I am sure most of you have an idea of the gun law battles that take place in the USA. My grandfather, a rabid NRA member, sends all sorts of propaganda that speaks of harsh gun laws that have given criminals an advantage in other english speaking countries. I want to a little of the truth about this. What are the gun laws in the UK, OZ, New Zealand, Canada, so on? Do you feel that crime is up or down because of these laws?

Cheers,

Thaibebop

This article gives an insight into the laws in Australia.

It's interesting to note that gun crime is 1/15th of the rate in the USA.

Oz gun laws.

Where, oh where is Weekend Warrior when you really need him?

I don't remember Weekend Warrior being all that nice a guy.

Anyway, just got this emailed to me. What do you guys make of it?

LONDON (AP) -- A TV ad showing actress Angelina Jolie firing weapons must not be shown because it could be seen as condoning gun violence, Britain's advertising watchdog said Wednesday.

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> The Advertising Standards Authority said the ad for the DVD version of Universal Pictures' 2008 action flick "Wanted" breached ad codes and should not be broadcast.

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> The film follows the initiation of an office drudge Wesley Gibson (played by James McAvoy) into a mythical group of super-powered assassins. The ad for the DVD release shows McAvoy and co-star Jolie wielding pistols, a shotgun, and generally spraying scene after scene with bullets.

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> The authority said the ad — which juxtaposes images of gun violence with Jolie showing off her bare back — "could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorizing the use of guns."

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> It was unclear what practical effect, if any, the ruling would have. The "Wanted" DVD was released in Britain nearly six months ago.

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> The advertising authority has no power to enforce its writ, but it can refer advertisers to Britain's Office of Fair Trading for legal action.

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> Universal did not immediately return an e-mail Wednesday seeking reaction to the authority's ruling.

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> The ruling underlined Britain's sensitivity to gun crime.

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> There were 59 firearm-related homicides in England and Wales in 2006-2007, compared to the more than 10,000 gun-related killings reported by the FBI in the United States in 2007.

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> But public concern was heightened in Britain after the shooting death of an 11-year-old boy in 2007. The murder drew national attention and prompted much soul-searching over whether the country's already strict gun control laws were tough enough.

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This article gives an insight into the laws in Australia.

It's interesting to note that gun crime is 1/15th of the rate in the USA.

Oz gun laws.

This doesn't surprise me at all.

Quite agree, thaibebop; he was a revolting piece of work. But I always liked to hear him spout-on about guns. It always made me wonder who was pulling the levers inside his head.

It always made me wonder who was pulling the levers inside his head.

I don't think anyone was, they just bounced around every time he moved

Yep, that was him alright. He always made eugenics seem like a good idea.

I think it's cultural. I saw that movie, 'Bowling Columbine' (spelling) where he pointed out that gun ownership was the same in Canada, and yet gun crime is virtually non-existant there.

In the UK in their knee-jerk reaction they banned hand guns. Of course this only took the guns out of the hands of the lawful as criminals don't hand in their guns when guns are made illeagal!

Gun crime is on the increase in the UK but not on the scale of the USA.

Banning guns will not increase or decrease gun crime. Only cultural attitudes towards it will.

I think it's cultural. I saw that movie, 'Bowling Columbine' (spelling) where he pointed out that gun ownership was the same in Canada, and yet gun crime is virtually non-existant there.

In the UK in their knee-jerk reaction they banned hand guns. Of course this only took the guns out of the hands of the lawful as criminals don't hand in their guns when guns are made illeagal!

Gun crime is on the increase in the UK but not on the scale of the USA.

Banning guns will not increase or decrease gun crime. Only cultural attitudes towards it will.

I think you are right on there, Tiggs. America still has a love of firearms but for the wrong reasons and it gets too many of us in deep crap.

Too many murders, I cannot find a way to soften the statistics.

But in fairness to the US, we're not at the top of the list.

1. India - 37,170 In fairness to India they've over three times the population of the US. 1 billion pop

2. Russia - 28,904 Has internal problems. Less than 1/2 population of US. 123 million pop

3. Colombia - 26,539 Not such a large population , but a very dangerous place. I really love the

country beautiful with every climate you care to visit or live in all year Three quarters

of the people are as good a people as you'll ever meet. The other quarter vary from

not so nice to just monstorous. Drug money cause lots of death. Historical violent place

43 million pop.

