tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post7503663590161778814..comments2023-12-20T19:39:29.865+00:00Comments on Munguin's Republic: IF THERE WAS EVER ANY DOUBT THAT THIS MATTER SHOULD BE DEALT WITH IN EDINBURGH, THERE ISN'T NOWMunguinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475165830302054002noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-59649798837830627622012-12-16T17:21:27.042+00:002012-12-16T17:21:27.042+00:00Yes, deprived of the right to make our own decisio...Yes, deprived of the right to make our own decisions, having, as a people elected the opposite government from the one we have. In fact always having the government the English chose for us.<br /><br />That's deprivation of a kind.<br /><br />Not entirely sure what it has to do with protestantism... Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-15263173585202632442012-12-16T02:54:40.713+00:002012-12-16T02:54:40.713+00:00You people are deprived; unlike us in America. Emp...You people are deprived; unlike us in America. Emphasizing autonomy is not common; due to the defeat of Western Protestantism civilization; so one goes off to find an excuse.Mr. Mcgranorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12851136550476241757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-88148652380051730272012-12-15T22:57:48.090+00:002012-12-15T22:57:48.090+00:00Ah Danny... Niko is Scottish Labour. They are not ...Ah Danny... Niko is Scottish Labour. They are not subtle!<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-18694172223151519302012-12-15T18:03:38.668+00:002012-12-15T18:03:38.668+00:00What Niko's plan lacks in subtlety, it more th...What Niko's plan lacks in subtlety, it more than makes up for in its draconian directness.<br /><br />Of course the death penalty for ADVOCATING a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment might be challenged on First Amendment grounds. But then again, maybe no one will notice....LOL.Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14450203101640592230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-68490049610145687932012-12-15T17:41:21.225+00:002012-12-15T17:41:21.225+00:00Perhaps making the manufacture and sale of Guns il...Perhaps making the manufacture and sale of Guns illegal first.<br />Now that isn't going to stop gun use but will begin to drive down the supply.<br /><br />Then illegal gun ownership should be made a death penalty crime with no appeal.<br /><br />Carrying unlicensed guns although legally bought and held within the home..Likewise death penalty no appeal.<br /><br />Advocating universal gun ownership<br />Death penalty no appeal.<br /><br />Organising gun associations to promote looser gun control death penalty no appeal.<br /><br /> Niko the ruthlessnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-72223057848748004832012-12-15T16:32:37.384+00:002012-12-15T16:32:37.384+00:00Yes Danny. Random thoughts here... It is going to ...Yes Danny. Random thoughts here... It is going to be small steps that will win the day, if anything will. As you so rightly say, it is in the DNA of Americans, to have the right to bear arms.<br /><br />I know we have discussed this before with reference to the dubiety that surrounds the real meaning of the second amendment, but, just a cursory knowledge of the early days of the American frontiersmen would explain that there was a real need to have weaponry, to 'put food on your family' as Mr Bush would have said, and to protect yourself from the natives, who sure as hell didn't want you there...<br /><br />So no one is going to ban them any time soon, and no one is going to happily or easily restrict their sale, but every so often the horror of yet another mentally insecure person with a grudge against his parents, or congressman, senator, president, alma mater, or who or what ever...and with easy access to an armoury, will build pressure on politicians to do something.<br /><br />As you say though, there are more guns than people in the country... and the ease with which they can be smuggled across the Mexican border...what good will any restrictions do?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-10250219083563364132012-12-15T16:17:27.826+00:002012-12-15T16:17:27.826+00:00The figures are utterly horrendous, Monty.
