Oldbloke wrote:IMO the US problem is complex.
There are a lot of social issues and social security is one of them. It is way below what we are entitled. Including an expensive privatised medical system.
There are the rich and the poor. The haves and have nots.
Life expectancy is not as high as you would expect.
Put all that in the mix, people get frustrated and angry, it's easy to pick up a firearm and take out your frustration (or mentally ill) on other people.
https://www.worldometers.info/demograph ... /#life-exp
Percentage of households with firearms.
AU 6.2%
USA 42%
And the number of firearms in US out numbers the population. I read somewhere 102 firearms per 100 people.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent ... by_country
Who knows how precise these stat's are but you would think they are a factor to some degree.
It's complex, but mostly social issues IMO.
womble wrote:The main argument for gun control is reduce the number of guns . Being gun ownership per capita correlates with gun homicide/ crime per capita.
However the list would suggest there is no correlation.
So perhaps guns don't kill people. People kill people.
bigrich wrote:womble wrote:The main argument for gun control is reduce the number of guns . Being gun ownership per capita correlates with gun homicide/ crime per capita.
However the list would suggest there is no correlation.
So perhaps guns don't kill people. People kill people.
social attitude to firearms is where it's at. to a lot of people out bush i've spoken too a firearm is a tool for a job , just like a chainsaw . that's what non-shooters in our country don't understand . folks living in the 'burbs see all the shock horror stories in the media about US shootings and associate guns with random, wanton violence .or halfwit wanna -be gangsters just thinking their cool bad@rses with a handgun stuffed in their pants
bet those folks in iceland see guns as self defence from polar bears and a means of survival to put meat on the table . a normal tool and part of their society . i wonder if alaska is more in line with iceland and canada in terms of social attitude to firearms ?
womble wrote:Alaska is the wild west and just full of psychos. No time to look up stats but it blows everything of the charts. Likely to get raped by several offenders long after you’ve been murdered.
No bears in Iceland but I think polar bears have turned up there before on occasion.
For wannaroots benefit, polar bears though incredibly dangerous and murderous, still don’t kill people as frequently as our own native koala bears. They may be small, but lighting fast and highly aggressive. And pack enough venom to kill an elephant.
Been a long time since I’ve seen an elephant around my way.
wanneroo wrote:As expected people tend to lump all the United States in together but it's a huge country with 350 million people and 50 states across thousands of miles. What goes on in Maine doesn't have anything to do with Tennessee, what goes on in Tennessee doesn't have anything to do with North Dakota, what goes on in North Dakota doesn't really have anything to do with California. And so on.
A lot of folks talk about the USA reciting the same media talking points about how we need more welfare and free medical care, but they've never been here and really don't know what they are talking about, with all due respect. If the USA has a problem it's too much welfare and free crap. Australians would be surprised to find out our welfare is more lucrative than anything they could get on the dole in Australia.
In most parts of the USA, crime is nonexistent or minimal, probably better than Australia when it comes to things like property crime.
The only real dangerous places in the USA is a few democratic party run cities that are hellholes thanks to excessive welfare and social programs along with George Soros backed District Attorneys that do not prosecute crime and promote drug use, deliberately. These cities are responsible for any bloat in the crime stats.
The other danger in the USA that is heavily promoted by the Democratic Party is open borders with the hellhole of Mexico and the ensuing illegal immigration. Illegals bring crime, drugs and all their problems here.
I can give you my theory as to why the Democratic Party and it's backers like George Soros promote such destructive behavior but that would take things into another tangent.
As long as you stay away from any Democratic Party hellhole cities and any place illegal aliens congregate, you don't have much to worry about at all. Not to say you shouldn't be aware as always but I feel safer in much of the USA than I do parts of Australia.
womble wrote:Ranked most peaceful country in the world 2023, 15 years straight https://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-peaceful-country-world-iceland-global-peace-index/
More than a third of the population own guns https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/iceland
Not a shooting murder in nearly 20 years.
How do they do it https://globalnews.ca/news/4236365/iceland-gun-control-violence/
top 10 ranked peaceful countries 2023 in order.
Iceland
Denmark
Ireland
New Zealand
Austria
Singapore
Portugal
Slovenia
Ireland,,,,, ????
Japan
Switzerland
About half of which have high civilian gun ownership per capita
bigrich wrote:
didn't mean to offend mate , i'm relating the general view we get on the US from our accurately reporting media sources i guess the statistics on gun crime in the USA, are they accurate
do those nice fellas in "yellowstone " give people a lift to the train station often ?
JohnV wrote:The people of Iceland are happy and they live in a non restrictive tolerant society which makes them more happy .
