The 2nd Amendment of the US constitution, this amendment is reason enough to allow me to lawfully own a weapon. As long as I'm not a convicted felon or mentally ill, I as a US citizen have the right to own a weapon.Or in legal terms, a weapon that you have no lawful reason to own. And in Australia, those reasons are defined.
, what can you expect when there are so many guns - estimated at >200m.
The US Supreme Court is to consider Americans' right to bear arms for the first time in nearly 70 years.
It has agreed to rule on whether a ban on handguns by the city of Washington, DC complies with the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.
The US capital has banned handguns since 1976.
The case is expected to be heard next spring, with a ruling in summer, and therefore could influence the presidential election in November.
The Supreme Court will consider a case brought by a Washington resident, Dick Heller, against his city council, arguing that he should be allowed to keep a handgun for his own protection.
The case was initially rejected, but a federal appeals court later overturned that judgement.
The city of Washington asked the Supreme Court to rule on the case, and on Tuesday it said it would - the first time it will have ruled on the divisive Second Amendment since 1939.
The Second Amendment, as passed by the House and Senate, reads:
This may be true in the U.K. due to the large numbers of middle eastern and northern European immigrants but in Oz it has been proven that gun related crime has dropped significantly since the laws on gun ownership have changed. Now before my American friends jump down my neck let me add that I under stand that criminals will always have access to guns and therefore gun related crime will not change significantly within the under world. However, the amount of gun related crime due to easy access, especially teens, has plummeted and our society has benefited because of it . Now if we could just outlaw knives, machetes and baseball bats life could be a lot easiergulfman wrote:Gun ownership and Gun control are both contentious issues which will be argued ad nausea by the opposing sides. In the UK, the Police authorities for years claimed that stolen legally registerd handguns accounted for a large proportion of UK gun crime - although they never provided any statistics in support of this arguement. However, since the TOTAL BAN on handguns in UK, the incedence of handgun related crime has increase fourfold, which I think demonstrates that criminals pay no attention to the niceties of the 'legality' of gun ownership.
I have no doubt that if Jamie Oliver was caught in the Main St with a 10 inch cook's knife in his pocket, he would need to provide a reasonable explanation.gulfman wrote:Aardvark, I think you should relocate to UK - they have already made it illegal to carry a pocket (or any other) knife with a blade longer than 3inches, or that has any form of locking mechanism, without a quote "good reason" unquote. Nor can quote "Combat Knives" or "Survival" knives be sold. Ten inch "cook" knives are naturally safe and OK 'cos they are only used by cooks.
A double standard is always the case. Not to get off subject about guns, but the immigration issues is in the same case.tigerryan wrote:I hear about "Americas fascination with guns" all of the time from Brits and Aussies ( a discussion I love to have actually, my opportunity to provide some balance). I cant remember the last time I was sitting down with a fellow yank and had the issues of gun control come up, I honestly cant remember. The "fascination" seems to me to be held entirely by the people that cant have guns. And the fascination with guns argument always then changes to America staying out of other countries business.......what a minute Im smelling a double standard.
To be honest though we are not always correct either. Guess if e were always correct we as Americans would have nothing to gripe about either All I can smell is a straw mantigerryan wrote:I hear about "Americas fascination with guns" all of the time from Brits and Aussies ( a discussion I love to have actually, my opportunity to provide some balance). I cant remember the last time I was sitting down with a fellow yank and had the issues of gun control come up, I honestly cant remember. The "fascination" seems to me to be held entirely by the people that cant have guns. And the fascination with guns argument always then changes to America staying out of other countries business.......what a minute Im smelling a double standard.
jackspratt wrote:I have no doubt that if Jamie Oliver was caught in the Main St with a 10 inch cook's knife in his pocket, he would need to provide a reasonable explanation.gulfman wrote:Ten inch "cook" knives are naturally safe and OK 'cos they are only used by cooks.
What a silly ending to your post.
Treehugger, do you have an identity issue? My response was to Gulfman.treehugger wrote:Jackspratt - I was trying to illustrate the mental level of a number of British politicians and lawmakers who think that the way a knife is named makes it dangerous! You can't advertise a four inch "Combat" knife, but you can advertise a ten inch "Cook's" knife.
