back to article American auto dealer offers free handguns

Max Motors is aware of America's crime problem. And it wants to be part of the solution. With this in mind, the Butler, Missouri auto dealership is offering a free handgun to anyone in the market for a new car or truck. As reported by the BBC, Max Motors recently launched a "Guns and Gas" promotion. If you purchase any vehicle …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Kevin

    Answer this one

    OK, I've got a fun question for all the folks out there who are absurdly scared of guns for no reason:

    Why should a woman be denied the natural right to defend herself by any means possible, in this case with a pistol, if she's about to be raped? What should she do in the UK or Australia? I'm assuming your police haven't mastered the art of teleportation yet, so they're probably at least 5 minutes away. You're saying that she should just accept being raped because nanny government doesn't think she should defend herself? I mean, you've gotten to the point where just beating on someone breaking into your house is criminal. The first poster who can articulate why a woman should be raped rather than carry a gun to defend herself will have the singular honor of causing me to go melt down all of my guns - Glock and AK-47 chief among them - and join a drum circle.

    The gun is the great equalizer. How else can an old man defend himself from a gang of youths? You want to know why that whole happy slapping phenomenon hasn't crossed the Atlantic? Because I don't have to sit there and take something like that here. If you try to attack the wrong person, you're going to get shot, which is as it should be. No-one has the right to infringe on another person's daily life through violence or theft. Yes there are bad people with guns, but that appears to still be quite true, and now basically exclusive, in the UK, island and all (I found the argument about no land borders a tad silly, smuggling is like piracy, you're not going to stop it). The difference is that here I can at least defend myself legally. That's all I ask for. I often carry my Glock openly, and I can assure you it's avoided trouble in at least some instances where shady-looking fellows at gas stations have approached me, noticed the gun, and turned right around and walked away. I don't seek to have to shoot anyone, and generally the mere presence of a gun is enough to defuse a situation, but I'm not afraid to either.

    It really pains me to see great countries that have been our allies in the darkest moments of history reduced to having populaces unable to defend themselves. I've got a great idea - I don't really have any desire to go somewhere I can't carry a gun, so I'll stay over <<< here and you guys stay over >>> there (or down there, sorry Oz I don't seem to have a down arrow) and we'll see what happens as your countries more and more resemble A Clockwork Orange. I'm not saying all is rosy here, the Patriot Act is a mess, and while I'm generally a Republican (not exclusively, for anyone who knows American politics I'll point out I voted for Republicans, Democrats AND Libertarians in 2006) I do hope the Democrats manage to strike that down, without trying another assault weapons ban (should be possible as many of the recently-elected Dems are of the Southern Democrat, AKA I'm only not a Republican because my grandaddy was a Democrat, variety), when they inevitably win in November.

    If you managed to slog through all that, please try to answer my first question.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Statistically, gun owners have...

    ...smaller wieners!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re:Guns Guns Guns

    Finn wrote:

    >I wait for the day, when someone goes to US Supreme Court with complain about 'government confiscating his 155 mm artillery piece'.

    I'd like a Civil War 9 pounder, thanks.

    >After all, 2nd amendment doesn't say anything about type of armament you are allowed to carry. If the 'meaning of founding fathers' is considered, then it is muzzle-loading muskets which are only allowed weapon. If on the other hand you decide that people are allowed to use something more deadly, then (by US constitution) anything up the the nukes should be fair game. [Which would truly eliminate all the potential problems in the entire country. And the country itself.]

    POI - you guys had the smooth-bore muskets, we were the ones with the rifles that could pot a lobster-back at over 100 yards distance, your lot wore bright colors and stood around in nice even lines, our boys stayed out of sight and it would have been a cold day in hell before you got 'em to march around in formations.

    Anyone who thinks old tech means toothless is mistaken. I hunt deer during the black powder / Bow & arrow special season and either of my two reproduction 45 cal Kentucky rifles (one cap & ball, the other a flintlock with double set triggers - base load is 180 gr minne ball and 200 gr of FFG black powder) will do a perfectly good job of dropping a buck out around 150 or so yards.

    I would imagine that the sticking point on an own-yer-own-nuke would be getting the fissionables - well, and that inconvenient ionizing radiation thingie.

  4. Clive Powell
    Pirate

    You have knowledge of EVERY type of gun?