The people in the US are very unhappy , some have to work 7 days a week for lousy slave wages and still can't afford to buy a house or pay rent , with no way to finance a retirement . Add to that rampant cheap drugs and mental illness and it's no wonder that some snap .
Australia is slowly going down the same road as the USA . Too many unnecessary rules and restrictions , increasing poverty , increasing homelessness , too many drugs available . Australia was a safer place with less crime when no one needed a gun licence and you could buy a gun any time . Restrictive gun laws has not made us any safer .
As Australia becomes more expensive to live and people see no future for themselves , happiness will plummet and we will be more like the US . It's a way off yet but it is coming to a venue near you . I am starting to see homeless people living in their cars in my area . Australia's failure in the area of affordable public housing will be disastrous in the near future and fuel more social problems . We don't have any Politicians that have the spine and dedication to turn things around . All they are good at is lining their own pockets with money while they waste billions of tax payers money on worthless projects , while society continues to crumble .
JohnV wrote:The people of Iceland are happy and they live in a non restrictive tolerant society which makes them more happy .
The people in the US are very unhappy , some have to work 7 days a week for lousy slave wages and still can't afford to buy a house or pay rent , with no way to finance a retirement . Add to that rampant cheap drugs and mental illness and it's no wonder that some snap .
Australia is slowly going down the same road as the USA . Too many unnecessary rules and restrictions , increasing poverty , increasing homelessness , too many drugs available . Australia was a safer place with less crime when no one needed a gun licence and you could buy a gun any time . Restrictive gun laws has not made us any safer .
As Australia becomes more expensive to live and people see no future for themselves , happiness will plummet and we will be more like the US . It's a way off yet but it is coming to a venue near you . I am starting to see homeless people living in their cars in my area . Australia's failure in the area of affordable public housing will be disastrous in the near future and fuel more social problems . We don't have any Politicians that have the spine and dedication to turn things around . All they are good at is lining their own pockets with money while they waste billions of tax payers money on worthless projects , while society continues to crumble .
JohnV wrote:The people of Iceland are happy and they live in a non restrictive tolerant society which makes them more happy .
The people in the US are very unhappy , some have to work 7 days a week for lousy slave wages and still can't afford to buy a house or pay rent , with no way to finance a retirement . Add to that rampant cheap drugs and mental illness and it's no wonder that some snap .
Australia is slowly going down the same road as the USA . Too many unnecessary rules and restrictions , increasing poverty , increasing homelessness , too many drugs available . Australia was a safer place with less crime when no one needed a gun licence and you could buy a gun any time . Restrictive gun laws has not made us any safer .
As Australia becomes more expensive to live and people see no future for themselves , happiness will plummet and we will be more like the US . It's a way off yet but it is coming to a venue near you . I am starting to see homeless people living in their cars in my area . Australia's failure in the area of affordable public housing will be disastrous in the near future and fuel more social problems . We don't have any Politicians that have the spine and dedication to turn things around . All they are good at is lining their own pockets with money while they waste billions of tax payers money on worthless projects , while society continues to crumble .
JohnV wrote:Thanks all , I have spent quite a bit of time as a victim of the system and seen first hand the corruption in Politics , We were once dubbed the Smart Country , The Lucky Country and The Wonder Down under . Not feeling it so much anymore .
Just recently head of the Reserve bank pushed out because he would not bow down to the Government ethos of keeping interest rates low when we are fighting real inflation . I see 100% rise in many food products . I know it hurts a lot of people but if you don't control inflation quickly , then it can spiral out of control and food prices will escalate accordingly and get right out of control due to the fear factor and business gouging . Then no matter how high you rise the rates the inflation continues like what happened in Pakistan , Sri Lanka , Zimbabwe and Venezuela . People have to have affordable food or you will get anarchy . The Labour Government is taking economic risks that could backfire on all of us with high mortgages , high food prices and a recession on top of that . Firing public servants just because they don't agree with the Governments actions is how Russia and China runs things . Keeping interest rates ridiculously low for too long is what is sending some Banks in the World broke and heated the economies too much . Having a basic fair interest rate for all is a stabilizing effect on the economy . When I worked in the bush I met an old cattle drover and we had a long talk about life around the camp fire . He said to me , " It's not how much money you ear son , it's how much money you hang onto " . Truer words never spoken .
Now the young ones are blaming the Boomers for having some savings and making a bit of interest money . When they had nearly zero interest rates on their mortgages and saving heaps the boomers got NOTHING , but that was quite ok .
I have fought for this country , I have bled for this country and I have suffered for this country but frankly if I was a young single man again I would go some place else with more freedoms even if it meant less affluence .