I will never get my head around the 2nd amendment and Americans utter refusal

[PSRB]

to see it as the reason they're the only country to constantly have mass shootings.

They'll bring up one random case where a bloke defends his house from a home invasion as sufficient reason.

This bit beggars belief - Mr Card is a trained firearms instructor at a US Army Reserve facility in Maine who was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks earlier this year. The document also said Mr Card had reported hearing voices and had threatened to carry out a shooting at the military training base in Saco, Maine.

Didn't think to perhaps remove his guns at that point!?!

[redgunamo]

Nothing to be done about that; it's in their genes. After all, that particular nation was mostly founded on condemned criminals, violent religious fanatics and ne'er-do-wells and misfits and madmen who'd failed to fit in and/or been thrown out of other, more civilised countries; often just before being hanged for some insignificant wrongdoing or other.

All things considered, the law does work pretty well. It is, as you point out, proper crazies doing most of the the mass-shooting, with criminal street-gangs making up the rest. Their normal, ordinary law-abiding citizens behave the same as normal, ordinary law-abiding citizens behave everywhere else. And it's not as though the world is running out of Americans, is it. Apparently there's three-hundert fiddy million of the buggers nowadays and millions more pouring in all the time.

Good luck to them.

to see it as the reason they're the only country to constantly have mass shootings.

They'll bring up one random case where a bloke defends his house from a home invasion as sufficient reason.

This bit beggars belief - Mr Card is a trained firearms instructor at a US Army Reserve facility in Maine who was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks earlier this year. The document also said Mr Card had reported hearing voices and had threatened to carry out a shooting at the military training base in Saco, Maine.

Didn't think to perhaps remove his guns at that point!?!

[Peter]

Nothing to be done about that; it's in their genes. After all, that particular nation was mostly founded on condemned criminals, violent religious fanatics and ne'er-do-wells and misfits and madmen who'd failed to fit in and/or been thrown out of other, more civilised countries; often just before being hanged for some insignificant wrongdoing or other.

All things considered, the law does work pretty well. It is, as you point out, proper crazies doing most of the the mass-shooting, with criminal street-gangs making up the rest. Their normal, ordinary law-abiding citizens behave the same as normal, ordinary law-abiding citizens behave everywhere else. And it's not as though the world is running out of Americans, is it. Apparently there's three-hundert fiddy million of the buggers nowadays and millions more pouring in all the time.

Good luck to them.

They have a very strained relationship with the word 'freedom'..... I would start there.

The card-carrying (no pun intended) religious fanatics are a huge political lobby in a country founded on the principle of the separation of church and state.

[WES]

They have a very strained relationship with the word 'freedom'..... I would start there.

The card-carrying (no pun intended) religious fanatics are a huge political lobby in a country founded on the principle of the separation of church and state.

America is quite unique in its approach to democracy, I think. Most countries rammed with power hungry politicians eventually end up in a quasi dictatorship with democracy really only convenient label to keep people happy.

In America, they are utterly committed to democracy but the politicians are so desperate for power that the idea of doing what is right or wrong has been completely replaced by doing what will get you elected.

This explains both the lack of any sensible gun control and Donald Trump's destruction of the Republican party imo.

[7sisters]

America is quite unique in its approach to democracy, I think. Most countries rammed with power hungry politicians eventually end up in a quasi dictatorship with democracy really only convenient label to keep people happy.

In America, they are utterly committed to democracy but the politicians are so desperate for power that the idea of doing what is right or wrong has been completely replaced by doing what will get you elected.

This explains both the lack of any sensible gun control and Donald Trump's destruction of the Republican party imo.

Biden appears to be advancing towards senility at an alarming rate, meanwhile Trump, we’ll, let’s not get into Trump.
I’ve also noticed these mass killings are mainly the work of right wing, whitey nut jobs. 🤔

[redgunamo]

Right and don't we ALL!

Be fair, America is not even 250 years old yet; how "free" do we imagine England was at that age. Indeed, how much freedom do you think the redgunamos enjoy even to this day, and we're practically the oldest people on earth!

These things take time, as the man said; they are a baby nation full of babies.

The cousins' charming naivete is fascinating to watch, all the same.

They have a very strained relationship with the word 'freedom'..... I would start there.

The card-carrying (no pun intended) religious fanatics are a huge political lobby in a country founded on the principle of the separation of church and state.

[Peter]

Right and don't we ALL!

Be fair, America is not even 250 years old yet; how "free" do we imagine England was at that age. Indeed, how much freedom do you think the redgunamos enjoy even to this day, and we're practically the oldest people on earth!

These things take time, as the man said; they are a baby nation full of babies.

The cousins' charming naivete is fascinating to watch, all the same.

But we don't even claim to be free. Well, not those of us who are sensible, anyway. We see freedom as being subject to a clear set of laws and restrictions and having the ability to choose someone else to oversee them once every five years. And some obscure legal rights that are frequently trampled on....

We don't bang on about freedom. It is too vague to carry any meaning. Freedom from what? For whom?

[Peter]

America is quite unique in its approach to democracy, I think. Most countries rammed with power hungry politicians eventually end up in a quasi dictatorship with democracy really only convenient label to keep people happy.

In America, they are utterly committed to democracy but the politicians are so desperate for power that the idea of doing what is right or wrong has been completely replaced by doing what will get you elected.

This explains both the lack of any sensible gun control and Donald Trump's destruction of the Republican party imo.

I think they just talk about it more, they don't actually do it any better. This is a country that can barely hold a Presidential election and confirm a winner.

They are a great example of how a written constitution can be a hostage to fortune.

Surely in a democracy doing what is right or wrong and doing what will get you elected are the same thing? Vox Populi, Vox Dei, and all that

[WES]

Surely in a democracy doing what is right or wrong and doing what will get you elected are the same thing? Vox Populi, Vox Dei, and all that

Stop being silly, Peter

[WES]

I think they just talk about it more, they don't actually do it any better. This is a country that can barely hold a Presidential election and confirm a winner.

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick on this one, Peter. They held an election and ran it efficiently and honestly and the winner was clear.

The flaw was the fact that one of the candidates was so reprehensible that he couldn't accept the result. Whether this is a flaw in American democracy or democracy generally is a matter for debate.