4. South Africa - 21,553 I was surprised to see them this high up. 44 million pop.

5. US - 16,204 Almost five times population of Thailand 300 million

6. Mexico - 13,144 Drugs or really the money contribute enormously 106 million pop.

7. Venezuela - 8,022 perhaps its the heat 25 million pop.

8. Philippines - 6,553 " " " " " 88 million pop.

9. Thailand - 5,140 (fill in the blank) 65 million pop.

10.Ukraine - 4,418 48 million pop.

source www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur-crime-murders

I used murder stats rather than gun violence as a better barometer of a countries death by murder rather than to just blame guns.

Western Euro countries are low but to be fair it might be good to multiply deaths by population of country in comparision to the US. UK and France, with similiar pop. and murder stats ( 60 million pop and 1000 murders) their 1000 deaths would be 5000 if they and the US were similiarilly sized. Still three times less that the US but a better comparision than 1000 to 16,000

In several of the countries, the US included many of the deaths are due to the violence surrounding the drug business.

Shooting may be the easiest way to kill someone, but guns aren't the only way to eliminate your fellow human being, as must be the case in many countries.

I think it's cultural. I saw that movie, 'Bowling Columbine' (spelling) where he pointed out that gun ownership was the same in Canada, and yet gun crime is virtually non-existant there.

In the UK in their knee-jerk reaction they banned hand guns. Of course this only took the guns out of the hands of the lawful as criminals don't hand in their guns when guns are made illeagal!

Gun crime is on the increase in the UK but not on the scale of the USA.

Banning guns will not increase or decrease gun crime. Only cultural attitudes towards it will.

I think you are right on there, Tiggs. America still has a love of firearms but for the wrong reasons and it gets too many of us in deep crap.

Absolutely agree.

After the Port Arthur (Tasmania) massacre there was a big "buy-back" of guns by the government. As far as I know there have been a number of subsequent amnesties where thousands of firearms have been surrendered. Yet (to my knowledge) there has not been a correspondingly significant drop in gun crime.

Conclusions:

1. that the number of guns surrendered, even in their tens of thousands, was statistically not enough of the overall gun population to have any affect on gun crime figures (now there are only 20 million people in Australia, most of whom don't have guns, so when tens of thousands of guns disappear from the population shouldn't the crime figures reflect this ?)

2. that whatever the laws are, gun crimes are committed by people who will obtain, keep and use guns, whatever the law is so whatever the law is irrelevant to these people.

#2 is a prime argument used by the NRA in the US....that if the bad guys have guns then the good guys need to have guns also. There is also the old chestnut about possibly having to defend oneself from the government, but that one is wearing a bit thin. McVeigh proved there are better and more effective methods.

Personally, I'd rather be shot than stabbed....but since I've not experienced either (although been threatened with a knife on 3 separate occasions, never been threatened with a gun) it's only my inexperienced opinion.

Well there has been a drop in gun related crime in Oz (as a proportion of the population), particularly murders. One of the highest contributors to the murder rate in Oz is domestic violence. Removal of guns from people who snap in the heat of the moment has had positive effects. Of course crooks can still got hold of guns - but anything that makes it harder to get hold of them is not a bad thing.

(Murders in Victoria down 14.2% in 07/08, or 15.6% as a percentage of the population. In New South Wales, murder by firearm has reduced by 50% in the past 20 years. Unfortunately, knives are now the weapon of choice.)

An interesting article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/firear...9998662010.html

I would not like to face either a knife or gun, but at least with a knife, they have to be right on top of you. The easier it is to obtain guns, the more likely that a person will commit a crime with one - whether it be premeditated or a snap of rage. I cannot conceive of how people believe that free availability of weapons does not carry an increased factor of risk.

I think it's cultural. I saw that movie, 'Bowling Columbine' (spelling) where he pointed out that gun ownership was the same in Canada, and yet gun crime is virtually non-existant there.

In the UK in their knee-jerk reaction they banned hand guns. Of course this only took the guns out of the hands of the lawful as criminals don't hand in their guns when guns are made illeagal!

Gun crime is on the increase in the UK but not on the scale of the USA.

Banning guns will not increase or decrease gun crime. Only cultural attitudes towards it will.

Gun laws in Canada are much more restrictive than in the USA. You must get a gun permit in Canada from the federal government in order to own a weapon. In the United States, a federal criminal history check is made at the point of purchase of a gun, but in most states there is no requirement for a gun permit. A permit is only required if a gun owner wants to carry the weapon in a concealed manner. Only a select number of states have concealed carry laws and usually this requires a background check and some education and training.

Personally, I'd rather be shot than stabbed....but since I've not experienced either (although been threatened with a knife on 3 separate occasions, never been threatened with a gun) it's only my inexperienced opinion.

I've experienced both..... trust me.... having a gun pointed at you is way way worse than a knife.

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