There was no real political leadership, not as we would know it and one that was not devolved from any policies of the US. They were already there from the French colonial occupation…
Like I said, drastic oversimplification…
Spike Milligan once said that he had a “Right to bare arms, bare legs, bare anything really…”
Perhaps that is part of the reason that down here we’re totally uncomprehending of the attitude of many Americans to guns and gun control.
We don’t have anything like the situation you describe, nor would our police countenance citizens arming themselves with guns for self defence in cars or anywhere else. It’s an offence here to carry an offensive weapon, which is anything - cricket (or baseball) bat, screwdriver, coin roll, real or toy gun, or whatever - you’re carrying with the intention of using as a weapon, even for self-defence.
Sure, we have areas in most capital and many regional cities and towns where common sense says you ought to be cautious and a few small areas where you wouldn’t go into after dark and maybe not even during daylight if you had a choice, and areas where police avoid going in if they can manage it, but they’re not areas where gunfire is common or likely (more’s the pity in some cases as a bit of judicious extermination would sort some of those areas out very nicely 
)
Or are they pretty territorial?
A woman friend of mine (Australian) was in ?San Francisco in the seventies. She got lost walking somewhere and realised she was getting deeper and deeper into black areas where she was generating rather more interest than she wanted. She knew she was in trouble and became visibly distressed. A rather large black man, who looked like the black pimp in one of the Dirty Harry movies, approached her. He realised what had happened and escorted her to a point where she could reach her destination if she followed the directions he gave her. She asked him to accompany her. He said something to the effect “If I cross that street and go down there, I mightn’t be coming back.”. Apparently it was a gang boundary.
Same here.
We’re entitled to shoot if it’s reasonably necessary to defend ourselves when we’ve exhausted all other possibilities. So, for example, we can’t shoot someone who is trying to open a window but if he comes through it and is armed, even if with only a screwdriver, and backs us into a corner then we can. The grey area is between those two points.
Presumably this renaming has caused the property values to skyrocket. 
His gravestone also has a headstone which says what he wanted, but in Gaelic because of various family and religious problems about putting it in English, “I told you I was sick.”
Hi guys, here is one more item to add to the American home arsenal. A couple of companies here have begun marketing a rifle upper action to fit the lower receiver of any AR-15 or M-16. Just slide the 2 pins closed, and you have a completely legal, and very potent single shot rifle in .50 BMG. all for the low, low cost of around $1,600. far cheaper than those other very expensive .50’s on the market these days,
Local criminals are wearing body armor you say??? no problem if you have this very effective,simple, and easy to use tool, socially misaligned people got you down? tsk tsk, once they feel the breeze of a hot .50 passing close by, they will straighten up, and fly right… Its all here, at the Saturday night gun mart, never a hold up at the check out, at the Saturday night gun mart, where you’re the target. 
Errr… Are you sure that isn’t .50 Beowulf rather than .50 BMG? There do exist .50 BMG conversions (see below), but the don’t have much in common with the AR-15.
On the other hand, .50 Beowulf does look rather similar to a stock AR-15.
Hi guys, here is one more item to add to the American home arsenal. A couple of companies here have begun marketing a rifle upper action to fit the lower receiver of any AR-15 or M-16. Just slide the 2 pins closed, and you have a completely legal, and very potent single shot rifle in .50 BMG. all for the low, low cost of around $1,600. far cheaper than those other very expensive .50’s on the market these days,
Local criminals are wearing body armor you say??? no problem if you have this very effective,simple, and easy to use tool, socially misaligned people got you down? tsk tsk, once they feel the breeze of a hot .50 passing close by, they will straighten up, and fly right… Its all here, at the Saturday night gun mart, never a hold up at the check out, at the Saturday night gun mart, where you’re the target.
Does Michael Moore know about this???
Its in .50 BMG, and not a bad looking device either. One could build one’s own lower receiver at home, its just some assembly, clip the barreled upper to it, and you’re ready to Rumble. The outfit is www.ultralite50.com
It has been rumored that the aggressive bastion of tyranny, Canada, has been coveting the resources of our Bacon mines, so these rifles will be issued to all citizens. (The forgoing is pure humor, The U.S. is in truth not at Bacon defcon 2):shock:
Michael who???(as in who cares) ha! The prancing cockscomb is doubtless paring of his cheese.
Would this be available to the socially mis-aligned?
Another point of view from the U.S.
PrairiePundit
Commentary on politics and the continuation of policy by other means.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Why the anti gun lobby lost
-- Gun control didn't work. In the 1990s, despite its draconian ban, Washington became the murder capital of the United States. Chicago's homicide rate, which had been declining in the years before it banned handguns, climbed over the following decade. Gun control didn't work.
During the time the federal assault weapons law was in effect, the number of gun murders declined -- but so did murders involving knives and other weapons. When the law was allowed to expire in 2004, something interesting happened to the national murder rate: nothing.
-- Laws allowing concealed weapons proliferated -- with no ill effects. In 1987, Florida gained national attention -- and notoriety -- by passing a law allowing citizens to get permits to carry concealed handguns. Opponents predicted a wave of carnage by pistol-packing hotheads, but it didn't happen. In fact, murders and other violent crimes subsided. Permit holders proved to be sober and restrained.
People elsewhere took heed, and today, according to the NRA, 40 states have "right-to-carry" laws. As those laws have spread, the homicide rate has fallen sharply from the peak reached in 1991.
-- The Second Amendment got a second look. In 1983, a San Francisco lawyer named Don Kates published an article in the University of Michigan Law Review arguing that, contrary to prevailing wisdom in the judiciary and law schools, the Constitution upholds an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Numerous legal scholars, spurred to examine the record, reached the same surprising conclusion. Before long, even some liberal law professors were coming around.
...
