fredwiggy

You really are showing with every post a lack of not only intelligence but restraint. So you traveled to Texas, meeting how many Texans? I was there 32 years, and knew thousands. Just like everywhere else I've been, some were jerks and most were fine people. You're saying you met a few of the 30 million whop live there and are judging them as jerks from this? They talk funny? A southern accent, shared by many millions across the south, and brought about over time, just like those in every other country. Do they all talk funny? Your Chinese wife was rather exotic when the Chinese have been there for centuries? That's kinda like the ones here who have seen foreigners for a hundred years and still point at us and say farang. Ignorance comes in many disguises. 4 of my children, all above average IQ, were all born in Texas, making them native Texans even though I'm from New Jersey. Hardly dumb kids. re·straint /rəˈstrānt/ noun noun: restraint; plural noun: restraints 1. a measure or condition that keeps someone or something under control or within limits. "decisions are made within the financial restraints of the budget" the action of keeping someone or something under control. "a policy of restraint in public spending" deprivation or restriction of personal liberty or freedom of movement.

Calling Texans dumb shows you've never been there, and have no idea of the people who live there. I'm not a native Texan, moved there in 1985 from New Jersey but lived there 32 years before coming here. Calling yourself a genius shows you aren't, s a genius doesn't brag about it, seeing they're smart enough to know intelligence will show anyway. Gun ownership, meaning legitimate for hunting, targets and protection, isn't stupid in any meaning of the word. These are legitimate pastimes that have been around for centuries. God put animals here, meaning game, for us to eat. Yes, we could use bows and crossbows like I do now, but guns are also used. This has nothing to do with Trump, as he's just another disturbed individual some believe in. Just like Hitler, Putin, Stalin, Mao, Kim and all the others. And you can buy a Weatherby for under $2500

You try and take Americans guns away you lose votes. Votes are what they're after. More than 40% are gun owners. No matter what, that's a lot of votes.

I didn't miss your point. You just listed things that don't exist. Guns are not the problem. Guns by themselves can't hurt anything. People are, and always will be, the problem. Meaning disturbed, narcissistic, mentally ill people who's only agenda is to hurt others because they either weren't raised with the thought that human lives are precious, or in the minority of cases, were born with that predisposition. People will and have killed with anything they can get their hands on. Knives, guns, baseball bats, sticks, hammers, screwdrivers, ice picks, even pens and pencils. People all have a dark side. A smart person keeps it under wraps, only letting it out when it's necessary, as in self defense or in defense or family, friends or property. Jealousy has some do things that are irrational, meaning they get cheated on and take revenge, instead of leaving the person who cheated on them, seeing it as their problem and that they weren't worthy if you treated them right. Some people have hard depression and take their own lives, thinking there is no other way around their present feelings. Some use guns, all will do anything they can to end the pain. The real problem is not many really care. Courts will punish some and let others go who are worse. Money talks instead of common sense. Thinking ridding the world of guns will make it a safer place aren't seeing the real picture. Evil is among us all day long. We elect narcissistic leaders who's only concern is money and power. Some start out trying to help, but get caught up in the power aspect and think that's all the matters. Seeing that this evil will always be among us because it's part of human nature, what's to be done? Judges and police forces doing the jobs intended instead of letting people go because they can pay their way out. Not having children unless you are both mentally and financially capable of raising them in a loving environment. Girls not having sex with just anyone because he's cute, instead looking at what kind of partner and maybe father ho could be. Curbing the violence is necessary of course, but how to do this is if some people are unstable? The breakdown of the family is the destruction of a civilized world. It all starts at home. Everyone who has gone out into the world and intentionally hurt someone weren't taught that lives matter as a child. Either they saw their parents solving problems with violence or their parents weren't available and they learned by seeing what their peers do, many of which come from unstable homes themselves. Guns are necessary for a few reasons. To curb crime, to hunt, to target shoot for fun, to fight against those unstable people who are out to hurt others. To keep this crazed world safe from people who really don't belong here. Some guns aren't necessary but getting rid of them won't solve the problem.

