American gun use is out of control. Shouldn't the world intervene? [Massive hurl alert]

The Observer ^ | 21 September 2013 | Henry Porter

[Slings and Arrows]

Last week, Starbucks asked its American customers to please not bring their guns into the coffee shop. This is part of the company's concern about customer safety and follows a ban in the summer on smoking within 25 feet of a coffee shop entrance and an earlier ruling about scalding hot coffee. After the celebrated Liebeck v McDonald's case in 1994, involving a woman who suffered third-degree burns to her thighs, Starbucks complies with the Specialty Coffee Association of America's recommendation that drinks should be served at a maximum temperature of 82C.

Although it was brave of Howard Schultz, the company's chief executive, to go even this far in a country where people are better armed and only slightly less nervy than rebel fighters in Syria, we should note that dealing with the risks of scalding and secondary smoke came well before addressing the problem of people who go armed to buy a latte. There can be no weirder order of priorities on this planet.

-snip-

Talking to American friends, I always sense a kind of despair that the gun lobby is too powerful to challenge and that nothing will ever change. The same resignation was evident in President Obama's rather lifeless reaction to the Washington shooting last week. There is absolutely nothing he can do, which underscores the fact that America is in a jam and that international pressure may be one way of reducing the slaughter over the next generation. This has reached the point where it has ceased to be a domestic issue. The world cannot stand idly by.

[Lancey Howard]

Pfffft. “The world” can drop dead.

[Lancey Howard]

I’m looking at shotguns, too. Haven’t made up my mind yet.

[Viennacon]

Just read the comment section. The Guardiantards hate the NRA. haha

[Vendome]

If you want to argue about this again then by all means, meat me at the green in Lexington.

You might not want to wear red this time. Made it all too easy the first couple times to womp your asses.

[BigCinBigD]

Thanks it’s a 12ga pump riot gun. Just bought a Red Dot sight for it off Amazon.

[Slings and Arrows]

Sounds fun. I’m starting to miss living in the boonies.

[BigCinBigD]

I like to think of it as an Urban redecoration device. :)

[Slings and Arrows]

Just read the comment section. The Guardiantards hate the NRA. haha

"Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! My-yummy!"

[matt04]

I wonder how many of the deaths occurred in “gun-free zones”, “gun-free cities” and other Dem controlled areas?

[Billthedrill]

“The world” is going to intervene, hmm? Sure thing, Sweet Pea, you lead the charge. Molon labe.

[ModelBreaker]

“Talking to American friends, I always sense a kind of despair that the gun lobby is too powerful to challenge and that nothing will ever change. The same resignation was evident in President Obama’s rather lifeless reaction to the Washington shooting last week.”

Hmmm. The author has been talking to the wrong kind of Americans.

[Exton1]

So lets stop illegal aliens, they kill 40 a day, 1/2 by drunken driving, 1/2 through outright murder.

[sten]

what’s out of control is... mental patients

until they start putting mental patients into mental hospitals, i’ll believe they intend for all the random shootings to happen... so they can grab for guns

hell, it’d be fairly easy to convince the American people that these people were drugged by the dems and put on their special path of crazy for the sole reason to grab guns

we had emails between the WH and holder stating as much on fast & furious... yet no one cared.

[Sapwolf]

Hmmm....

If those blue helmets from the UN forces hit the beach and invade the USA, where would you attack?

If I’m a blue beany general, I’m hitting NYC, just pull my ships right into the harbor and disembark.

With all the tories/leftists there, they’d shower us with flowers and kisses (watch out as some of the gay men might kiss you too).

DON’T DON’T DON’t land your forces in Texas. You’ll have a million rifles converging (mine included as I’d drive thru the night with my tea party borzoi loaded with ammo, gold, water and kibble).

Silly Brits...Freedom is for Americans!

[jonrick46]

"Chicago might reach 500 murders, Caracas might reach 4,000."

1. San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Homicides: 1,143 Inhabitants: 719,447 Murder rate: 158.87

2. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: Homicides: 1974 Inhabitants: 1,335,890 Murder rate: 147.77

3.Maceió, Brazil: Homicides: 1,564. Inhabitants: 1,156,278. Murder rate: 135.26

4. Acapulco, Mexico: Homicides: 1,029. Inhabitants: 804,412. Murder rate: 127.92.

5. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Homicides: 1,123. Inhabitants: 1,126,534. Murder rate: 99.69.

6. Caracas, Venezuela: Homicides: 3,164. Inhabitants: 3,205,463. Murder rate: 98.71

Many list Detroit as the top U.S. city for Homicides. However, New Orleans is the top U.S. city. Homicides: 199. Inhabitants: 343,829 Murder rate: 57.88 New Orleans is ranked number 21 for cities world wide. This says that the United Nations has 20 other cities to worry about before they have anything to say about U.S. Homicides. And, we should also ask what level of gun control exists in the top cities? Would more gun control fix their homicide rates? I say, no.

Guns are not the problem. It is mental illness and the big elephant in the room: the illegal drug industry. Drug gangs are at work in all the cities having high murder rates. Maybe the United Nations could brainstorm a way to take out the profit in the illegal drug industry.

Perhaps legalization is the fix.

[GeronL]

Legalization is not the fix. That’s just pathetic.

Caracas, Venezuela is not like that because of drugs, it is like that because it has socialists running a hope n change asylum. It is a government run by the corrupt, the inept who proudly spread their ideology of ineptitude to all sectors.

Take over those power plants/mines/factories ‘for the people’, dump those “experts” because we know that anyone can do those jobs. We’ll even hire lots of extra nobodies that aren’t needed while we are at it.

Making the populations dumber with drugs is not going to improve things.

[jimsin]

WHULL...

WHAT we need is for THE U.N. to step in and put an end to this AMERICAN GUN VIOLENCE NIGHTMARE.....I SAY WE INSTITUTE AN 'OBSCENE OIL PROFITS TAX' ...THEN WE JUST FUNNEL THE MONEY INTO a spiffy UN PEACE A KEEPIN' FORCE. CHARGED WITH A MISSION....

STEP 1.. THEY INVADE THOSE nasty nasty AMERICAN cities. The ones where all this violent gun violence has been violentin..and then

2. Then they just could burn out the violencers...or something..

LOOK HOW EFFECTIVELY THE U.N. has ENDED GLOBAL VIOLENCE HERETOFORE..SO SHUD UP.

[j. earl carter]

I wonder how many of the deaths occurred in “gun-free zones”, “gun-free cities” and other Dem controlled areas?

I'm not interested enough to actually look this up, but I'm pretty sure the 32,000 figure cited includes suicides.(The suicide rate is pretty comparable between Australia, UK, Canada, and the US. It makes no difference if people here use handguns and people there jump off of bridges)

So, only about half of the deaths were even homicides to begin with, some percentage of those were justified.

Once you get down to the true number, whatever it is, I'm sure you're right that most of them occurred in heavily gun regulated areas.

[Pinkbell]

Yeah, go ahead and try it, pal. Imagine if that were to happen and a coalition of leftist European countries came over here to take the guns from Americans. First of all, they’d have a full war on their hands as the military would defend the country and the Constitution. Second of all, the irony is that it would prove the NRA and gun lobby’s point that citizens should be armed to protect themselves in the event of a civil war or attack from foreign powers.

[Haiku Guy]

Americans hear talk of international intervention and head to the gun store. Just when you thought the ammo shortage might be over...