I'd be interested to see a non developing country with a higher violent crime death rate per capita with stricter gun control laws.
Your participation in a UK forum is admirable in that you are apparently interested in the happenings outside your nation's borders. Next you'll be telling us you own a passport ?
The conversation becomes even more interesting when we start counting crimes like rape. Australia is No. 2 in the world! Sweden is on the top ten!
I was in Italy recently, and the rate of robbery, (not counting burglary or thievery) is absolutely massive, especially in certain cities. Naples has an unemployment rate of over 30% right now.
You could call me a culture tourist—I genuinely enjoy seeing other people’s ways of life and perspectives on things. ? I actually do have a passport—I’m almost to a dozen countries—so I spend quite a bit of time immersed in other cultures.
Nah, not strange that you don’t enjoy real guns. I’m way more of an airsoft nut than I am a real-steel nut.
The cold war is a very bad example of the point you're trying (and failing) to make. Both sides were in an arms race as they both considered the other side to be wanting to wipe them out.
As for your question about why wouldn't they use it, why would they go through the extra hassle of getting a gun when a knife can be bought for a fraction of the price and will have the same effect on the victim, whether that's making them comply or putting a hole in them
Fair enough—Cold War is a bad example. The point I was trying to make is that us and our police shouldn’t be using knives in hopes that the criminals will use knives as well. Putting yourself at the mercy of a bad guy in hopes he backs up and does the same for you is just stupid.
Knives are cheaper, yes, but at least in the USA, a basic rifle or handgun is so cheap pretty much anyone can afford one. A basic rifle can be purchased for less than $100 new, and a basic handgun can be around $100 as well. Private sales can be any price, of course.
Two words: threat bubble. Knives have an extremely small threat bubble. It’s also much harder to kill or even hurt someone with a knife than a gun, assuming that is the intent.
Imagine any robber trying a bank without a gun… (most are caught, but that doesn’t mean they don’t try)
In recent times, there was a knifing at a local school. The perpetrator only injured one victim, despite intent to hurt more. Why? Because a knife is a thousand times less effective of a weapon than a gun.
I repeat; firearms are an equalizer. My 80 year old grandmother can shoot someone dead just as well as a highly trained cop, or a a gang boss. Who’s going to win in the knife fight? (Hmm, maybe not
quite as well, but you get the picture ?)
My grandfather was a cop for 25 years. He was in gunfights, shot multiple times, was called in for mass shootings, shot criminals, crashed his motorcycle in the middle of a car chase, and was known to the end of his life as “that old guy who always carries three pistols”.
Most people are not, and will never have to be my grandfather, encountering threats to his life and the lives of others on a common basis.
But as the saying goes: “He who packeth heat be a fool all the days but one.”
I found an interesting report from the American FBI that states that in 2019 armed American citizens killed 386 felons during the perpetration of their crimes vs. 340 from the police. This does not include any self-defense shootings, or shootings that weren’t fatal.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/expanded-homicide
I first found this page from various media outlets, but I dug up the original report for sale of veracity—if anyone sees anything misleading about the way these numbers are presented, you should let everyone know!
In short, it’s not “an exception” for citizens to make use of their firearms in lawful manners. Heck, this report didn’t include anything that was for self-defense, only the stopping of felons (murder, rape, arson, etc).
I don’t know the faces behind the avatars, but I’m assuming it’s mostly men on here. In almost all cases, women aren’t capable of overpowering men by physical strength. If you take away weapons, you reduce the fight down to pure physical strength and skill. Who wins in those cases? Note the extremely high rape numbers for Australia…
Better yet, ask yourself what you’d like your mother, wife, sister, or daughter to carry in potentially dangerous situations.