Not sure where you found these stats, or received them from someone who wasn't aware but, mental health issues are as they are most everywhere, with 1 in 5 experiencing them. Single parent households are around 15%. This doesn't mean much because having a single parent household isn't a precursor to children running amok. It's not having a good male role model which leads many boys astray. Among others, there are 38 biker gangs, some involved in the drug trade. Gaming is as high as many other countries. The Dept. of Home Affairs lists about 70,000 illegal immigrants living there. Crime isn't unusually high but exists............https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice

While it's true you can develop a mental illness, most start at a young age. Also true is that the 3% of shootings that happen with a semi auto aren't done by hunters but are from guns taken or stolen from legitimate owners, or are bought by people who aren't hunters but disturbed individuals bent on havoc. You take away semi autos and crazies will still use other weapons to kill people. Again, I'm not a semi auto user, but it isn't the weapon but the person using it, and they can use most anything, and have, to kill more than one or two. I'm more for protecting the rights of legitimate gun owners, meaning all guns besides full autos, which have no place in hunting or regular ownership situations. I own guns, and have since I was 17, and would never use any of them against an innocent person. Remember that the ex cop who killed 37 here, including 24 children, used a knife and 9MM. It's keeping all weapons with bullets away from them. How can you do that? Americans will always have their weapons. No one will take them away, so how do you stop mass shootings? And owning weapons for hunting and target shooting are valid reasons, as well as self protection from those that own or get them that are disturbed loose cannons. Hunting isn't just in America also. It's most everywhere. Not here of course because these aren't conservation minded people. And crime with guns isn't just in America, as many nations have it worse. Even here it happens, and has for quite awhile..........https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Thailand

Many semi autos are .223 caliber. Many use them after pigs in Texas, at night, which is legal because pigs are considered pests that ruin habitats. You can shoot a few before they run away with a semi. Many semi owners are target shooters and they like rapid fire. Having a semi doesn't mean you shoot haphazardly. It means a quick follow up shot, or more. I can shoot a bolt action pretty fast, but not as fast as a semi, and I would use one for the type of hunting I stated. I don't use one, but know many who do, and that still shoot one shot at a time, and don't spray bullets everywhere. The people I know that use semis aren't incompetent butchers but safety minded, competent shooters. There are many hunters that aren't good shots, that wound animals with bolt and lever action rifles. Some don't bother to practice and that's a mistake. I myself don't own a semi, preferring a bolt and lever action for guns, and bow and crossbow mostly anyway. To each his own. It isn't the semis that are killing the people but a mentally disturbed person with a semi auto. Like I mentioned earlier, a person can use a revolver and shoot six people, reload and six more etc. A semi can shoot faster, but magazines they carry in any weapon is how many are shot. Many don't realize these weapons aren't assault weapons. Assault weapons have the capability to change from semi to full auto. High capacity magazines are not necessary. I'm a hunter and think they should be banned. A lot of people are against the gun culture in America, but it's part of what gives us the freedom we have. There will always be weapons and mentally ill people. What needs to be done is keeping guns away from them any way possible.

I'm sorry you don't understand, but many don't so don't feel bad. I said, guns in the right hands are safe. This means that a mentally stable, law abiding person isn't the ones a person should be worried about, but the mentally ill that get their hands on guns. Normal people don't shoot innocent people. They don't go into schools or businesses and randomly shoot anyone. This is what you said and I replied to........"Do you really think weapons make the world safer. Look around". People who have weapons have saved countless lives in many wars and situations. What will make the world safer is stricter punishment for the mentally ill that are killing and hurting innocent people. Judges that can't be paid off and police that are corrupt removed from duty. Laws that are enforced. Besides a background check a psychological before buying a weapon. People who lock up their weapons so others can't take or steal them so easily. All schools with monitors at doors, guarded by off duty police (who would be glad to have the extra work). All countries have mentally stable, law abiding citizens, and all countries have mentally ill, narcissistic law breakers that are raised or sometimes born that way.

The right hands are law abiding, mentally sound individuals. Doesn't matter where they live.