    "Even if you have no desire to shoot it for target practice or self defense, people should KNOW how to clear and secure a loaded weapon. I've since sold off all my weapons, in order to pay for my real passion, photography. But, even when I did, my family members (most of whom don't like guns) all knew how to chamber and clear a round, AND make the gun safe, by removing any ammunition clips."

    Before handling a new weapon you need a good 5 minutes tuition in the gun on loading, clearing jams, dismantling and reassembling. Not sure if any of your family had a new weapon any of them would be safe in removing the ammunition clip (especially for a revolver).

    From Kevin

    "Why should a woman be denied the natural right to defend herself by any means possible, in this case with a pistol, if she's about to be raped? What should she do in the UK or Australia? I'm assuming your police haven't mastered the art of teleportation yet, so they're probably at least 5 minutes away. You're saying that she should just accept being raped "

    To Kevin

    If she produces a weapon then the assillant now has another weapon to use against her. You may not have happy slapping, but you do have drive bys, which are for the most part unknown here in UK.

    No-one has metioned Switzerland, where every male of service age, has to be a member of the army (conscription is not voluntary) and then, when the term is finished is allowed home with an assualt rifle and ammunition. Not many crazy shootings in this country. One notice about the school shootings in the US, in a number of the cases there were other people around who were armed, but don't seemed to have stopped the killings. So being armed to stop someone assualting you doesn't seem to work that well, and in a home invasion situation the occupier is more likely to be shot just incase they have a gun.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Statistically, gun owners have...

    And Anonymous Cowards have none at all, (not you ladies).

  6. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    @Greg re: YOU DIDN'T SEND THE DAMNED THINGS BACK!

    The UK repaid the lend-lease debt in full on 29 December 2006.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Guns reduce crime

    If that is the case then why does the US not have a very low crime rate?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re: Kevin

    "I'll point out I voted for Republicans, Democrats AND Libertarians in 2006"

    So _YOUR_ the one that screwed up the election!!!!

    Mine's the one with all the hanging chads

  9. Nick
    Thumb Down

    Shock and outrage

    Speaking as a Brit living in London, I am proud that we have a ban on handguns - it means that every shooting, whether it's a criminal or the police firing the guns, comes under the public scrutiny it deserves.

    I'd hate myself if I was confronted with a news story of someone being shot at and I thought, "Everyone's carrying them, so what else is new?" Instead of, "Holy shit, that's terrible, how did this happen?!"

    I despair at the thought of living in a society where it is generally accepted that the vast majority of law-abiding citizens can be tooled up - and I'm not just talking about the USA - I include any country where that can happen.

    Weapons, whether they are guns, knives, billy clubs, or tasers are not the tools of a civilised society, and if your answer to that question (regardless of where you come from and that includes the UK) is, "our society isn't civilised," then congratulations on your self-damning indictment, now will you kindly piss off.

  10. Graham Bartlett
    Unhappy

    @Kevin

    You're assuming the victim can shoot the assailant first. The reality is that a mugger (or rapist) will almost certainly get you first - every news item I've ever seen said that the perpetrator was lying in wait in an alleyway or bushes. I don't care if you're some highly-trained quick-draw expert - even if you're expecting it and have your gun in your hand, anyone can cross 10ft of empty space and deck you from behind with a baseball bat before you can turn and fire, and if your gun is in a holster under a zipped jacket then your mugger/rapist had better be presenting you with written warning about a week in advance. The mugger/rapist then has a victim *and* a gun, so the victim doesn't just get mugged/raped, they also get murdered. Nice.

    Yes, there is indeed more violent crime in the UK than the US - around 25% more last time I looked, IIRC. It's particularly bad in "tribal" situations - youth gangs, or rival football outfits. But murders are orders of magnitude lower. In the UK, the fact that someone gets shot or stabbed is national headline news. In the US, unless there's a whole bunch of people shot then it's almost business-as-usual. I know which one I'd rather live with - and I'll choose the one where I *do* live.

    Of course, I'd rather not be beat up at all, which is why I stay alert on the streets at night and constantly check corners and other people, taking detours or crossing the road if I feel there might be a risk. Most muggings and rapes happen when the victim does something stupid like going on their own through some dark alley; this doesn't make it their fault, of course, but self-defence lesson 1 is to avoid situations that make you a potential victim.

  11. Jay

    @Rober Long

    What about "if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one?" Seems like Christ didn't have a hard time with people arming themselves when necessary.

