Foxy,

Hillary Clinton waffled on about John Howard's Australian Gun Laws and that frightened the hell out of a lot of Americans, particularly those that hold that they have a God given/natural right to defend themselves and their loved ones from criminal attack.

With miniature nukes we can expect to see US school shoot-ups with mushroom clouds.

Dear Is Mise,

America does have a serious problem with guns.

As I stated earlier - mental midgets with an IQ
of a fence post.

Foxy,

"America does have a serious problem with guns."

But not as serious as a lot of other countries.

At least, even under the Democrats (so far), Americans are allowed the means of self defence, whereas we, in Australia, are forbidden to possess ANYTHING for the purpose of such defence.

Of course senior politicians are OK, John Howard had armed minders.

Dear Is Mise,

In international terms, the US is an extremely violent
society, with a homicide rate far exceeding that of
any industrialised nation. A single American city like
Chicago, Houston or Los Angeles records more murders in
a typical year than does the whole of England.

Most other countries severely restrict private handgun
ownership but there are in the millions of handguns in
the US - and weapons of this type according to the FBI
that are used in over half of the murders that occur
each year.

Studies have shown that less than 2 per cent of all
slayings in gun-owning households were for self-protection;
the remainder were homicides, suicides, or accidental deaths
almost all involving family members.

We don't want this situation in Australia.

Foxy,

What has industrialisation got to do with it?

South Africa is one example of strict firearms control and its murder rate far exceeds that of the US.

Any observations on the fact that Australians are not allowed to possess ANYTHING for the purpose of self defence?