Spanky,

Sorry to pick just one of your points

" ...An aptitude [test?] given at the age of 21 for mental competency for the handling of a firearm."

Just doesn't work and one of the reasons is that no psychologist/psychiatrist can/or will put him/herself on the line and guarantee that someone is mentally competent to handle anything dangerous.

Well, I will address another point or two, military training.
I spent some years in the Australian Army and in all that period I also spent a lot of time instructing troops just where they had been ill-informed during their basic training with firearms and that now that they were in the real world of the Infantry there were things that they had to un-learn and re-learn, this extended to Officers as well.

On ranges throught Australia young shooters are not taught by 'Rambos with arsenals' but by dedicated shooters with years of experience and both they and their pupils are under the overall supervision of the Range Officer(s)

Visit your local range on an open day or just roll up any shooting day and tell the Officer that you'd like to see how they do things, there's no danger and you might learn a thing or two.
A lot of them have a good b-b-q as well at lunch time, but no alcohol until the shooting is finished.

Is mise,
Where I come from, I was not only in the army, but with special forces, tactics and special weapons, sniper division.
There are reasons for my adamant nature towards youngsters learning and how to handle firearms, I've seen a lot regarding weaponry and the way youngsters take interest in rifles and hand guns is quite astounding, except when it comes to cleaning them.
I have long since left that behind me and settled into what I was professed to do, better left unsaid for now.

OK, Spanky,
Understand.

Dickie,

A few posts back you stated:

"The death rate for thosed assaulted by guns is several that of victims assaulted by knives or other weapons."

Here's the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2006.

Murders: 34% by knife...17% by firearm.

Attempted
murder: 35% by knife and 25% by firearm

Robbery: 22% by knife and 7% by firearm, less than a third.

Here's the relevant paragraph:

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Recorded Crime–Victims 2006, a weapon was used in 74 per cent of attempted murders, 63 per cent of murders and 44 per cent of robberies. A knife was the most common type of weapon used in committing these offences. Over one third (34 per cent) of murder victims, 35 per cent of attempted murder victims, 22 per cent of the victims of robbery and 10 per cent of kidnapping/abduction victims were subjected to an offence involving a knife. A firearm was involved in 25 per cent of attempted murder, 17 per cent of murder and 7 per cent of robbery offences.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/pubs/bn/2007-08/08bn01.htm
_______________

Yes, Dickie, a little research does help, especially from a reliable source.
You'll no doubt note that 37% of murders did not involve a weapon at all and none was used in 26% of attempted murders and the figure was 56% no weapon for robberies, so even violent crimes involving no weapons at all exceeded the figures for firearms.

Just where did you get your information?

Is Mise

Here's a few data to keep you frothing over WMD, mate.

Au revoir!

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Gun-violence-a-global-epidemic-report/2006/05/17/1147545354883.html

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:8vunW2TV4cEJ:www.apha.org/publications/tnh/archives/2006/08-06/WebExclusive/2845.htm+deaths+by+firearm+2006&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=au&lr=lang_en

Old stuff, Dickie, old stuff.

Rebecca is still dong a great job at promoting herself and getting grants to keep up the good work.

Bloomberg et al are also doing their best to keep up the level of violence in New York and Chicago, after years of failure one would think that if they don't have a vested interest in violence that they would have gone down the path that Florida took and take measures to cut their crime rates with like success.

The UN is notorious for helping to disarm people and then when the proverbial hits the fan, telling their troops not to fire on the murderers but to watch, take notes and make sure that the world knows just how even handed they are at not taking sides.

East Timor comes to mind when the people on the ground defied their orders from UN HQ in New York and took refugee Timorese into their compound.
Remember the TV coverage, mate, when terrified people threw their children over the razor wire and then scrambled through the wire themselves and fell, streaming with blood from multiple cuts, into relative safety.

Never mind throwing red herrings, just tell us all how you got the figures so wrong over knife crime.

Then, justify keeping children ignorant of safety, if you wish to remain ignorant yourself then that is your right, but don't try to stop others who believe in teaching safety.