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I guess, but your diction makes it sound like you're right and they're wrong.Symmetry wrote:I kind of have a theory, and I won't pretend it's new or original, but I think that Americans have a problem with gun crime because of a general gun culture in the country. I'm trying to word this carefully, so I'll get the bit that can legitimately be called insulting out of the way first. Most Americans who argue for gun rights that I have spoken to directly, or over the internet, or that I have encountered in other media come across as fantasists.
They tend to describe a fantasy situation where they could defend themselves, or stop a crime, or even take part in a revolution like the American revolution.
Now I know that a lot of Americans own guns as tools, or for fun. When I lived in the US it was in a rural community, so people had guns for hunting mostly.
So yeah- do you think it's the fantasy stuff that causes the problem?
How's that working out?Army of GOD wrote:I guess, but your diction makes it sound like you're right and they're wrong.Symmetry wrote:I kind of have a theory, and I won't pretend it's new or original, but I think that Americans have a problem with gun crime because of a general gun culture in the country. I'm trying to word this carefully, so I'll get the bit that can legitimately be called insulting out of the way first. Most Americans who argue for gun rights that I have spoken to directly, or over the internet, or that I have encountered in other media come across as fantasists.
They tend to describe a fantasy situation where they could defend themselves, or stop a crime, or even take part in a revolution like the American revolution.
Now I know that a lot of Americans own guns as tools, or for fun. When I lived in the US it was in a rural community, so people had guns for hunting mostly.
So yeah- do you think it's the fantasy stuff that causes the problem?
I have no clue where I stand on gun control. Both sides, like most debates, are annoying as f*ck. But if I had to lean one way or the other, I'd lean in favor of less gun control.
Europe is not the United States. The US has a much larger diversity than Europe and A LOT more social conflicts, so I find it very inappropriate for Europeans to discuss gun stats with the US.
But the culture of the US is to defend your house if you're being robbed, or held up, or whatever. Whether it's barbaric or more dangerous or what, I am forced to support the crazies.
fantasy stuff! HAHAHAHA! oh my goodness that is rich!Symmetry wrote:I kind of have a theory, and I won't pretend it's new or original, but I think that Americans have a problem with gun crime because of a general gun culture in the country. I'm trying to word this carefully, so I'll get the bit that can legitimately be called insulting out of the way first. Most Americans who argue for gun rights that I have spoken to directly, or over the internet, or that I have encountered in other media come across as fantasists.
They tend to describe a fantasy situation where they could defend themselves, or stop a crime, or even take part in a revolution like the American revolution.
Now I know that a lot of Americans own guns as tools, or for fun. When I lived in the US it was in a rural community, so people had guns for hunting mostly.
So yeah- do you think it's the fantasy stuff that causes the problem?
I lived there, and spend a lot of time there.Phatscotty wrote:fantasy stuff! HAHAHAHA! oh my goodness that is rich!Symmetry wrote:I kind of have a theory, and I won't pretend it's new or original, but I think that Americans have a problem with gun crime because of a general gun culture in the country. I'm trying to word this carefully, so I'll get the bit that can legitimately be called insulting out of the way first. Most Americans who argue for gun rights that I have spoken to directly, or over the internet, or that I have encountered in other media come across as fantasists.
They tend to describe a fantasy situation where they could defend themselves, or stop a crime, or even take part in a revolution like the American revolution.
Now I know that a lot of Americans own guns as tools, or for fun. When I lived in the US it was in a rural community, so people had guns for hunting mostly.
So yeah- do you think it's the fantasy stuff that causes the problem?
Dang why are you so obsessed with America mate! Guns are for defense of life, defense of property, and defense of freedom.
Kind of sounds like fantasising about what you might do. No? These all being situations that you're fantasing about yourself being in?Phatscotty wrote:I suggested I would not freeze up and would try to save my life, as well as other lives. Wouldn't you? There is no fantasy there. I mean, who the hell fantasizes that they are out shopping, or at a socialist island retreat, and all of a sudden gunfire erupts? I don't think so. If I was in a shopping mall and I heard gunshots would I run towards them? No! If the gunman even thought about coming close to me, would I drop his ass? Yes! To be a hero? No! To save my life and other lives? YES!
Odds are that isn't going to happen, but when it comes to odds, I like 100% certainty that I have the best chance to survive the scenario, which god willing will never happen.