But I do recall 24 children, and 12 adults being killed by an ex cop two years ago. Thai news doesn't cover every shooting that happens. American news, meaning local for every state, covers much more because there are multiple networks in each state There are shootings here every day. News here, like I mentioned, covers far less than America's news does. I lived in the US for 62 years, and know full well what goes on there to this day. More people, more crime. https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/12/13/thailands-growing-gun-problem/

Although there is truth in what you say, mass shootings are the result of mental illness, and it doesn't take a semi auto to kill many people. Someone with two handguns and multiple magazines can shoot many until he's stopped. Semi autos are used for hunting, although aren't really necessary. Some just like the semi auto. Target shooters like them for fun. If you need a quick follow up shot after hitting an animal, a semi can shoot faster than all others besides full autos, which are for the most part illegal to own. It is sad that some children are killed with handguns kept in a home. That's the responsibility of the gun owners, keeping them out of reach ,sight or possession of children. As far as suicide, owning a gun only makes it easier for the time being. People who are going to commit suicide will do it in many ways, including my best friend who used carbon monoxide. It might give them more time to think if they aren't in possession of a gun, but if they've made their minds up.......... A gun stored in a home, with children living there, can be reached if it is put in a place where only the owner, or mate, knows where it is. I as a gun owner wish there were safer ways, but if there are guns, there will always be irresponsible people who have some of them.

Out of touch I see. Imagine a world where only criminals had weapons, including terrorists. Can't keep weapons away because they will always exist. Weapons in the right hands are why we , meaning most of us, are living in a free world.

It's what I consider loving the outdoors. You can't know what I feel nor understand it because you aren't for hunting. I don't often injure anything, preferring to ensure I make a killing shot that doesn't let the animal suffer. Sometimes taking home meat means most of the time I just like to sit and enjoy seeing the animals, along with other animals, in their natural habitat. The same way I assume you enjoy the outdoors without sometimes killing.

News here doesn't tell but a tiny percentage of what goes on. In America, there are thousands of TV stations that cover everything. Gun crime is big news everywhere, but here most of the news is about people robbing gold stores, snakes in houses in Bangkok, monks gone bad, and daily road accidents, along with news that wouldn't be news anywhere in the US, meaning not noteworthy.

No, guns, besides those for hunting and target shooting, are for protection against weak people who can't fight, or want what you have. The same as here with 5 against 1, and carrying machetes and sticks.

I do, and have won many times, but never more than $1000 USD. Here no luck yet. Trust me, Texas isn't like what you might have heard about it. It's like I mentioned. Of course there is crime, but mostly in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio .

I use all firearms but usually, and for the last 5 or more years, a bow then a crossbow.

No, not for fun. It's hunting, experiencing the outdoors and sometimes bringing home game to eat.

I'm guessing you don't know that Thailand has about as much gun crime per capita as the US, and almost all of it is involving Thais, illegal guns, drugs, gangs and the like, just as other countries like America, just on a slightly smaller scale. Even mass shooting happen here.

It's never a good idea to assume you know much about another country without spending a lot of time there. I lived in Texas for 32 years, never carried a handgun, sold guns for a living, and never saw any crime where someone used one. Daily, driving many miles, night and day, small towns, big towns and country, filling up on gas at night, never had any trouble whatsoever.

In your mind it is wrong, but to the millions of hunters and meat eaters, it is normal. And Trump's mind isn't easy to understand because he's a very disturbed billionaire.

It must be hard for you to understand the mind of a hunter, being one who thinks we are sick for hunting, and eating , the game we shoot. Are you a meat eater? If so, you might want to check out how your meals are kept, and then killed. If a vegetarian, then I'm sorry you will never understand this. We don't kill for fun, at least the majority of hunters. We are in the woods to enjoy life in it's purest form. We don't kill every time we go. If we kill, we have the meat processed and then either have meals for us or family and friends, or we donate to homeless shelters so they can have something to eat.

Many years hunting and owning rifles, shotguns, bows and crossbow. All for hunting. Sold guns for years with federal license in sporting good store. Wanted a handgun for hunting but never got around to it. Had one Smith & Wesson .357, gave it to my brother. When I return to Texas, will probably buy a handgun or two.

Understandable. They ask for links they can easily find, and are always trying to argue just for the sake of, instead of looking for knowledge they might not yet have attained.