On 12/4/2014 12:09 PM, F*O*A*D wrote:
On 12/4/14 11:44 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 12/4/2014 11:42 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 04 Dec 2014 05:12:18 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/4/2014 12:02 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 03 Dec 2014 13:15:52 -0500, F*O*A*D wrote:



Less availability of guns in modern western societies seems to
result in
a less violent society, eh?

They are simply less violent. There were more stabbing murders in LA
last year than the total number of murders in Canada all causes.
Maybe it does have to do with our ethnic make up ... but we can't say
that.


Statistics can be very misleading unless you take all factors into
account.

You have to come away with the fact that Americans are more violent,
across the board. When you look at Australia where they did do a
massive gun roundup, the people who wanted to kill their fellow man,
simply moved to other weapons. The overall slope of murder rates
didn't really change.



John won't like this but guns, wars and violence are "ingrained" in our
culture. :-)




Every country is unique, but Australia is more similar to the US than
is, say, Japan or England. We have a frontier history and a strong gun
culture. Each state and territory has its own gun laws, and in 1996
these varied widely between the jurisdictions. At that time Australia's
firearm mortality rate per population was 2.6/100,000 – about
one-quarter the US rate, according to data from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics and the US Center for Disease Control. Today the rate is
under 1/100,000 – less than one-tenth the US rate. Those figures refer
to all gun deaths – homicide, suicide and unintentional. If we focus on
gun homicide rates, the US outstrips Australia 30-fold.

The 1996 reforms made gun laws stronger and uniform across Australia.
Semi-automatic rifles were prohibited (with narrow exceptions), and the
world's biggest buyback saw nearly 700,000 guns removed from circulation
and destroyed. The licensing and registration systems of all states and
territories were harmonised and linked, so that a person barred from
owning guns in one state can no longer acquire them in another. All gun
sales are subject to screening (universal background checks), which
means you cannot buy a gun over the internet or at a garage sale.

Gun ownership requires a license, and every sale is subject to a 28-day
waiting period. The licensing process considers not only the applicant's
age and criminal convictions, but also a range of other factors relevant
to possession of a product that is (a) designed for killing and (b)
highly coveted by people who should not have it. Relevant factors
include the applicant's living circumstances, mental and physical
health, restraining orders or other encounters with the law, type of gun
desired and for what purpose, safety training, storage arrangements, and
the public interest.

http://tinyurl.com/lh4gzcs




Probably a bit more restricting than anything that would ever be
accepted in the USA (including me) but I could live with it if it
applied to everyone.