Well Symm, every responsible gun owner thinks about how they would react before the need to react arises, and that is a fact. If you don't think about how you are going to handle a gun, you have no business carrying one. There are a few levels of gun ownership we would have to visit to round out your fantasies about fantasies of American gun owners. Honestly I don't totally disagree with your overall point, as I am sure that gun culture somewhat and in some ways does affect shootings. I just find it more sane to blame the criminal, and not the weapon, or the culture.Symmetry wrote:Kind of sounds like fantasising about what you might do. No? These all being situations that you're fantasing about yourself being in?Phatscotty wrote:I suggested I would not freeze up and would try to save my life, as well as other lives. Wouldn't you? There is no fantasy there. I mean, who the hell fantasizes that they are out shopping, or at a socialist island retreat, and all of a sudden gunfire erupts? I don't think so. If I was in a shopping mall and I heard gunshots would I run towards them? No! If the gunman even thought about coming close to me, would I drop his ass? Yes! To be a hero? No! To save my life and other lives? YES!
Odds are that isn't going to happen, but when it comes to odds, I like 100% certainty that I have the best chance to survive the scenario, which god willing will never happen.
Kind of the irresponible ones fantasising about home defense and stopping crime that this thread is about.Phatscotty wrote:Well Symm, every responsible gun owner thinks about how they would react before the need to react arises, and that is a fact. If you don't think about how you are going to handle a gun, you have no business carrying one. There are a few levels of gun ownership we would have to visit to round out your fantasies about fantasies of American gun owners. Honestly I don't totally disagree with your overall point, as I am sure that gun culture somewhat and in some ways does affect shootings. I just find it more sane to blame the criminal, and not the weapon, or the culture.Symmetry wrote:Kind of sounds like fantasising about what you might do. No? These all being situations that you're fantasing about yourself being in?Phatscotty wrote:I suggested I would not freeze up and would try to save my life, as well as other lives. Wouldn't you? There is no fantasy there. I mean, who the hell fantasizes that they are out shopping, or at a socialist island retreat, and all of a sudden gunfire erupts? I don't think so. If I was in a shopping mall and I heard gunshots would I run towards them? No! If the gunman even thought about coming close to me, would I drop his ass? Yes! To be a hero? No! To save my life and other lives? YES!
Odds are that isn't going to happen, but when it comes to odds, I like 100% certainty that I have the best chance to survive the scenario, which god willing will never happen.
And I think the culture of "thou shall not murder" and morals being under attack has far more to do with murder than gun culture does.

Fantasizing about home defense? stopping crime? I don't know what you are talking about I guess.Symmetry wrote:Kind of the irresponible ones fantasising about home defense and stopping crime that this thread is about.Phatscotty wrote:Well Symm, every responsible gun owner thinks about how they would react before the need to react arises, and that is a fact. If you don't think about how you are going to handle a gun, you have no business carrying one. There are a few levels of gun ownership we would have to visit to round out your fantasies about fantasies of American gun owners. Honestly I don't totally disagree with your overall point, as I am sure that gun culture somewhat and in some ways does affect shootings. I just find it more sane to blame the criminal, and not the weapon, or the culture.Symmetry wrote:Kind of sounds like fantasising about what you might do. No? These all being situations that you're fantasing about yourself being in?Phatscotty wrote:I suggested I would not freeze up and would try to save my life, as well as other lives. Wouldn't you? There is no fantasy there. I mean, who the hell fantasizes that they are out shopping, or at a socialist island retreat, and all of a sudden gunfire erupts? I don't think so. If I was in a shopping mall and I heard gunshots would I run towards them? No! If the gunman even thought about coming close to me, would I drop his ass? Yes! To be a hero? No! To save my life and other lives? YES!
Odds are that isn't going to happen, but when it comes to odds, I like 100% certainty that I have the best chance to survive the scenario, which god willing will never happen.
And I think the culture of "thou shall not murder" and morals being under attack has far more to do with murder than gun culture does.