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. Liam
    Coat

    "guns are fine etc etc"

    gotta love the yanks attitudes to guns. 'i never shot anyone', 'i carry a gun everywhere', 'guns dont kill people', 'right to bear arms'

    you still dont realise that places where guns are hard to get hold of dont have much gun crime.

    the fact is america manages to kill FAR more people with guns than anyone else. and im not just speaking of the 'shoot first, questions later/oops friedly fire' military

    the fact you all seen to carry guns creates a perpetual need to carry guns. i.e. crims have them to protect from the cops, cops have them to protect from the crims and joe bloggs has one 'just in case'

    so, you all are armed yet we still see so many cases of shootings etc.

    to then rest of the world you do seem nuts.

    you are the only place that seems to have college killings, especially at such a level.

    @Ah, yes, the Britons turn out in full force... By Greg

    1) this is a british website - what did you expect?

    2) yes you leant us guns. maybe if you had helped more during the war the world would be a better place? rather than coming late, in injury time, just for the fact that the US can then say they won the war. maybe you would deserve all the war films you make, rather than just pretending the yanks did all those things you seem to take credit for (such as stealing the enigma machine and the apparent 'american only' nature of D-day etc in US films)

    and btw - we paid for those guns plenty of times over due to you lending us cash at ridiculous rates.

    also you will find out that white guys shoot far more people than anyone else in the USA... unlike the news seems to suggest...

    i love your history and news. i would love to see what other wars the US won accoring to your history? 100 years war? crimean?

    @ skeptical i -

    "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." -- Henry Mencken. - nice quote :)

    --------------------

    you lot also dont seem to realise that the illegal guns come from legal ones. how many guns with filed off serials are used by gangs etc? but if nobody could get hold of guns then there wouldnt be so many legal ones waiting to be used for illegal activities.

    anyone else think of the family guy sketch where the US gov was writing the constitution and someone says 'do you think they will get this bit about bear arms' , the camera pans and there are a load of arms belonging to brown type bears around the room :) (damn, AC beat me to it!)

    im not even going to go into why so many americans feel the need to kill furry animals with big guns ("wow, arent i the man!")... i can only assume it has something to do with inadequacy somewhere :)

  14. Michael Miller

    Just saw the news today........

    Harry Potter actor killed in knife fight in bar. No matter what you ban, people will kill people.

  15. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Just saw the news today........

    Of course people will kill people if they really want to (other one recently killed with a bit of window, ferfucksakes) but there's no need to make it easier for them if there's no other benefit. I suppose you could use a gun to shoot your door open if you lose your keys.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Strictest gun laws != Safest society

    Umm about the UK being safe because of their gun laws?

    Have you read this?

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/02/16/dl1601.xml

    It's statistically proven that where more citizens legally own guns, crime rates are lower.

    The facts are available for anyone with an open mind to find. Try the Department of Justice website for instance.

    And Missouri that's MI not MA, was 20th on the list of firearms related deaths in 2007 according to this..

    http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-death-rate-per-100-000

    But hey, it's just eh internet so they could be making it all up anyway, right?

  17. Liam
    Coat

    but...

    to be honest shooting someone with a gun is pretty easy compared to actually killing someone with a knife. a knife/blade requires an element of skill and balls since you have to be close to shiv someone in the vitals.

    now, consider a gun. anyone can kill with a gun as long as they can squeeze a trigger and they can be at a cowardly distance.

    of course i can walk up behind someone and stick 'em but guns give psychos access to hurt many more people and from beyond a melee distance away.

    and as said before women arming themselves would only have a tiny chance of using their gun to help against an assaulter/rapist and would, most likely, just give the rapist another free weapon. if guns are so safe, and everyone carries them, how come you hardly ever hear about a gunman captured by a redneck/nra member?

    cant you just be like good old england and learn to fight like a man :) 20 pints of stella (45 pints of US lager) and violence via the ancient art of fistycuffs - like seen up and down the country on a fri/sat night :( imagine if they had guns! <shudder>

    or we look at chris rocks solution. guns can be cheap but bullets cost $1000 each! 'you sure as hell gotta hate a motherfucker to spend $1000 wasting them' or similar :)

  18. Joe Blogs

    @ Sigh, perspective....

    Hmmm, recently someone in the UK was shot when she accidently walked between 2 people having a shoot-out. Can't see this happening if they were using knives or bats....

  19. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: but...

    I love that bit.

    "Man, I would shoot you in the face - IF I could AFFORD it!"

