wrote in message
...
On Dec 17, 12:22 pm, wrote:

Are you saying that the populace needs to be armed when they go out to
get a bottle of milk, lest they encounter a "bad guy" and need to
defend themselves?

How come you Yanks are so obsessed with guns? -

Your otherwise decent people - what gives with this gun nuttiness?

Andrew VK3BFA

I was in Sydney a few years back and felt about as safe as I do in
Seattle. But I was in the King Cross area of town some of the time,
and so did keep an eye out for " bad guys ". There are areas in the
States that are similar to the Kings Cross area, and if I were in
those areas a lot of the time I might feel that carrying a gun was a
good idea. As it is, I do not feel like I need to carry a gun and
have never carried a gun. And the vast majority of us Americans feel
the same way.

Andrew may be interested that the percentage of adults who have permits to
carry handguns in the "shall issue" states, which are the ones where it's
easiest to get a carry permit, averages just over 2%. The actual percentage
who carry at any given time probably is much smaller than that, but I've not
seen reliable data about it.


But I feel it is perfectly all right if law abiding citizens are
allowed to carry guns.
Why should one worry about law abiding citizens having guns?
Guns are legal in the States and there are a great many guns owned by
the general population.

About 90 for every 100 citizens.

So it would be a huge task to try to collect
all of them. And it such an effort was made, only the law abiding
citizens would comply. It would take years to reduce the guns
available to criminals. So why try. Better to have the bad guys know
that the person they think is an easy mark, could have a gun.

The same logic applies to requiring psych tests to own a gun. Doing
so would create a huge bureaucratic cost, and would have almost no
effect. The money would be better spent on any number of things and
save many more lives.

Keep in mind that mental health records are checked in our "instant
background check" system, in which, IIRC, 23 states supply mental health
records. To the extent we're in for more gun control, expect that large
loophole to be among the first that is closed.


We are not obsessed with guns. In fact I would say we are less
obsessed than you Austrailians are. We are the ones that think that
guns are perfectly okay to have. We aren't the ones that are worried
about law abiding citizens owning guns.

Another part of the difference might be that you do not have any
dangerous animals around. Last month someone took a picture of a bear
in their back yard about two or three miles from my house. Coyotes
keep the feral cat population in check. And mountain lions have been
seen within a mile of where I used to park my car when I was working.

I think that's a very small percentage of people who carry guns in the US.

--
Ed Huntress