Owning a gun doesn't really do much to stop crime, nor does it defend many homes. The US has a problem with gun relatd crimes. Far more of a problem than countries with related ownership per capita. I think that America has a problem with what American culture thinks guns are for.Phatscotty wrote:Fantasizing about home defense? stopping crime? I don't know what you are talking about I guess.Symmetry wrote:Kind of the irresponible ones fantasising about home defense and stopping crime that this thread is about.Phatscotty wrote:Well Symm, every responsible gun owner thinks about how they would react before the need to react arises, and that is a fact. If you don't think about how you are going to handle a gun, you have no business carrying one. There are a few levels of gun ownership we would have to visit to round out your fantasies about fantasies of American gun owners. Honestly I don't totally disagree with your overall point, as I am sure that gun culture somewhat and in some ways does affect shootings. I just find it more sane to blame the criminal, and not the weapon, or the culture.Symmetry wrote:Kind of sounds like fantasising about what you might do. No? These all being situations that you're fantasing about yourself being in?Phatscotty wrote:I suggested I would not freeze up and would try to save my life, as well as other lives. Wouldn't you? There is no fantasy there. I mean, who the hell fantasizes that they are out shopping, or at a socialist island retreat, and all of a sudden gunfire erupts? I don't think so. If I was in a shopping mall and I heard gunshots would I run towards them? No! If the gunman even thought about coming close to me, would I drop his ass? Yes! To be a hero? No! To save my life and other lives? YES!
Odds are that isn't going to happen, but when it comes to odds, I like 100% certainty that I have the best chance to survive the scenario, which god willing will never happen.
And I think the culture of "thou shall not murder" and morals being under attack has far more to do with murder than gun culture does.
Pack Rat wrote:if it quacks like a duck and walk like a duck, it's still fascism
https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewt ... 0#p5349880
Sorry. I just flat out disagree. What do you base your statements on that guns do not protect homes? Owning a gun has an excellent chance of preventing a crime against the gun owner.Symmetry wrote:Owning a gun doesn't really do much to stop crime, nor does it defend many homes. The US has a problem with gun relatd crimes. Far more of a problem than countries with related ownership per capita. I think that America has a problem with what American culture thinks guns are for.Phatscotty wrote:Fantasizing about home defense? stopping crime? I don't know what you are talking about I guess.Symmetry wrote:Kind of the irresponible ones fantasising about home defense and stopping crime that this thread is about.Phatscotty wrote:Well Symm, every responsible gun owner thinks about how they would react before the need to react arises, and that is a fact. If you don't think about how you are going to handle a gun, you have no business carrying one. There are a few levels of gun ownership we would have to visit to round out your fantasies about fantasies of American gun owners. Honestly I don't totally disagree with your overall point, as I am sure that gun culture somewhat and in some ways does affect shootings. I just find it more sane to blame the criminal, and not the weapon, or the culture.Symmetry wrote:
Kind of sounds like fantasising about what you might do. No? These all being situations that you're fantasing about yourself being in?
And I think the culture of "thou shall not murder" and morals being under attack has far more to do with murder than gun culture does.
That they should be for fantasy scenarios, rather than, say, hunting, or protecting a farm from animals. From my experience, a lot of Americans, not all, buy guns to kill people.
Phatscotty wrote: .... Overall, we are becoming more and more a society that justifies what can be taken from people. I think these thing by far outweigh the culture of guns.
This veers a bit off-topic, but it got me to thinking of something else. Typically when a Briton says the above it means they spend 4 days each winter at DisneyWorld and 4 days each summer in Manhattan. I've never been convinced that alternating between an amusement park and the matinee showing of Hairspray qualifies one much to the nuances of the life of any nation.Symmetry wrote: I lived there, and spend a lot of time there.
Pack Rat wrote:if it quacks like a duck and walk like a duck, it's still fascism
https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewt ... 0#p5349880
Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killedPhatscotty wrote:Sorry. I just flat out disagree. What do you base your statements on that guns do not protect homes? Owning a gun has an excellent chance of preventing a crime against the gun owner.
So yeah- I would say that owning a gun isn't exactly the best choice for keeping you safe.Despite the US having the highest rate of firearms-related homicide in the industrialised world, the relationship between gun culture and violence is poorly understood. A recent study found that treating violence like an infectious disease led to a dramatic fall in shootings and killings.
Overall, Branas's study found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher.
I recall this study since it didn't account for suicidal shootings. When death of gun owners was juxtaposed against the general public using "violence" as the singular adjustment, without accounting for tool or implement, there was - not surprisingly (IIRC something like half of gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides, which would presumably still happen even in the absence of a firearm) - statistical equity.Symmetry wrote:Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killedPhatscotty wrote:Sorry. I just flat out disagree. What do you base your statements on that guns do not protect homes? Owning a gun has an excellent chance of preventing a crime against the gun owner.
So yeah- I would say that owning a gun isn't exactly the best choice for keeping you safe.Despite the US having the highest rate of firearms-related homicide in the industrialised world, the relationship between gun culture and violence is poorly understood. A recent study found that treating violence like an infectious disease led to a dramatic fall in shootings and killings.
