I just don't like to see either party hold too much power, or at the very least, hold power for very long. I think either condition opens the door to the "good idea fairy" and causes long term damage to our country as a whole as asinine legislation is made.

Now, I don't know what political parties are called in Australia, so I'm assuming you mean the US political parties since we have a bad habit of dragging our friends into a fight they probably didn't want to be involved in, particualy when the Republicans are in control. On that view, i tend of have isolationist tendencies in my beliefs. I could care less if afganistan, or Iraq, or any other country, implodes upon itself in the bloodiest of affairs. I think we are far better off taking care of our own, and staying out of the affairs of other nations.

Funny, as much as a "gun nut" i appear to be, I think i'm still quite centrist in my views. I'm sure that is shocking to some.

Good post!

So you don't know what our political parties are? We've got:

The Greens

Labour (In power)

Liberal (Australian Tories)

The Shooting party

The Sex party (:o)

Some new party that blames abortion laws for bushfires

Hundreds of independents


At least you Americans only have to choose between two!

Not shocking at all. I think, by and large, the 'right winger' and the 'left winger' are stereotypes and nothing more. Most Americans balance out as being right-leaning on some issues and left-leaning on others, which tends to even out as having a large number of centrists in the country. I, for example, am right-leaning a number of fiscal issues but left-leaning on a number of social issues. I am left of you on the gun issue, but right of Dianne Feinstein. All in all, I am probably something of a centrist as well.

Well I must admit, I am definitely leaning far to the right when it comes to gun issues. If i was to rank myself on a number scale of how far to the right in a 1 through 10 value system, i'd place myself somewhere around 8. I dock myself -2 points or so because I don't see the practical value (in the lawful defense of self and others) with things like Beta mags. If those got banned, it wouldn't get my undies in a bunch. (going after standard 30 round mags though, does, lol )

I was thinking about the much lauded speech that Bill Clinton gave to a democratic dinner some weeks ago. I think his message to them was that the democrats have the opportunity to accomplish much on their agenda, but if they go after guns, they'll put what could be possible in jeopardy, and maybe not accomplish much at all as a result.

Now, this gun control issue has revealed something to me. I cannot deny that I am a "one issue voter". Never in my entire life have I been more politically active then I have in the last few months; and while I still think "we have the best government money can buy", ( and voting mostly a symbolic gesture) I will vote this next election so that I can truly say I did everything i could on this issue, and I won't be voting democratic.

I will vote republican, out of spite, and out of principle. While I could care less about many social issues (gay marriage, abortion, etc), I do care about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I don't know how many people like myself are out there, but I hope there are enough to send the democrats a clear message come next election - don't screw with our inalienable rights.

(edit: as an aside, and more to the topic title, this issue got a two year membership to the NRA out of me. The longer it continues, the longer my membership is liable to be. )

@ Ducimus

Do you get a lot of junk mail from them? They seem like they would be the junkmail list from hell. But, I'd imagine it's pretty cool junkmail though.:hmm2: :ping:

Depends on what you consider junk. They do keep you advised on pretty much everything on the political front, so yeah i get a lot of email from them. But not anything like product advertisement, penis enlargement pills, date russian girl, get rich quick money making schemes, and other assorted spam. (I get all that in my company email lol ).

I would definitely agree with those points.

Most Canadians are connected to the US in some way. I have relatives in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Most of us have been there at least once. Some of us actually like American culture. In my case it's music. All the good music started in America.

I've always felt that Canada has a big brother who has our back. No one is going to mess with us. Uncle Sam just wouldn't stand for it. That might be for his benefit more than ours but the result is the same.

Thanks. Oh and it's spelt 'Canuck'. :O:

I think you are more of Libertarian or Constitutionalist which I am.

I guess, Hell i don't even know what I am polticially speaking. I grew up in a republican family, but my views shifted after my stint in active duty. I don't really identify with either party.


Anywho, I found a video that nails this gun control issue perfectly in my opinion. I wish this was what our current president was saying. Hell, it probably deserves it's own thread.

GUNS (Virtual State of the Union 2013)

I don't know who this "Mr virtual President" guy is, but id vote for the guy giving that speech in a heartbeat. Hell, i'd be camping out at the voting booth the night before like some black friday shopper.

I agree, I don't think the divide in Canadian news sources is quite as big though. I really miss the days where you could watch news without the newscaster telling me how I must think about the news being reported. I can for my self thank you, and generally far better then the pablum you are trying to feed me


Yep I know, been to several different states, even lived short term in a few. Same goes for Canada, heck if you want gigantic cultural differences, look at Quebec. I was looking more at the broader cultural flavor so to speak.

