Brilliant, thank you. I don't think it will be much longer before the US implodes, sadly.

The selectivity of the gun freaks towards gun rights, neatly set out by Alan Beasley, is matched by as self-serving a selectivity AGAINST gun responsibility – the responsibility of guns for America lurching from gun massacre to gun massacre against a background of nearly 10 thousand gun homicides a year. In their emotional dependence on owning the means to waste fellow-citizens (to say nothing of everything that moves in the forest), these inadequates fill the ether with supposed reasons why so many Americans are getting shot dead – alibis such as

*people on psychiatric medication
*people who should be
*people on legal and/or illegal drugs
*criminals
*kindergarten teachers, cinema ushers, supermarket staffs not armed
*violent videos, films, computer games
*street and domestic bullies
*etc.etc.etc.

But all these are also universal in other countries none of which has an ongoing gun murder crisis. The ONLY difference between America and the rest that can accountant for the epidemic of gun homicide is that it is awash with privately owned guns through a constitutional right-to-be-armed clause which was introduced to calm planters’ fears of rebellious slaves, retained to fortify land grabbers against Native American resistance, and clung to today to protect a large firearm manufacturing industry.

Meanwhile the toll of well-armed, well-trained soldiers in military bases in Afghanistan shot dead by rogue Afghan colleagues has climbed past 50. So much for the lie that firearms make citizens safe when armed killers get the drop on them.

So much for the lie that firearms make citizens safe
Emperor Julian,
Give me one example when a decent, sober minded citizen with a registered firearm was allowed to defend himself or another without being dragged through the courts & persecuted.
Had a soldier witnessed the incident leading up to the murder & shot the women before she killed the soldier he'd have been arrested & never been given the benefit of doubt that he acted to prevent the soldier from being shot. Instead, the woman would have instantly become a martyr.
We see that here too. A decent Policeman who apprehended several crooks over several years gets no mention but if a Cop spends two hours putting on a barbeque for illegal immigrants he gets paraded up & down & medals pinned on his puffed-up chest by some silly Governor General.
It really is all ar$e-about.

What hand-wringing bleeding hearts lobbied for rights for criminals that allowed a felon convicted for killing his mother with a hammer to be released from gaol to plan and carry out a bushwhack murder of representatives of State authority -humble firefighters- he hated so passionately?

What twisted minds could blame the NRA for determined assassins encouraged by a feckless media to believe that multiple killings with their illegal guns was the way to go out in a blaze of glory, while striking back at the State they hated?

What liberal "Progressive" foolishness and blind ideology could disregard their own contributory responsibility for regular murder/suicides when they deliberately give the personal publicity and a detailed 'how-to' recipes through very detailed media descriptions in the media and articles to other likely offenders?

At least 40% of US gun deaths are suicides. No stats are readily available on the number of 'accidents' attributable to fumbled attempts. In Australia guns were never the preferred method of suicide, hanging accounts for the vast majority, but the record from the Howard 'initiatives' clearly demonstrates no reduction in suicide numbers, just some more using rope or car 'accidents' to achieve their purpose.

Rather than dance in the blood of victims and offenders alike to wring political points for "Progressive" left ideology that is obviously failing catastrophically anyhow, why not eschew the political game playing and demand independent university study of the actual causes of violence? Yes, that does carry the risk of displaying the dirty washing, that social and economic policies are likely contributors. Along with the media sensationalising the murder/suicide crimes of course.

EmperorJulian, "So much for the lie that firearms make citizens safe when armed killers get the drop on them."

Is that so? This young mother saved herself and child against knife wielding thugs who broke into her home while she and bub were present.

http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/01/08/good_girl_with_gun_lives_bad_guy_with_knife_dies

The thin blue line is severely stretched in Australia too. Where thugs are concerned, police will arrive after the ambulance and just ahead of the Coroner's van.

Only the other day in my village an older chap woke up with some teenagers in his bedroom threatening to assault him. He actually got hold of one & gave him a hiding. He then called the cops who simply weren't interested in chasing down the others. A few days later the little craps returned to belt him but when he brandished a fake gun they scurried. Only hours later the cops turned his place upside down to look for the gun. They weren't at all interested when he asked the cops why they didn't chase down the little craps. Australian justice really boggles the mind.