An inside story from Aljazeera:
The video is 25 minutes long, and definitely worth watching.
Say what you will about Aljazeera, but they allow a decent discussion from what i’ve seen. The same story on FOX or CNN would have been “ZOMG guns are bad! BAN THEM ALL!” followed by interrupting and loud-talking.
Thoughts?
Comments
39 responses to “Why Americans Love Their Guns”
A few years back they also ran a short segment on gun culture in Montana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M41Q0ese9yw
Cool segment! Bad lean on that wife and kid though, and it was funny when the kid swept the camera with the gun and the dad was like oh crap and grabbed it quickly.
“California in 2010 had the highest rate of gun violence in the U.S.”
Hmmm I wonder why.
God these 2 idiots are so fucking clueless next to this kid.
??? Uhm no I think they put that idiot in his place. The US is the laughing stock of the world, we run around all scared and wanting out guns and our freedom yet its one of the most dangerous of the civilized nations in the world. I wish they touched on what guns are available too. Why should people have an AR15? Or an AK47? Thats not a hunting gun, an UZI? Why? Its a people killer and they should be outlawed period. And I say all this as a veteran police officer in a major US city.
TROLOLOLOLOLO
I’d like to provide you, thinkaboutit, some facts.
From nationmaster website: We’re 14th in the world on the list of most gun related murders. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_gun_vio_hom_ove_hom_rat_per_100_pop-rate-per-100-000-pop
And we’re 9th on the list in terms of general assault. The 8 countries ahead of us must be 3rd world shit holes right? wrong. The UK, New Zealand, Canada and France are all ahead of us, per capita. Those are all industrialized, “1st” world nations.
From: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_ass_vic-crime-assault-victims
These stats are from 2010 assaults on LE officers specifically (should be noteable to you):
From: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/leoka-2010/officers-assaulted
Weapons
■In 2010, 81.8 percent of officers who were assaulted in the line of duty were attacked with personal weapons (e.g. hands, fists, or feet).
■3.4 percent of the officers were assaulted with firearms.
■1.7 percent of the officers were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments.
■13.1 percent of the officers were assaulted with other dangerous weapons.
More information about this topic is provided in Tables 70, 71, 72, and 73.
…so should we ban “hands, fists, or feet”, or “other dangerous weapons”? Or still just ban firearms?
From the same site: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl01.xls
This shows a down trend in violent crime since 1991 to 2005 of 5%.
You are making some very broad generizations here and you are providing no facts to support any of your arguments. If you would like to continue to troll this site, you may want to bring some “Ammo”, so to speak.
Thanks, ZBalentine. Great comments. I agree with you 100%, here. Excellent “Ammo”
for anyone who has the initiative to follow up and read your links.
thinkaboutit, just letting you know I don’t share your fear based opinions. I’ve traveled outside the US. Our country is not a laughing stock. In fact, I’ve never been abroad and not had someone, from a foreign country, express to me how much they respect America, and envy our opportunities and freedom. I now live in the 5th largest city in the US, but grew up in rural Idaho. I know what it’s like to be foreign abroad, and I know what it’s like to be around American sportsmen or hunters, I know what it’s like to be around firearms in a very large city. I can speak from these perspectives when I say… if there is a problem… the firearms are definitely not the problem.
only cops should have guns is pretty easy to say when your are a cop. having said that I respect cops and most of them I know would disagree with what you wrote. Look at some statistics what percent of murders are committed with ar15’s and ak47’s. very very few. murders are committed with mostly with pistols then shotguns. maybe you don’t see any reason to have an ar15 in your major city but if you spend some time in the country you might find that most people just consider them to be handy tools. don’t really know why I’m reapplying to this sense, like me, I’m sure your mind is made up. I just found your argument to be particularly week.
Well geesh, that guy must know all there is to know about hunting and only need a single shot rifle! Or maybe he’s still hunting with a muzzle loader…
Heaven forbid you need a followup shot on that coyote, wild boar or skum who broke into your house… because those AR’s and AK’s can sure make some nice predator rifles and work pretty darn well for deer too!