I wond...The figures are utterly horrendous, Monty.<br /><br />I wonder if James (Scot Goes Pop) will write something about this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-13149080001492008262012-12-15T15:49:00.087+00:002012-12-15T15:49:00.087+00:00-----contd------
There are at least 300 million g...-----contd------<br /><br />There are at least 300 million guns (some estimates are 400 million) in the American population of a little over 300 million people. So a ban on gun sales would be more or less irrelevant. Guns are readily available and will remain so. Confiscation would be physically impossible…..and could well inspire something like a second American revolution. It is an article of faith among the radical and politically powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) that the fundamental reason that the Second Amendment was placed in the constitution was to insure that Americans can overthrow their government by violent revolution if and when it becomes tyrannical. Violent revolution is more than history, it’s in the American DNA.<br /><br />So, what CAN be done? At the very least, we must try to do something in the way of background checks that will prevent the legal sale of hand guns and rapid fire weapons to people with a clear history of mental disturbance. And we can surely restrict the sale and ownership of large capacity magazines for otherwise legal weaponry. Just these two small steps would have been extremely helpful in reducing the carnage in a number of the recent mass shooting incidents. Small steps to be sure, but we must do what we can. And the politically radicalized NRA will oppose even those steps on so-called constitutional grounds.Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14450203101640592230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-23076147143968440382012-12-15T15:43:50.545+00:002012-12-15T15:43:50.545+00:00The Guardian data that Monty posted seems to repre...The Guardian data that Monty posted seems to represent the situation very well. It shows gun crime RATES, rather than meaningless absolute numbers in the national data which are often quoted, ignoring population differences. And it separates gun “violence” with gun “deaths.” And gun “murder” from gun “deaths,” a large number of which are suicides. It does compare a total number of 600 for the UK against the total US number. If absolute numbers are to be compared, the UK is more aptly compared with California and its roughly comparable population – the California population being only about 1/3 less than that of the UK – 40 million compared with 60 million. I’m always annoyed when I read direct number comparisons with Canada, without the required ORDER OF MAGNITUDE (factor of TEN) adjustment for population. And without taking into account historical, cultural, racial and ethnic differences, in addition to population, comparisons of the USA with Switzerland or the Scandinavian countries can border on the absurd. Not so much comparing apples with oranges, but more like apples with kumquats.<br /><br />Nevertheless, even after intellectually honest gun RATE statistics are arrived at, America is still at an extreme disadvantage with regard to gun violence and murder. And the easy availability of guns has to be a factor. It surely involves more than the Second Amendment which establishes the keeping and bearing of arms as a fundamental American right. It in fact involves a history and culture that far predates the constitutional republic. It began with firearms being the essential means of providing both physical safety and food on the table in colonial, and later frontier, times. And it was the guns owned by private Americans which fired the first shots at the British Army in Massachusetts, and were a mainstay of the revolution.<br />-----contd-------Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14450203101640592230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-76434875716743561952012-12-15T14:33:37.680+00:002012-12-15T14:33:37.680+00:00Dean,
I'm in complete agreement with you.
Bu...Dean,<br /><br />I'm in complete agreement with you.<br /><br />But since the bar for constitutional amendment is so high.....impossibly high I think for any of the two centuries old rights amendments....any change must come legislatively. And there certainly is a legislative history of responsible gun "regulation" even within the strictures of the Second Amendment.<br /><br />But the NRA has awesome political power. And every politician remembers that it was opposition from the NRA that kept Al Gore from carrying his home state of Tennessee in 2000, and gave us the disastrous Bush presidency. Tennessee would have carried the election for Gore, even without Florida. And a single additional state in 2004, would have carried the election for John Kerry, who was also opposed by the NRA. Kerry lost the presidency by just 120,000 votes in Ohio.<br /><br />But I'm hopeful that some useful things can be done, even in the face of implacable NRA opposition. Some thoughts about this are attached as comments.Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14450203101640592230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-55300645173028300892012-12-15T11:13:56.837+00:002012-12-15T11:13:56.837+00:00Danny,
Constitutions are written by men, thus ne...Danny, <br /><br />Constitutions are written by men, thus never perfect. They are subject to the times and context from which they were conceived. <br /><br />This is why the amendments are so vital. <br /><br />But, you need society agree to changing them. So, you want to role back insane gun ownership? Deal with the gun nut lobby controlling the hill with their special interests! Dean MacKinnon-Thomsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08221192592535723681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-77982878055203544362012-12-15T10:46:37.439+00:002012-12-15T10:46:37.439+00:00oops amendment 1 to previous post.
The Florida fi...oops amendment 1 to previous post.<br /><br />The Florida figures are included in the 12,996 total murders number.<br /><br />The 2010 figure for Florida can be extrapolated by adding all the other murder figures in the Guardian graph and then subtracting this number from 12,996.<br />Where's my calculator .....Montynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-74238121660621654482012-12-15T10:38:17.390+00:002012-12-15T10:38:17.390+00:00tris..I forgot to say. The figures for Florida nee...tris..I forgot to say. The figures for Florida need to be added to the 12,996 murders. Not on the Guardian graph. <br />They seem to be hard to find. The best I could do was....<br /><br />1129 murders in 2007. The year the 'stand your ground' law was introduced. Sounds like something out of a spaghetti western movie.<br /><br />source...<br /><br />http://www.city-data.com/forum/florida/106375-florida-sees-spike-gun-crimes.html<br /><br />And there were 101,906 violent crimes in Florida in 2010.<br /><br />source..<br /><br />http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/mar/23/dennis-baxley/crime-rates-florida-have-dropped-stand-your-ground/Montynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-57469741038275850482012-12-15T08:39:10.641+00:002012-12-15T08:39:10.641+00:00Monty: It seems the UK firearms laws appear to wor...Monty: It seems the UK firearms laws appear to work, to some extent.<br /><br />I heard on the Today Programme this morning that there is little or no appetite for change.<br /><br />Exactly how they know that I don't know: presumably vox pops.<br /><br />Thanks for the link. It makes interesting reading. <br /><br />I was somewhat worried to see the horrific figures for Missouri, Danny!<br /><br />Hawaii or Alaska (or heaven forbid, North Dakota) sounds like a sensible move. Interesting to see that the cowboy states of Montana and Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho are safer...<br /><br />Fewer people, more space... less drugs?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-25977096832997932732012-12-15T01:16:14.382+00:002012-12-15T01:16:14.382+00:00Sad news from the school in the US tris..