Overall, Branas's study found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher.
Pack Rat wrote:if it quacks like a duck and walk like a duck, it's still fascism
https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewt ... 0#p5349880
Symmetry wrote:Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killedPhatscotty wrote:Sorry. I just flat out disagree. What do you base your statements on that guns do not protect homes? Owning a gun has an excellent chance of preventing a crime against the gun owner.
It would be impractical – not to say unethical – to randomly assign volunteers to carry a gun or not and see what happens. So Charles Branas's team at the University of Pennsylvania analysed 677 shootings over two-and-a-half years to discover whether victims were carrying at the time, and compared them to other Philly residents of similar age, sex and ethnicity. The team also accounted for other potentially confounding differences, such as the socioeconomic status of their neighbourhood.
http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewto ... 0#p3344527Symmetry wrote:Gentlemen, we are at an impasse. I have presented articles and evidence. They have been labelled rubbish, or worse, British. So I am at a loss as to why gun crime is so high in the US compared to similar countries, even those with similar levels of gun onwership if it is not American culture at play.

Pack Rat wrote:if it quacks like a duck and walk like a duck, it's still fascism
https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewt ... 0#p5349880
What the hell? You sound like an American gun owner being asked about American gun culture.saxitoxin wrote:http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewto ... 0#p3344527Symmetry wrote:Gentlemen, we are at an impasse. I have presented articles and evidence. They have been labelled rubbish, or worse, British. So I am at a loss as to why gun crime is so high in the US compared to similar countries, even those with similar levels of gun onwership if it is not American culture at play.
Okay, thread's done. We all agree with Sym. The next President of the U.S. should be Li'l JoJo, Asst. Manager of the Milton-Keynes Chavs 'R Us store; the U.S. needs to be annexed by the Isle of Mann; the Texas legislature should be force-fed Pork Pie and Yorkshire Pudding and Harry and Wil should run a train on Michelle Obama.
Now that we've sorted that out, what's everyone's FAV candy? Mine's RITTER SPORT MARZIPAN!
[img]http://www.deli-aleman.com/Deli/103osc/ ... an.jpg/img]
Let's think of factors that may explain why:Symmetry wrote:So I am at a loss as to why gun crime is so high in the US compared to similar countries, even those with similar levels of gun onwership if it is not American culture at play.
I appreciate that a lot of people, Saxi, Scotty, don't like an outsider talking about this.
EXCUSE ME. I am the proud owner of several large-calibre field mortars, three tripod-mounted/squad-serviced machine guns, and even a non-functioning Neutron Bomb (I'm 90%* sure it's non-functioning, though I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. Still waiting on permitting from the Santa Barbara County Fire Marshal.Symmetry wrote:What the hell? You sound like an American gun owner being asked about American gun culture.saxitoxin wrote:http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewto ... 0#p3344527Symmetry wrote:Gentlemen, we are at an impasse. I have presented articles and evidence. They have been labelled rubbish, or worse, British. So I am at a loss as to why gun crime is so high in the US compared to similar countries, even those with similar levels of gun onwership if it is not American culture at play.
Okay, thread's done. We all agree with Sym. The next President of the U.S. should be Li'l JoJo, Asst. Manager of the Milton-Keynes Chavs 'R Us store; the U.S. needs to be annexed by the Isle of Mann; the Texas legislature should be force-fed Pork Pie and Yorkshire Pudding and Harry and Wil should run a train on Michelle Obama.
Now that we've sorted that out, what's everyone's FAV candy? Mine's RITTER SPORT MARZIPAN!
[img]http://www.deli-aleman.com/Deli/103osc/ ... an.jpg/img]
you're disgustingBeebs wrote:Saxi: that candy is disgusting.
Pack Rat wrote:if it quacks like a duck and walk like a duck, it's still fascism
https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewt ... 0#p5349880
What do you think is the best choice for keeping safe?Symmetry wrote:Carrying a gun increases risk of getting shot and killedPhatscotty wrote:Sorry. I just flat out disagree. What do you base your statements on that guns do not protect homes? Owning a gun has an excellent chance of preventing a crime against the gun owner.
So yeah- I would say that owning a gun isn't exactly the best choice for keeping you safe.Despite the US having the highest rate of firearms-related homicide in the industrialised world, the relationship between gun culture and violence is poorly understood. A recent study found that treating violence like an infectious disease led to a dramatic fall in shootings and killings.
Overall, Branas's study found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher.