Once again music gets the blame

[Ted Jackson]

On 9 Jan 2003 at 1:34, Cpt Blue Skin wrote:

> Spend some time in LA and just watch the news reports.  I would
> believe that football kills more students in the us than guns - but
> are those stats regarding student gunshot deaths vs football deaths?
> I would imagine so.

I think Mike was trying to say that more US kids die AT SCHOOL from sports injuries
than being shot.  The Columbine-type incidents get so much publicity that people
think it's a daily occurrence...

The stats that I have seen show that there are an
> alarming number of gunshot fatalaties in the US.

Murder is the leading cause of death for teenage African American males in the
US...

 But then guns are
> glorified over there as well. How many movies have you seen where the
> "good guy" has gotten his revenge by scoring a weapon and blowing away
> the "bad guys."
>
> I think there should be better education, starting in school,
> regarding firearms.  The laws regarding purchasing firearms should be
> strict - background checks - waiting periods - etc and that the police
> should not have to waste their resources chasing pot smokers when they
> could be directing that energy towards eradicating - or working
> towards eradicating black market weapons trade/sales etc.
>
That's the root of the problem.  See, a supposed gun dealer can buy a hundred
assault rifles, and put them in storage.  He can then arrange to have them 'stolen' by
an associate, and duly report the theft to the authorities, so he's in the clear.  His
buddy trucks the weapons to the opposite coast, and sells them for a huge markup.
And the original 'dealer' can even claim the loss on his insurance [of course his
policy will get dropped, but then he'll have a bunch of money from the illegal sale
and the insurance claim!]  And he can still buy a bunch more guns!

One answer in the US is restricting the number of weapons an individual can buy,
and mainly, by making it harder to get a firearms dealership license.  But it wouldn't
stop weapons crime either.  The larger causes are sociological, I think, as Canada
has lots of guns and a lot less crime than the US...

theo