I don't know, from the Canadian perspective (or at least what I would consider it to be) I think most people would find him rather irrational. It is why I could not finish watching, because it was full of so much utter nonsense in my opinion. Maybe not as bad, which is why I used the term the Canadian version ;)

Well lets see, we had 2 biker gang wars in Montreal where they were using car bombs and trying to blow up buildings (I was living in Montreal during a lot of it... fun times), we are having gang problems in all of our major cities (many of these being import gangs like the bloods, crips, etc.). Only reason why the bloodshed is so much lower, is due to how hard it is to get guns in the Canadian black market. Not many criminals can afford it or have the connections to get guns or ammo (ammo is a bit easier though). Most use knives and other melee weapons instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Biker_war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_Canada

Maybe not to the same extent as the US, but I think the bigger question is why is there so much of a difference in crime rate? Personally I think the biggest reason is poverty and lack of opportunity.

The terrorist action against the US freaked us out too, and made us far more paranoid than we use to be as well. There were Canadians in the tower too (along with other foreign nationals).

Yes, that is pretty different from Canada. I always find it interesting that government is feared so much, but not business entities, which I think is a much larger threat to the the pursuit of life, liberty, and all of that. Government is one of the few things that protects its citizens from the unrestrained greed of buisness (and I do not believe greed is a good thing).

Just wondering, does the NRA keeping you informed on the topic explain the recent rash of somewhat dubious links on the subject?

Sorry to inform you this, I really don't think we are able to steer USA in the right direction at anytime soon. The lesser of two evils is too strong in America which that is why Obama won the second term. It is beyond of turning back. They haven't learned anything from McCain and now with Mit Romney. They are going to repeat the pattern. I gave up. Ron Paul or Rand Paul is the go.

Stock up water filter, food, ammo, guns, and learn how to evade. SHTF is coming.

http://imageshack.us/a/img831/3950/photofeb27075211.jpg
Wheeeeeee!

Since I don't feel like being the instigator of "yet another gun thread", i'll just post this interesting video I found here instead. Because, I find it interesting what a County Sheriff / career LEO has to show about magazine bans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Upjn5DR0o

Very interesting and professionally done. I don't see how anyone would support either a semi-auto or magazine ban after watching it.

BTW I never heard of a New York reload before. Awesome concept. I suddenly have a much greater respect for the utility of wheel guns.

I've never heard it called that before, but it was the only way to go back in the days of single-shot pistols (read The Renaissance) and was quite popular among raiders on both sides of the Civil War, since those revolvers were muzzle-loaders and you had to wait for the chamber to cool and then take thirty seconds or more to reload each cylinder.

Look at some photos of the men of that period. They didn't carry three or four guns just because it looked cool. :sunny:

Oh, yeah. Excellent video.

That video lost a lot of credibility to me when the instructor fired significantly faster in the demonstrations with smaller clips. Then there is the issue of how they were reloading off a bench (not realistic in real situation and significantly speeding up the reload process).

Though, there were some valid points, their presentation and logic is flawed.

I think you're being overly critical. There is no set pace for firing, there will always be variations in the speed with which one pulls the trigger. As for quick changing magazines they also didn't show them using doubled or tripled up mags either so maybe they weren't as slow as they could have simulated it but it wasn't as fast either. Besides except for the "rush them while they're reloading" test this wasn't a speed contest but a comparison of time differences in reloading different size magazines.

It scales somewhat but the differences aren't that great. Yes a less practiced and/or scared person will take a little longer to reload but that's a lot bigger issue to those defending themselves than it is to someone who is on a killing rampage. They tend to be cool and methodical and they are prepared for a fight.

There are over 30 million standard and high cap mags out there in American hands already that they know of and I believe there are way more that they don't. Either way limiting magazine size will limit the firepower of a victim not the aggressor.

Suffice it to say...
 

Groucho Marx


Legislation to ban high capacity magazines will do little to nothing to curb the next murderous lunatic.

It's just the typical DC dog and pony show that uses fear to push an agenda for disarming the people. Once that is completed the next step won't be far behind.

More stringent background checks at all levels of retail points might curb the insanity. I think the more logical approach would be registration and penalties for irresponsible ownership. Newtown was the result of irresponsible ownership plain and simple. It cost the owner her life too. It doesn't matter what remedy Congress attempts to pass because you can't fix stupid.

Here's some more food for discussion:
http://www.examiner.com/article/dian...onal-pleasures

Unnecessary pleasure :hmmm::o:haha: