h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*refuses to make wisecracks about Romanian gangs and countermeasures involving garlic*

I would argue that tax didn't have such an impact Sol

education did, changing social norms did, and taking on the industry did

and I can buy my baccy without paying tax, which I don't because, well I think I should pay my tax, I am sorely tempted sometimes

The serial numbers are supposed to be recorded when a gun is sold, just like a car. It should be possible to trace a gun from the manufacturer to the distributor to the retailer to the original owner. Tracking down subsequent owners could be problematic, however.

I think a registration system with annual renewals & fees would work, for the most part. It certainly works for vehicles.

The thing about tax, though, is that it signals a certain willingness on behalf of the authorities to take it on, and if you can get people to pay it, then they are tacitly acknowledging that Something Needs To Be Done, and from there...

But yes, I would also expect a bit of campaigning to have to take place too. You know, a bit.

Would it help, do the people who see guns as a continuing inevitability/ positivity if there were more training in, say, schools in how to handle guns? I doubt if it would with the school massacres, of course, but for the accidental deaths? General fascination of the taboo sort of thing? Nothing like killing the sexiness of something than by turning it into another lesson.

Pah.

"Would it help, do the people who see guns as a continuing inevitability/ positivity *think* *comma* if there were more training in, say, schools in how to handle guns?"

argghh, no training in schools, sorry knee jerk reaction,

and I get with the signifying of the willingness but with the 'abit' with the campaigning I am sorry but I really think is offbeat

The Russians train their kids in schools to handle guns. Well, the boys. They also have conscription, of course (for boys). The police carry guns, but not, apparently many more people. It's interesting that, actually. The Russians have quite the frontier attitude in many ways. But of course, neither the Soviet nor the Russian government would really want to encourage an armed populace.

But then if a rebellion were really serious, there would always be a way to access guns, surely? I;d have thought that familiarity and a willingness to use a gun would be more impt in a rise up against your government kind of way than physical access to a weapon right this second.

It is interesting. I wonder if the UK is actually putting itself at risk of something in having generations of people who do not have the faintest idea how to use a gun, and have been trained to abhor them?

Of course, our recent wars should be counteracting that a bit.

I don't think there is a cultural 'sexiness' about guns, there is no taboo to be broken in that sense

Actually, that should read 'trained their kids in schools'. I'm not sure if they still do it. They still have conscription though.

learning how to use a gun isn't rocket science, she says, despite first experience

in an armed conflict, I think that I could learn fairly rapidly how shoot a gun and bigger things than a gun,one of those big things on back of truck, still with practise I could also make a good sniper, I might need specs now I am older

I'm not sure about driving a tank mind

I'd be rubbish with grenades thinking about it, I am not good at lobbing things, but are they bit out moded these days,

if push came to shove I reckon I could do good rocket launching but i would have to commendeer everyone I know and it would be a risky business

but hey ho, it is going to be messy

Well, if you think so I am sure that the army will gladly give you a weapon in case of an armed conflict and take it back again once the conflict is over.

Tav,

I was thinking of home made,

or appropriating stuff, and that wouldn't be gladly given, obviously,

I was being a bit (very)flight of fancy there, with the rubbish grenade lobbing and all,I would be though rubbish at it, the lobbing

but still I am taking this discussion seriously

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean.

and also explains self further after taking flights of fancy

this did come down to a little bit of the constituational right to bear arms, to defend against government, which would mean a quick ousting or messy civil war, no?

unarmed civilian here, I was getting carried with that scenerio, which isn't really relevant, to me

how relevent is it to the over arcing issue of bearing arms in America, in that sense I do think the constituitonal right is, um, outmoded, still if you peel it back, what does it come down too for most people?

sorry Tav posted that before got you didn't know what I meant, which is understandable,so last post wasn't an explaination

I am going to make less sense in explaining myself because it is late and i should go to bed and stop talking, also, h2g2 is not posting or previewing well

The tea party are on it. Never fear...

http://wonkette.com/493657/tea-party-nation-knows-what-causes-shootings-unions-loud-stereos-and-sluts#BaMmbVvdmSU28FaW.99

FB

Thanks for that, Ferrettbadger. I particularly liked:

>>Again, a polite reminder that this is a real thing that people believe with their brains.<<

This is the real problem.

I might add: advocating homeschooling on the basis of this event is extremely dodgy.

The shooter in this case was...er, homeschooled.

I am running because I write lessons for homeschoolers, among others. I'm not saying homeschooling causes mental illness. At least, I hope it doesn't - not even if I'm writing the lessons. What is probably the issue is *why* the young man was homeschooled - because the school system wasn't able to deal with him. That has to stop.

You've got me confused there, DG

1. In my experience, homeschooling has a definite edge (though my experience is limited & perhaps biassed).
2. If a school has difficulty with a child there seem to be three choices:
- keep the child, allowing the disruption
- ban the child
- find money in the budget to provide individual tuition/training
(at home, maybe?)