&quo...Sad news from the school in the US tris..<br /><br /> "In 2010 - the latest year for which detailed statistics are available - there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms."<br /><br />source..<br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state<br /><br />Sober reading compared to the 600 in the whole of the UK ( less than a third of the murders in California alone)<br /><br />Conneticut had 131 murders in 2010.Montynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-88442126316552946312012-12-14T23:24:30.685+00:002012-12-14T23:24:30.685+00:00It would certainly be an interesting scenario, Dan...It would certainly be an interesting scenario, Danny, because, of course, people would only ever use the weapons if their lives were endangered..... or if someone cut them up on the highway, or pushed past them in the queue at the supermarket, or forgot to hold open the door for them!!!<br /><br />Would probably solve the over population problem though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-90156002778242761442012-12-14T23:14:44.236+00:002012-12-14T23:14:44.236+00:00I wonder too Tris. And as Niko said, you sometimes...I wonder too Tris. And as Niko said, you sometimes hear the NRA gun nuts just say that if people would carry hand guns, they could defend themselves. Unbelievable!Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14450203101640592230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-31741349316290582522012-12-14T23:14:18.033+00:002012-12-14T23:14:18.033+00:00Some people, Niko, always think that more weapons ...Some people, Niko, always think that more weapons are the answer. The British government for one.<br /><br />But they are usually murderous psychopaths....or weapons manufacturers, or both.<br /><br />Well, if the cap fits.<br /><br />What was Camerarse doing in the middle east again? Oh yeah, selling arms to dictators. Good fellow. Probably they went to Eton and were in the Bullingdon along with him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-3548348664978234652012-12-14T23:11:23.478+00:002012-12-14T23:11:23.478+00:00I've heard bits of it, CH. It seems he wants t...I've heard bits of it, CH. It seems he wants to ensure that the kids from Newcastle learn to speak English.<br /><br />I didn't hear much of the rest, but it seemed that he has recanted all the things that he believed in when he was in Blair's government and when he was in Brown's chaotic mess that passed as government.<br /><br />They were all wrong before, because some people in England voted BNP instead of Labour because they hate foreigners.<br /><br />So Labour is the new BNP, I guess. Milipede will do anything, say anything to be elected.<br /><br />Doesn't affect us in Scotland. Immigration very small, and no real problems ensue from it, as far as I can see. Except for a few old bigots on about Poles pinching their jobs...jobs that in my considerable experience they are extremely glad the Poles pinched, because they sure as hell didn't want them.<br /><br />I'll have to steel myself to watch the sickening Alistair Darling. I find that he is in the same category as most of these Tory types from London. Smug self satisfied out of touch liars. Oh and in his case, house flipper extraordinaire.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-6568655645120521932012-12-14T23:04:12.574+00:002012-12-14T23:04:12.574+00:00Danny: I always think that when I hear of the late...Danny: I always think that when I hear of the latest shooting by a random nut job, who seemingly easily laid his hands on a range of weaponry.<br /><br />I wonder if this is the time.<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-46785449318387856532012-12-14T22:44:25.419+00:002012-12-14T22:44:25.419+00:00Some Americans (NRA) will say the answer is more g...Some Americans (NRA) will say the answer is more guns and if more people had been armed within the school they could of killed the assailant. Nikonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-46517697426281768092012-12-14T22:35:21.511+00:002012-12-14T22:35:21.511+00:00Danny
Err! no they wont unfortunately until the n...Danny<br /><br />Err! no they wont unfortunately until the number killed is proportionate to 9/11. Nikonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-6531914383737668042012-12-14T22:20:02.475+00:002012-12-14T22:20:02.475+00:00The weather is the least of our concerns tris as a...The weather is the least of our concerns tris as after Milliband's speech today shows how totalitarian the Labour party and the UK is shifting which will become a recipe for disaster for us plebs.<br /><br />Incase you haven't seen it <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pfs86/Daily_Politics_14_12_2012/" rel="nofollow">A Darling versus Blair Jenkins.</a>cynicalHighlanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06034325908473006163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-65317709603612215842012-12-14T21:48:03.394+00:002012-12-14T21:48:03.394+00:00Yes Tris, this is an unprecedented tragedy in Conn...Yes Tris, this is an unprecedented tragedy in Connecticut. The President was almost overcome with emotion as he made his statement at the White House.<br /><br />I think that surely something will finally be done about the easy availability of guns now. Surely there will be an outcry that the politicians cannot totally ignore.Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14450203101640592230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2092475090824666694.post-39089204678041631162012-12-14T21:44:53.125+00:002012-12-14T21:44:53.125+00:00CH: Dean once thought that Westminster was the ans...CH: Dean once thought that Westminster was the answer, now he realises that it is a dead duck full of brain dead, self serving bastards... <br /><br />...and yet he still has no trust in his fellow Scots to run their own country.<br /><br />If we lose the referendum, I will consider where I want to live the rest of my life. Probably not Scotlandshire, Britain.<br /><br />But if we win, why move (apart from the weather)?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com