Slashdot Mirror

He forgot to mention that it's a fairly new law, and it seems to be working, 18% drop and all. Also even in 2004, the U.S. still tops the list, of gun violence deaths.. Both those were from this simple search.

The UN also wants to be the sole armed body on the planet. Do you trust them to carry that burden responsibly? Do you really trust them to not use their control of the internet to further this end?

Asnwer this then: 1/5th the gun deaths in Canada compared to the US. We watch your shows, we listen to your music, we buy the same cars, food, etc. Except we have very strict handgun laws, and you don't. We even have the same % of rifle ownership as the US per capita, its just the limited access to handguns and assualt-style semi-automatics that makes up the difference.

Like someone else said, there are far less people in Canada. So lets compare the statistics on an even playing field. 1. In 2001, there were 842 gun deaths in Canada ( source.)
2. In 2002, there were 10857 gun deaths in the United State. ( source.)
3. The population of Canada in 2001 was 30,007,094. ( source.)
4. The (estimated) population of the United States in 2004 is 293,027,571. (source.)

I've done all the hard math, and this is what I came up with:
The United States has 9.765 times the population of that of Canada. So, we multipy Canada's murder rate by that number, and we come up with 8222 gun deaths. Again, the US gun death rate is 10857. While the number is still about 2500 deaths lower for Canada, no statistic can take into account the fact that the US has far more urban areas with more people packed more tightly together than Canada. That is, to say, it's a lot easier to take 4 steps in the US and shoot someone than it is in Northern Alberta... your next door neighbor could be 4 miles away.

Read all about their "Week of action against small arms". I can't help seeing these things as related. Most countries in the world have less respect for the right to free speech and the right to keep and bear arms than the United States. Why not go after the entire Bill of Rights?

This is true, however, gun crime has risen since the introduction of the new laws - not that anyone should have been surprised by that.

No, this is FUD spread by pro-gun advocates.

For a counter balance read this

BTW: this gun control thread is completely off-topic.

New Jersey Institute of Technology has partnered with Smith and Wesson to develop this technology back in 2001.
Quote: "SCOTTSDALE, Arizona - Saf-T-Hammer Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: SAFH - news), the Scottsdale, Arizona-based firearm safety and security company, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Smith & Wesson Corporation, has announced a partnership with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). In a formal agreement signed July 18, 2001, Smith & Wesson agreed to work with NJIT towards integrating the university's biometric identification system into the electronically fired Authorized-User-Only prototype handguns that use ammunition developed by Remington Arms. The NJIT approach is a different technology from other biometric identification systems being evaluated by Smith & Wesson."
Reference this link. [iansa.org] IMHO - the New Jersey legislature is just creating a need for S & W new products.

Make no mistake about it, if someone has real criminal intent, a gun law will do nothing to prevent them from carrying out their actions. You can get any gun you want (legal or illegal) into this country, or any other, if you have a strong enough desire to. No law will prevent that. If you don't believe me, then why does Britain have problems with gun violence?

I do not believe this. Gun restrictions really do restrict guns. I live in australia and, while it is certainly possible to get a gun if you really want one, its not that easy, especialy for normal people (i.e. with no organised crime connections). You don't hear about shooting on the news here like you do in the US, and there are statistics that back this up (for example check this out).

You claim that britan has gun problems, do you have links to any kind of evidence that Britan's gun related crimes are anywhere near those of the US? I wouldbe surprised to see this.

I don't have evidnece for this on hand, but I remember reading that a decent percentage of gun relatied incidents in the US involved a gun owner as victim, suggesting that gun owners had attempted to use their guns for self defence, but had instead been overpowered and shot by the criminals. Something like this is obviously going to be affected by gun restrictions, if normal people aren't carrying the guns in the first place, then there is no gun involved.

More info here for those of you who aren't familiar with the case. Short story: Canadian citizen living in the US was convicted of the horrible crime of selling water filters to Cuba.

A damn shame. If only he sold guns to South American terrorists, he'd have been fine.

I used to have sympathy for you Americans. Sept 11 was a terrible crime, and hurt so many people. But between the Cuban embargo, crippling our industries for being too efficient and too high-quality, and violating the basic human rights of our citizens because they're not Americans, continuuing to use anti-personnel land mines, and basically pissing all over the Kyoto treaty and anti-ballistic missle treaty, you're doing your damnest to screw the world. You can all go fuck yourselves. (For those of you who actually vote and try to change how the US government acts, I apologize. But you're in the minority.)

And that's not even mentioning the DMCA and SSSCA, which have gotten plenty of airing here and don't even need explaining.

Do your worst moderation, you jingoistic sheep. I've got plenty of karma to burn.