I hope I never have to visit the major us city this guy is from…
That seemed way more anti gun than pro gun. What I got out of that was “Alright were now going to have 2 old guys with more credibility gang up on a college kid on live TV.”
Then you are an idiot. The kid pretty much owned those two old farts. Al Jazeera has awesome news coverage, too bad most Americans are too fucking retarded to watch it because of the name.
The biggest bullshit that the old guy spouted is that the NRA resists any laws that would restrict sales to criminals is because 20-30% of the “gun industry” sales go to criminals (requiring no background checks). He’s implying that gun manufacturers would lose 20-30% sales if criminals couldn’t buy guns. This is ludicrous because all *new* guns have to go through a FFL holder, no exceptions that I’m aware of, and FFL transfers involve a background check.
Ahhhh….but what you fail to understand by who and what the anti gun blobby means by the ‘gun industry’. To the anti gun blobby, all gun makers, gunsmith’s, gun parts suppliers, personal reloaders, and some dude or dudette who is selling his/her gun on gunbroker is part of the ‘gun industry’. So yes, as I have to roll my own, I too, am part of the gun industry.
What’s funny is they are debating our laws when I see middle easterners on the news brandishing AK’s daily. At least we have laws for weapons. Guess the pot just wanted to see what color the kettle is.
The kid did good, but he could’ve been a bit more prepared. I believe this is what he was referencing:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html
I held off having a brain aneurysm within the first 5 minutes with the first guy talking. Almost everything the guy states in this first 5 minutes can be disproved by facts and evidence.
I noticed that too. Also, they made some wild accusations at the end there with absolutely no evidence. The NRA is covering up the “real” gun numbers!! I’ll believe that when the NRA is running the government agencies that gather those numbers.
Another favorite quote from the guy in the middle in regards to concealed carry, “you wanna see a lot of people get killed you let these laws continue to expand”. These assumptions are moronic as they have been disproved by more and more states becoming concealed carry states. The idea that states will become “the wild west” is a conclusion based only on fear. Do some research before making these claims that have already been proven wrong.
I was hoping this whole discussion would be based on facts and evidence, but that was obviously not the case. Even so, I’d rather watch this on AJ than anywhere else.
The anti-gunner from Chicago states that it is possible to buy a gun via a gun show or the internet without a background check. That firearm purchased online has to be shipped to a dealer and then that dealer has to run a background check on you. Even gun shows have to call in a background check or see your CCW to sell you a firearm in the state of IA. I’m assuming this varies by state. I’m all for background checks, but I think some of the things stated by this guy are incorrect.
Serious lunacy. The kid should have been better prepared for the quick “drive-by” falsehoods like the gun show and internet gun buying garbage. I am selling a glock 27 “over the internet” right now…legally because it’ll be a face to face transaction here in Montana. That middle guy saying he’s not throwing out “what-ifs” and declaring his experience (which includes all police in the country somehow) is undisputable and not a what-if…then he begins spewing more what-ifs.
The Brady falsehood of 12,000 gun deaths each year has been used for years…and it’s made to look like unlawful gun use caused them. The number is wrong, and it includes cops shooting people, lawful use by citizens, and suicides. The kid should have known that basic, or said it if he did.
that cop who starts stammering about “I’m not talking about book learning, I’m talking about first hand experience on the beat” or whatever is a goddamned idiot. Those statistics he was quoting are *exactly* whats happening on the street, where do most crime statistics come from? They are sampled from police reports.
Not to mention his idiotic appeal to authority, I’ve been on 5 deployments and guarantee I’ve worked in slightly worse neighborhoods as a soldier than he ever saw for even a day in his law enforcement career, but that doesn’t mean shit against statistics and the basic rights of self determination. My experience has exactly nothing to do with my right to self defense or my right to engage in a meaningful discourse on a topic that effects every citizen.
The question isn’t “Why do Americans love guns,” it’s “why the fuck is everyone else such a goddamn hoplophobe who is so willing to surrender their rights?”
Boosh!
