Global Gun Control

[footfootfoot]

The UN had to get a note from home to be able to bomb qkgaddahffee, I can't imagine they'll have much success at prying our guns from our various cold, dead fingers.

[gvidas]

Oh man. Landmines.

Did you ever hear of this guy?

From 1994 to 2007, Aki Ra grabbed a shovel, a stick, and a knife and personally went out into the jungles of the densely-populated Siam Reap region of Cambodia to remove Soviet, Chinese, and Vietnamese-constructed land mines. He almost single-handedly cleared out all the explosives surrounding Cambodia's primary tourist attraction – the incredible Temples at Angkor Wat – before turning his attention to local playgrounds and farmlands that had been off-limits for decades. For this guy to do this shizzle without wearing any kind of protective gear (he usually just went out in a pair of sandals and a button-down shirt) is so mind-flayingly insane that I kind of want to vomit a little. Thanks in no small part to the work of this one man, the number of accidental landmine casualties in Cambodia dropped from 3,047 to 1,109 in the three-year span from 1996 to 1999.

source

The museum he started is the #1 place I would like to visit in the world.

Eventually Aki Ra had removed so many landmines that his house was overflowing with the shit, so in 1998 he opened the Cambodian Landmine Museum as a place to displace the unexploded ordinance and educate people on how much landmines seriously suck balls. The place is now a registered NGO, and Aki spends less time personally removing mines and more time training everyone from local villagers to Cambodian Army soldiers in his insane, completely-unlicensed and largely-unapproved-by-any-rational-human-being strategy of digging up and disarming mines with his fists. He now has a team of over 1,000 people working in de-mining operations across the country, and claims that in the 16 years he has been on the job he's personally removed and cleared over 50,000 mines by himself.

The slightly less hyperbolic version of his story.

[DanaC]

So, just to clarify for a furriner, is the point of this argument that some people think the UN have an anti-gun agenda as far as the US is concerned? I mean...do the Right think that the rest of the world wants to disarm the American population?

Speaking as a member of The Rest of the World, I can tell you that we really don't care. We don't care if an American suburban household keeps a shotgun under the bed, and we don't care if American dads bond with their sons at the firing range. Many of the countries that make up The Rest of the World have similar orientations to gun ownership. Even those that don't, such as my own, don't care about guns in America.

There is no worldwide/UN conspiracy to rid the ordinary American house and street of handguns. What you do within your shores is entirely your own affair. We may have opinions, but we really don't care.

What a lot of us do care about, however, is the propensity for American guns to end up in The Rest of the World, contributing to all manner of problems and hi-jinks.

Once again: there is no worldwide, or United Nations agenda for disarming American citizens. From their cold, dead hands or otherwise.

[footfootfoot]

Dana if only world could be as reasonable as you. I would like to read this letter to my newly adopted Rod and Gun Club, who voiced concern over this exact issue the other day.

The logistics of passing and enforcing such a law, then compensating people for taking their expensive guns away could only happen in, say, Japan in the 1600s

[xoxoxoBruce]

For the people around the world buying small arms specifically to fuck people up, the overwhelming choice is a Kalashnikov variant, mostly from Asia. Our guns a too expensive for the baddies, except the drug lords.

Since WWII, the big one, we've been trying to teach the world proper manners, not always successfully. Now, like petulant teenagers, they come to New York wearing funny clothes and presume to tell us how to behave.
We'll tan their butts and send 'em to their rooms.

[footfootfoot]

Watched a recent episode on yousetube about the "top ten rifles" or some such. Very interesting details about what the strengths and weaknesses of various weapons were, Garand M1, Lee-Enfield, M-16 etc. I was sort of disheartend that the AK-47 was #1. I can understand how but it seemed wrong that a cheaply and hastily made stamped steel POS should be #1.

In the comments someone said something to the effect of "If you want to survive a war you grab an AK, if you want to win a war you grab an M16"

[classicman]

.do the Right think that the rest of the world wants to disarm the American population?

None that I know. Just a few loud extremists.

[ZenGum]

In Britain there is a theme of "Crazy rules the EU is trying to force on us!" headlines.
In the US, swap EU with UN and it is the same theme.

There seems to be an easily activated nerve that gets a response (including the "buy newspaper" response) from people. Damn those meddling foreigners!!!

[DanaC]

Ahhh!

Ok. Thanks, that makes sense to me.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

The UN had to get a note from home to be able to bomb qkgaddahffee, I can't imagine they'll have much success at prying our guns from our various cold, dead fingers.

good one.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by DanaC

So, just to clarify for a furriner, is the point of this argument that some people think the UN have an anti-gun agenda as far as the US is concerned?

No, I don't think that is the point. It is a fact that some long standing Demoncratic Congress persons have their sites fixed on restricting gun rights in the US and they look for opportunities to do that via any vehicle of legislation that comes along to do that.

[DanaC]

Ahhh. I see. My misunderstanding then. So, what you're saying is that the impetus is coming from within the States, rather than from without?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

It is a fact that some long standing Demoncratic Congress persons have their sites fixed on restricting gun rights in the US and they look for opportunities to do that via any vehicle of legislation that comes along to do that.

It doesn't matter. The Supreme Court ruled on this three years ago. The great gun wedge issue is over. The gun lobby won. The NRA has empty nest syndrome. They don't know what to do with themselves since they won. They don't want to lose their donations, so they are trying to boogyman you. And you are falling for it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Until the court changes, and heads off on a new slant. It was once unthinkable that your property could be taken under eminent domain to build a shopping center. And it maybe in the future, but for now it's the law.

Vigilance and educating the complacent as to what can happen, is the mission of the NRA. Gun advocates turn to the NRA because theres nobody else devoted to that issue, just as the elderly flock to the AARP... even though that's become an insurance company.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by glatt

They don't want to lose their donations, so they are trying to boogyman $$$$$$ out of you.
And you are falling for it.

ftfy