US Gun Control.....................

[BroxburnHibee]

Its not needed is it.....................

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28948946

What a stupid pointless death.

[Stranraer]

I'm once again saddened but not entirely surprised by this news. A 9 year old shooting a submachine gun? It's ridiculous and a quick look at SodaHead which is a breeding ground for the Tea party and the GOP shows just how much opposition there is to any sensible debate on gun control.

[MyJo]

It astonishes me that anyone would allow a 9 year old child anywhere near a gun like that. I have an 8 year old daughter and she's reckless enough with the "big" scissors.

What would those parents have done had the Uzi spun out of control and shot the little girl in the face rather than the instructor.

Mental.

[steakbake]

Its not needed is it.....................

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28948946

What a stupid pointless death.

One of many today, no doubt. But literally: only in America!

[over the line]

USA/Florida is by far my favourite holiday destination but I think the gun culture there is worrying and out of control.

Whilst in Orlando we went to a normal shopping mall where there was a huge outdoor type shop at one end of it. I have never seen so many guns in one place, there were hundreds and hundreds of em! There were mothers with kids there, shopping for guns! They had dozens of pistols attached to shelves with lanyards, a bit like the power tool section in B&Q.

I have shot plenty of guns whilst in the army and I enjoyed it, so I can understand that side of it. But the Yanks have gone a long long long way to far with it all!

[Just Alf]

USA/Florida is by far my favourite holiday destination but I think the gun culture there is worrying and out of control.

Whilst in Orlando we went to a normal shopping mall where there was a huge outdoor type shop at one end of it. I have never seen so many guns in one place, there were hundreds and hundreds of em! There were mothers with kids there, shopping for guns! They had dozens of pistols attached to shelves with lanyards, a bit like the power tool section in B&Q.

I have shot plenty of guns whilst in the army and I enjoyed it, so I can understand that side of it. But the Yanks have gone a long long long way to far with it all!

Spot on :agree:


What concerns me now though is that when I think back I actually enjoyed being in those shops :rolleyes:

Ah well.....

[Speedy]

When I was in Australia the shooting range I was at had restraints. Similar things could be in place for training kids.

Of course there is no need at that age.

[NAE NOOKIE]

The NRA will probably give the poor wee lassie a certificate for marksmanship.

That's what you have to love about the U.S. At times it can justifiably claim to be the greatest country in the world ..... and yet so often it can be the prime example of lunatics running the asylum.

Where else in the word outside of an out of control war zone would you find a child learning to shoot a sub machine gun. Its plain that nothing will change though ........ If watching their kids shoot each other in gang related violence on a daily basis and the almost traditional bi annual high school massacre hasn't done it nothing will. 13,000 gun related deaths in 2013 .... even a nation of nearly 300 million people should be appalled at that.

They spend billions fighting terrorists who 9/11 aside have killed the sum total of about 100 non military US citizens this century, but have neither the will nor the intelligence to fight the home grown terror they have allowed to kill something like ( at a guess ) 140,000 Americans in that time.

[hibsbollah]

Its worth remembering that there's a lot of outrage in the USA about this as well. All the Americans I know (admittedly fairly liberal educated metropolitan types) think their gun laws are madness.

Unfortunately there is no political appetite to take on the special interest groups that really control policy. Obama cant do a thing about it.

[calumhibee1]

Its worth remembering that there's a lot of outrage in the USA about this as well. All the Americans I know (admittedly fairly liberal educated metropolitan types) think their gun laws are madness.

Unfortunately there is no political appetite to take on the special interest groups that really control policy. Obama cant do a thing about it.

What part of America are they from? I go over to America every year and I've got to say that the southern states are almost obsessed with firearms.

[Off the bar]

The NRA will probably give the poor wee lassie a certificate for marksmanship.

That's what you have to love about the U.S. At times it can justifiably claim to be the greatest country in the world ..... and yet so often it can be the prime example of lunatics running the asylum.

Where else in the word outside of an out of control war zone would you find a child learning to shoot a sub machine gun. Its plain that nothing will change though ........ If watching their kids shoot each other in gang related violence on a daily basis and the almost traditional bi annual high school massacre hasn't done it nothing will. 13,000 gun related deaths in 2013 .... even a nation of nearly 300 million people should be appalled at that.

They spend billions fighting terrorists who 9/11 aside have killed the sum total of about 100 non military US citizens this century, but have neither the will nor the intelligence to fight the home grown terror they have allowed to kill something like ( at a guess ) 140,000 Americans in that time.

1 alleged plot to blow up a plane with a bomb in a shoe, and everyone has to take their shoes off to board a plane, thousands die every year in pointless shootings in the us and they do nothing. Absolute madness. John Stewart is excellent in his commentary on us gun laws.

no one outside of the military should be in command of a sub machine gun, that a 9 year old can fire one is mind blowing.

[Bristolhibby]

What part of America are they from? I go over to America every year and I've got to say that the southern states are almost obsessed with firearms.

My Dads got family in Texas and they all loved guns.

When we lived in Virginia, the old man was away with work for a couple of weeks and my Mum was worried being on her own, our neighbour offered her her handgun. Safe to say with a 6 year old and a 3 year old in the house, she declined.

J

[hibsbollah]

What part of America are they from? I go over to America every year and I've got to say that the southern states are almost obsessed with firearms.

Family and friends all over; New York, Illinois, Cali. I have friends from rural Carolina who have a rifle to scare off the bears rooting about in their garbage :greengrin But no uzis, handguns or second amendment literalists. Everyones different.

[Hibbyradge]

This would never have happened if the instructor had been armed.

[hibsbollah]

This would never have happened if the instructor had been armed.

This is the standard NRA response.

[Hibbyradge]

This is the standard NRA response.

Indeed.

[Haymaker]

Whenever these debates come up, I always feel that we over look the massive differences in culture that separate us and the Americans. We tend to be more cut and dry when things like this happen, for example after the terrible events of Dunblane the country was quite quick to outlaw handguns to stop another atrocity from happening. Where I lived, near Sandy Hook, my American friends went out and bought more guns - a friend bought her first gun after the massacre...

It is a myth that the NRA have pushed that if there are more guns then these things wouldn't happen - In some ways they are right however they fail to take into account that most people are not trained to react in these situations and from friends of mine who have fought overseas for this country they fully agree that the first shot fired at you in combat, even after training, put them beyond fear but they were trained and conditioned to react. A normal civilian is not.

I understand the need to keep some firearms in that vast country, friends who lived in North Carolina needed to protect their gardens from bears, however Chris is a 6 year US Army veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan. However submachine guns? Assault rifles? They make no sense.

While this is a bit of a ramble I learnt that in America and with Americans to never mention 3 things: Gun Control, Abortion and "Socialised" Medicine. All three can provoke the most mild mannered person into full on rage regardless of the side they fall on.