I love ALJAZEERA, THIS is they way news should be, all points of view and no shouting and yelling. Im on the side of the gun laws, we are out of control here in the states. The reason police have the right to carry a gun is because they are constantly trained on the use of force continuum and the rights of using a weapon(Im a veteran cop in a large city with 2 shoots so far). This is perfectly shown in the Trayvon Martin case, that idiot neighborhood watch kid is a typical wanna be cop and we will get a bunch of those if we allow people to have guns all the time. Cmon people!
You are an idiot.
I call BS on you being a officer, you’re probably just some lib who probably is a obese office tech at some state building who runs into officers all the time.
Only because you brought up the Trayvon Martin case.
Define “out of control” for me please.
Also; could you please explain what “gun laws” you are in favor of exactly.
You made several very large, blanket statements with no real substance to back up what you are implying.
And with this: “that idiot neighborhood watch kid is a typical wanna be cop and we will get a bunch of those if we allow people to have guns all the time.” This is a completely fallacious statement. The people of this nation already have access to, as well as, the right to bear arms…so by your logic we should already be seeing “a bunch of those” types of crimes, and we’re not. Also George Zimmerman is 28 y/o. He’s not a kid.
Well trained? Like the NYPD who miss their targets 70% of the time?
Guess the names Amadou Diallo or Sean Bell means nothing to you……
semi-successful troll is semi-successful
BLOOD IN THE STREETS! BLOOD IN THE STREETS! SHOOTOUTS OVER PARKING SPACES, BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH!
I think most of what was said above is correct. The young man definitely could have been more prepared. I could have refuted everything these two guys said just from following gun blogs and reading a few interactions between the antis and the gun bloggers. Their talking points never seem to change and when they come up with a new one, they all lap it up. They telegraph their punch in their over-use of one-liners. “Every criminal was once a law-abiding citizen.” That one was easy to destroy. Al Jazeera definitely makes a serious attempt at a real and balanced look at an issue. The problem was that the panel was stacked 2 on 1 and it’s hard in a highly structured debated with limited time to respond when you’re outnumbered on time. That and the way the questioning was structured didn’t really allow for response to what the other people said. Either that or you can ignore the question like the old duded did and just ramble off your fake statistics. It was a valid attempt, but a little one sided. I don’t think that it was intentional and that AJ really did want a law-enforcement perspective. They should have gone with a real beat-cop from a state that has conceal carry instead of a union stooge.
This liberal and those he loves sleep well at night knowing that Gold Dot Hollow Point is ready to eliminate a threat to his person. Support your Second Amendment. Buy a gun, buy ammo, teach someone how to shoot (and I don’t mean giving a person a .50 A.E. first time out. You want to turn someone off to shooting sports do that.) go hunting, etc, etc, etc,.Mr. 45er keep on truckin’…
I plan on it, Regula Guy. I do my part by teaching new people some skills, helping them realize it is fun and sending them to a basic class. You can argue with fools that will never change all day or you can find an open mind and teach. I find the latter much more enjoyable and effective.
I am ashamed of the two anti gun ” people” I just saw.
What makes the U.S. so great is We the People have the rights….
i can feel for the poor Chicago man and the loss he suffered, However, he wants us to look at history of gun comntrol of the Florida shooting? Why dont we look at the History of gun control of nations that removed the right to own guns..
We may not be perfect be at least the divercity is what keeps us Free. We can still talk like this because of the 2nd Amendment. If you take the guns from the people then we will no longer be a republic, but rather a nation of government slaves
Black man: Everyone should have to get a license to buy a gun
White kid: That doesn’t stop criminals from getting guns
Black man: Criminals don’t kill people, law abiding citizens do
He said that, he totally said that
I love the fact that the kid is the most calm out of all of them. the other two have grimaced smiles of anger. The MC is just struggling to control them all
Also that the union cop has a hissy fit about getting interuppted, then the gun-control-superfriends turn around and interuppt him a few minutes later. “Good for me, not for thee!”
Guns better not get banned or all hope is lost, that is the official sign of tyranny.