  20. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Pirate

    RE: so many with so little knowledge

    RE: Clive Powell

    "....One notice about the school shootings in the US, in a number of the cases there were other people around who were armed, but don't seemed to have stopped the killings...."

    Columbine and Virginia Tech were both "gun-free zones" where students and staff were not allowed to bring firearms into the area. This concept is supposed to protect the students and staff, but the poor enforcement of the policy in both cases meant all it did was leave them unable to protect themselves despite some of the victims and witnesses being either firearm owners or regular users. Please check your facts before posting more rubbish.

    RE: Nick

    "....I'd hate myself if I was confronted with a news story of someone being shot at and I thought, "Everyone's carrying them, so what else is new?" Instead of, "Holy shit, that's terrible, how did this happen?!...."

    In 2003 I was in Atlanta when they had a fatal shooting in the downtown area. This crime was headline news for days, in a Southern State with plenty of guns, there being plenty of hand-wringing and discussion about how it could happen. During the same period in the UK there were several shootings and stabbings which barely made the news. A friend does travel insurance and he can quote you the exact figures for the risk to your person of traveling just about anywhere in the World, and the US is waaaaaay down on the list, actually lower than just about anywhere in Europe, because you are statisticly speaking safer in the States. So put your prejudice aside and help Clive with his fact finding, you probably both need help reading anything other than the Daily Mirror (try doing the reading without moving your lips).

  21. pctechxp

    @fuzzy

    No you aren't, though he was standing on the back of a GMC truck when it came to my mind.

    My choice would be an uzi 9 mil or Walther PPK

  22. StopthePropaganda

    @ whim

    where do you think most illegally posessed guns come from? do you honestly think that anyone that can smuggle 4 million illegal immigrants in two years, tons of pot and millions of dollars of cocaine, would have ANY TROUBLE AT ALL smuggling in a few crates of weapons to PROTECT THEIR BUSINESS?

    The AK was illegal to buy/sell/trade for a long time, and still is illegal in CA except for law enforcement. But there are still MORE AK type assault rifles than there were BEFORE the ban. Not the same amount, redistributed, or "stolen" as the anti-gun agitprops claim. MORE. which means MORE came in when they were ILLEGAL EVERYWHERE.

    If that isn't enough, the FBI has some excellent statistics based on years of real research into real crimes as they actually happened, not the kumbaya world of what some people think/believe/feel/wish/dream/hope about.

    The AK is a status symbol. To posess one in a gang means you have the connections directly with smugglers, or work with someone important enough who can give 'em to his "soldiers". The FBI shows that among criminal gangs the numbers of illegally imported and illegal to own weapons has not been affected by bans-only street price increased, making them "desirable" to the thug set.

    Who do bans affect? Law abiding people. Should be obvious now but the anti-gun religion cannot be affected by logic, reason, or even years of research by law enforcement. Nor can it be affected by the admissions of gang members and criminals themselves. They can spit on anti-gun legislation and laugh as they claim all anti-2nd amendment types are their b*tches.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wGPd2UPv7k

  23. Jason The Saj
    Thumb Up

    Guns don't kill people. Bad judges kill people!

    Just some info an American would like to share:

    Number of times I've called 911 for a potential violent emergency: 3

    Number of police who responded to those three calls: 0

    Now you might of recently heard about the murder of a Philadelphia police sergeant. And the following cries for more anti-gun legislation. You might be inclined to think that the crime problem in the U.S. is due to handguns.

    Well it's not!

    The three men involved in that murder have a combined criminal rap sheet 26 pages in length. The trigger man has 13 accounts of illegal possession of a firearm. The issue is not guns in America. But rather liberal judges & prosecuting attorneys who refuse to keep these criminals in jail.

    The question is not, where did these criminals get a gun to shoot a police officer. But rather, why were they not in prison at the time?

    http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/cain-howard-court-summary.pdf

    http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/warner-levon-court-summary.pdf

    http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/floyd-eric-court-summary.pdf

    ***

    > What about the 7 day waiting period?

    No Federal requirement for waiting period.

    > What if the "customer" is a convict, and still insists on the gun?

    Then when they take the coupon to get a free gun. They will fail the background check.

    Headstar - "Mr. Muller is exactly the type of person that helps propagate the notion of merkins as guntoting jingoistic assholes. May one of the guns he's assisting to peddle end up in a serious crime where it can be traced back to him." Who's evil here? Mr. Muller or you wishing harm?

