freedoms.

 

Instead of protecting our freedom, your government is taking away our freedom.

 

Are you assuming that any discussion about the principles and practicalities of gun ownership, use, regulation and law can only be relevant to American domestic policy? It's a high-profile example for various reasons (size, scale gun ownership and variety of State laws) but the concepts and principles of the issue there extend beyond your borders (and beyond the question for guns for that matter).

 

Puhleeze, re-read the OP. It is about discussion of AMERICAN gun policy, and not one other thing. We're looking right here, on this page. You want to divert and derail? Find another thread.

 

HonestJoe is a subject man.

 

The OP said "gun issues", not (just) "American gun policy". That's exactly the point he was making and I was agreeing with him (which is about as on topic as you can get ).

 

When the OP suggests that I should be committed for "putting guns in the hands of my children" after telling her that I taught my sons to shoot and they have their own guns, I think she is trying to indict American law and American culture since I am an American. I haven't broken any gun laws and have put nobody in danger.

 

Read the thread title

 

Admittedly there seems to be a tendency amongst Americans to simply the political spectrum into 'Iffin you ain't fer us yer must be agin us"

Certainly that is true on this forum where the two sides of this political coin seem to be "guns galore for everyone no matter the state of mental health, age, disability and or level of sheer craziness" to " no gun is a good gun and all guns must be destroyed"

The truth is that most of us lie between those two extremes

 

It would be since you would be doing something no one else on this board is doing - obsessing about one aspect of another culture. Really what you have presented as a counter argument is a straw man fallacy. Hyperbolised the situation to make it unacceptable

 

Thank-you yes that is correct, Admittedly Americans are a trifle more vocal on the subject
However we also have gun issues and the core issues remain the same no matter what country you live in

A) how to reduce firearm mortality and morbidity
b) What age and infirmity restraints should there be on guns
c) how should mental health issues affect gun ownership
d) What sort of guns should be in the hands of private citizens (I am thinking here of a societal danger of privately organised and owned militia)
e) What attitude toward gun ownership should we foster

 

the problem is-most gun banners in the USA really don't care about public safety and only mouth such concerns as a facade to serve as a pretext for their real motivations. anything civilian police officers have in terms of firearms, other civilians ought to be able to own as easily as common shotguns and rifles

 

See - right there,

That is what I meant by oversimplification of the opposing political views on the gun issues

 

Most of the Americans that post here are not representative of the American mainstream. Don't be intimidated by their attempts to shut down the debate.

 

maybe people who post tend to be self selecting..... one side or the other on what ever issue
people in the middle have a more difficult path expressing a position in nuanced shades of gray

my own view is that the large majority of gun owners are salt of the earth folks
who are really offended that the reasonable people they are and they know should be the subject of government regulation

sadly this has now reached a point where even the most trivial proposal is represented as a government effort to disarm law abiding citizens.

i am a little surprised that the law enforcement community has not seemed to take a position since it seems to me they would have to confront the ever increasing number of powerful weapons.

but hey, it seems they do not care so much, and i do not plan on getting into a shoot out. so it seems pointless to even begin to discuss the merits of the case. gun regulation in this country is going no where. end of story.

 

I will point out that I entirely disagree with that suggestion but if the OP did believe it, surely they'd believe it as a wider matter of principle for all children rather than exclusively American children.

Also, aren't you guilty of presuming some kind of nationalistic attack on America from what could just be an honest (if misguided) concern for the safety of children? Even if someone who isn't American is commenting specifically on US gun laws, that doesn't automatically mean they're attacking America or that their opinion is worthless.

 

"Non Americans speaking on Gun Issues". "Gun Issues" isn't limited to US gun laws or even gun laws in general. That's the point.

Anyway, it's not automatically invalid for a poster to comment on the laws of other countries. Outside insight on an issue can sometimes even shed new light.

 

Well considering guns are banned in the majority of super progressive countries - yes it basically only applies to the United States.

 

Are you asserting that most US citizens are anti-Second Amendment?

 

Nice rhetoric. Maybe you should get involved in more serious discussions about places outside the borders of the USA to break down some of those poorly-informed stereotypes.

Regardless, you seem to be suggesting that non-Americans shouldn't (be allowed to?) discuss the issues and ideas that could lead to relaxation of the more restrictive gun laws in other countries. Don't you think guns being "banned" anywhere is a Gun Control issue that very much should be disucssed?