(02-19-2018, 03:02 PM)rollerjag Wrote:

(02-18-2018, 11:14 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote: Time you set honesty to "On."

How many Spree Shootings were there in Australia before the Port Arthur Massacre?

How do you classify events such as the 2002 Melbourne University attack or the 2014 Sydney Siege so that they aren't considered to be Mass Shooting events?

The answer to the first is "7" since 1971. Hardly an epidemic.

The answer to the second is "we modified the thresholds for categorization to improve the outcomes of our law." This is exactly the same kind of funny math that's used to say the USA has poorer health outcomes and mortality rates than other countries. The truth is not the numbers, but how the numbers are compiled.

So, Australia enacted a draconian law, to address a problem that really didn't exist, modified the measures of the law's success to inflate the quantifiable results, and then Aussies come to America and puff out their chests about how smart they are.

More importantly, the mass shootings in Australia prior to 1971 overwhelmingly were enacted by the government against the people of Australia, something the "gun culture" of the USA is designed to prevent. Hence the words of our Founders like Thomas Jefferson and Noah Webster:

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

- Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776 

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops."
- Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787

And of course, for the fools who think the 2nd Amendment wasn't encoded to preserve and individual right, there's this simple statement of fact:

"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

- Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

But I wouldn't expect you to understand such sentiments since your Daddy Government does all the thinking for you. There's actually a really germane quote about you and your country, made by Pitt the Younger:

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

- William Pitt (the Younger), Speech in the House of Commons, November 18, 1783

Since we know you aren't the tyrant, then you find yourself as the latter.

Because words written in the 18th century about the proposed governance of an agrarian society of 4 million, 700,000 of which were slaves and 95% of free men were farmers, have  timeless relevance in a country of over 320 million, 80% living in urban areas. Do you think even Jefferson, Webster or Pitt foresaw a day when a 19 year old would be able to easily purchase a gun designed for maximum casualties and use it to mow down innocents?