    Chah H. - "at least here in the uk you only need to be worried about gettng shot by the police, and then, only if your brazillian and skipping paying for the tube." Really, I thought most of your cops were unarmed? I guess you have no murders since you have banned guns for citizens?

    Coward - "I am glad to be an Australian citizen, a nation that had the sense and courage, to ban assault weapons and massively tightened gun laws nationwide, after a mentally deranged man slaughtered in cold blood 38 innocent strangers in Tasmania."

    And if your people had been armed, there would of been people to stop said mentally deranged man. I will love to know what you'd say when it happens again, and guns are all banned.

    Eric - "Is a society in which citizens feel the need to leave the house tooled up a healthy one?"

    Nope, ... but in an unhealthy society, I'd much rather have the right to protect myself.

    Greg - "Did you ever think why it is so easy to illegally possess a gun ? If guns where forbidden it would also be a lot more difficult to obtain them illegally I think."

    Well, you think wrong!!! Because a great number of firearms are illegal to the general public. When gangs are shooting each other with Uzi's. It's clear they got their guns from Walmart, right? No wait, fully automatic rifles are not available to the average public. You need a special license / registration to possess them. They're very well tracked.

    Rober Long the Uneducated One - "If you have a gun, you're not a Christian, end of topic. " Right, and he neither commanded his disciples to have a sword. Nor chased out the sleazeballs in the temple with a whip. What he said, was actually in relation to "pride". (ie: if insulted when slapped on the cheek, turn the cheek). He never opposed self-defense nor defending of one's nation. However, he did say "for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Which does caution on one's end.

    Phil Hare - "what do you think the world would look like now?"

    About the same. Though I imagine history would record a few additional names along side Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    lglethal - "a) illegal for anyone with so much as a parking ticket to own a weapon,"

    Yeah, thanks, I'd rather start a revolution than live under the rule of a Brit like you.

    Jon Tucker - ""protect you and your Constitutional rights" from a despotic, corrupt and totalitarian government because evidence suggests they do no such things."

    That may be proved out in time. We shall see.

    Coward - "The statistics say that if you have a gun in your home, you are much more likely to be shot either by accident or by a criminal defending himself from you."

    I've heard that often quoted, but I believe there is no data to substantiate that statement.

    "A nation where everyone has a gun and isn't afraid to use it is not a safer place than one where nobody has a gun"

    True, but since we're incapable of the latter. The first is far better than a nation where a handful of police too far to reach you in time of need and the criminals are the only ones equipped with firearms.

    "It takes a while to kill with a knife, and it's a mess. "

    Actually, it is extremely quick if you know how. It's really more the advantage that a knifing tends not to also kill innocent by-standers.

    - "2nd amendment doesn't say anything about type of armament you are allowed to carry."

    Actually it does. It references arms. This is different than artillary, or squad ordinance (ie: cannons, mortars, machine guns, etc).

    - Clive Powell "You have knowledge of every gun....[need to know a gun to check chamber]"

    Funny, I just checked the chamber on 1/2 dozen firearms. I neither needed 5 minutes nor training. Mind you this ranged from a number of handguns to SRS & AR-15s. I've never had much experience handling rifles, and definitely not those that most would incorrectly term assault rifles. It was pretty easy to figure them out. I'd say my experience with a pistol carried over to pretty much all the semi-auto pistols and rifles.

    "If she produces a weapon then the assillant now has another weapon to use against her. "

    How's that? Not if she is properly trained.

    "school shootings in the U.S., number of cases people around were armed but didn't stop the killings"

    A couple of points. In most of those cases, like Columbine, they were police officers. Further evidence for personal need of firearms. Secondly, there have been cases of school shootings being stopped by law-abiding gun owners. In fact, one was in Virginia around the same time as VirginiaTech. But you don't hear about that. Because liberal media is not keen on showing that law abiding gun ownership does work.

    Liam - "also you will find out that white guys shoot far more people than"

    Though I am not sure I buy you quote. There are more white guys than any other. So that should be the case statistically.

    ***

    Lastly, ditch the Keltec and get the Ruger LPC. Ruger is sturdier and has a safety.

  24. Chad H.

    @ Jason

    Yes, most of them are unarmed. But this was during a terror alert. I'm suprised you're not familiar with the case, it was an huge stink here.

  25. Jason Tan
    Paris Hilton

    tolerance

    The funny thing here is that I suspect many Reg readers would be the tpes to bag the US for cultural imperialism - and what these self same Reg readers are doing is for want of a better term laughin at the US's culture, just because it is not the same as UK culture.

    Whats more amusing is that the Reg and its readers are known to be anti Nanny state - but when a non nanny state doesnt behave the same as their own nanny state they moan.

    I wish I could say incredible, but its not, its totally credible and pedictable.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @Guns don't kill people. Bad judges kill people!

    Quote-

    "Coward - "I am glad to be an Australian citizen, a nation that had the sense and courage, to ban assault weapons and massively tightened gun laws nationwide, after a mentally deranged man slaughtered in cold blood 38 innocent strangers in Tasmania."

    If he had not have had access in the first place to "military style weapons", legal or illegally, he wouldn't have caused the carnage he did. He used "military style weapons", weapons designed to kill, kill lots and lots, or severely maim humans in close quartets etc, not drop a beast with a single accurate shot from long range.

    Even after the bans, buy-back and destruction of guns, we still have some types guns legally available here in Oz. I am fine with that. It is just a lot harder to get a license and you have to prove a legitimate need to own one to the law, to weed out the phyco's.

    So far an overwhelming majority of Aussie's fell the new guns are just brilliant!

    One thing I know for sure. A lot of you gun nuts would have trouble getting a gun license in my country. Your attitude to weapons is scary to a lot of peace loving folk. I am just glad that there is a country like the USA where all the gun fantasists can get off on your weaponophillia and leave the rest of us to live in peace, without the constant threat of drive-bys etc.

    Also locking them up in "crime college" is just plain stupid, stupid, stupid!!

    How about spending some time and money on REHABILITATION while you have them inside? Sorry rehab is only for naughty drug-upped celebs, not for disadvantaged, dangerous criminals, in a USA context.

    Paris, cause she would always know I wouldn't have a gun in my pocket, I was just glad to see her.

  27. Tonto Popaduopolos
    Go

    Did we decide.....

    ........if the offer of a handgun or free fuel was the better option? We seem to have gone off on one, so to speak.

    That never, normally happens on The Register.

    Here's another angle - Which will kill more people? Burning the free fossil fuel or cousin Enus and his 9mm going on a rampage?

    There we haven't ranted about the green issue yet.

  28. Nick
    Go

    RE: Matt Bryant

    Before you go accusing me of being prejudiced, note that I was referring to anywhere in the world, not just the USA - try doing the reading without moving your lips - to quote some witty chap you may know.

    Oh, and you wanted some facts, didn't you? Ok, here you are:

    Gun homicide rate per 100,000 people each year:

    USA - 3.92

    England and Wales - 0.10

    Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, from the most recent year available, via gun-control-network.org

    Now there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, so I won't go relying too much on them, but I was pleased to find a source that was neither the UK Home Office nor the US Department of Justice.

    Still, what these particular figures indicate is that statistically you are more likely to be killed by a gun in the US, than in England and/or Wales.

    Is your travel insurance friend aware of this?

    All this aside, I've been to the USA (albeit pre-9/11 by about a month, and I don't know how much life in the country has changed since then, if at all) and I can honestly say I didn't feel any less safe than I do in the U.K., although seeing hunting rifles for sale in WalMart creeped me out a bit.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Hometown American Values

    Eric claims that he never goes into the city of Philadelphia without his gun. The only time I ever found myself on the wrong end of a gun I was stopped at a traffic light in Philadelphia when two guys jumped out of a car behind me and pointed their guns at the car next to me. It turns out that they were plain clothes cops, but I hate to think what might have happened if anyone had started shooting.

    The city of Philadelphia is currently trying to pass laws requiring that gun owners report when their guns are lost or stolen (you know, some responsibilities to go with the rights?) The NRA have taken the city to court to prevent this.

    I have on my desk a copy of a page from a "coupon magazine" published by a company called "Hometown American Values", for a town just outside Philadelphia (a major East Coast city, not the Mid West).

    The page has 3 ads:

    1) a quarter page ad for "Jamisons Beverages", with 3 $2 coupons for Bud Lite, Miller Lite and Coors Lite.

    2) a quarter page ad for "In Site Fireams and Law Enforcement Supplies" for $20 off any shotgun

    3) a half page ad for the Riverside Cemetry offering "two Grave Lots - side by side" for $27.70/month, and $150 a monument.

    Beer, guns and graves - real Hometown American Values!

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.