Chapman believes, and I agree, that the second look by the legal scholars was crucial to changing the opinion and it worked its way into Scalia’s opinion.
The big city mayors and police chiefs still are frightened by the exercise of this right, but the results of the concealed carry laws should encourage officials to reconsider. When they rewrite their existing prohibitions they should put in a requirement for a gun safety course and license the purchasers, if they are concerned about how the weapon will be used. Criminals will still have to obtain their weapons through illegal means, but at least potential victims are no longer disarmed.
Posted by Merv at 11:02 AM
Labels: 2nd Amendment
1 comments:
[i]Mark said…
potential victims are no longer diarmed my f*cking ass, if there are no guns there are no victims, if there are more guns there are more potential victims end of story![/i]
8:19 AMJodie Foster Joins Anti Gun Lobby
09-09-2007 11:28
Jodie Foster: ‘Firearms Should Be Banned’
Actress Jodie Foster has hit out at America’s abundance of firearms, insisting all guns should be banned.
Foster, who plays an urban vigilante in new movie The Brave One, believes her anti-gun stance is out of step with the beliefs of most of her countrymen.
She says, "I don’t believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being. Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear. And guns are a huge part of our culture.
“I know I’m crazy because I’m only supposed to say that in Europe. But violence corrupts absolutely.”
Dave Workman: The anti-gun lobby misleads us with false data on officer deaths
By DAVE WORKMAN
Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2007
ONCE AGAIN the anti-gun lobby is trying to convince Congress and the American public that so-called “assault weapons” should be banned because so many police officers are dying in the line of duty.
And predictably, the effort is founded on falsehood and hysteria, designed to fool and alarm people into supporting a political agenda that ultimately would legislate gun ownership out of existence.
Recently, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (which should more accurately call itself the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership) issued a statement containing figures on the annual number of law enforcement deaths in America. Buried in their news release was this remarkably transparent canard: “More officers are killed with firearms than through any other single cause.”
We know that’s false because the same news release provided readers with the evidence. Said the release: “According to the National Law Enforcement Memorial, there have been 132 officer fatalities in the U.S. so far this year, with 54 killed by a firearm. In all of last year, 145 officers died in the line of duty, 52 due to firearms. In 2005, 50 officers were killed with firearms.”
First, the 2005 figure is wrong. There were 59 officers killed by gunfire that year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), out of a total of 162 officer fatalities. Second, the Brady Campaign can claim that guns are the top killer only by ignoring officers killed in motor vehicle incidents.
According to the NLEOMF, the same source the Brady Campaign cited, in the past 10 years, 582 of the 1,649 police officers who died on the job were shot to death. By contrast, 707 were killed in motor vehicle accidents. So the single largest cause of officer fatalities is traffic accidents, not gun deaths. The Brady Campaign is misleading the American public.
Police work is risky. But the biggest risk comes from motorized transportation, not firearms. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, working as a police officer is not as risky as working as a logger, commercial fisherman, roofer, construction worker, pilot or truck driver.
Anti-gunners like the Brady folks also know that relatively few cops are killed with so-called “assault weapons.” But they want those guns banned, perhaps to establish a precedent that would make banning another type of firearm a little easier in the future.
The Brady Campaign launched this new attack on firearms by exploiting a recent shooting in Florida in which Miami-Dade Sgt. Jose Somohano was killed and three other officers were wounded by gunman Shawn LaBeet, himself killed later by police.
In editorializing against firearms after that shooting, the Miami Herald couldn’t even get its facts right when it tried to link the Miami shooting to the Virginia Tech shootings, gasping, “Seung-Hui Cho used a high-capacity assault weapon to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech last April.”
That is not true. Cho used a handgun, which he purchased at retail, apparently by lying on a federal form and clearing a background check.
The anti-gun crowd, which includes far too many reporters and editors who ought to do some homework before sitting down at a keyboard, hates guns and ultimately wants them all banned. That crowd’s misleading use of data to accomplish this should tell us all we need to know about the nobleness of their cause.
Dave Workman is senior editor of Gun Week (www.gunweek.com).
I had typed a missive about this device and the socially misaligned, but the system ate it, so i’ll recap short form.
The barrel, upper receiver are not controlled components, so most anyone 18 yrs or older can purchase them. the rest of the weapon, the lower receiver, with all of the workings in it, shoulder stock etc. is a controlled component, (it carries the serial number) and a purchaser would have to go through the same paperwork, background checks waiting periods etc. as would for an entire firearm. So these people would be subject to all federal, state, and local laws governing firearms possession.
Only those socially misaligned people with a criminal, or adjudication history , or some other disqualification of record would be unable to purchase anything but the barrel. a barrel is not considered a weapon. For purposes of legal order, and organization, the Receiver for a long arm, or frame for handgun are the controlled, and regulated part. Other specialized components may be regulated for other reasons, (full auto sears,short shotgun barrels, things like that) .
The law is the same on this side of the pond as yours.
You have the right to use reasonable force to defend yourself, your family, and your property.
The difference is how juries define ‘reasonable’
State laws vary,but in many of them, Deadly force is allowed for the protection of people, but not of property. in some states you may fire on someone only if they pose an immediate threat of death, or grievous bodily harm. Which sadly, means that you may hold the door for them as they walk out of your place carrying your property. If you back shoot a burglar, or shoot them when they are not a legal threat, they will be jailed for a misdemeanor, you will be jailed for a felony.
The law does not say alot about non lethal responses by homeowners, so if you like, you can tap dance on his head, and say he slipped on the cord of your tv while exiting, Most police will think that an unfortunate accident…
If a burglar walks away with my TV, I’ll be happy, cause it’s too heavy and ugly for me to get rid of. But if I did own a LCD Tv like the rich boys then dam right I’d be hopping mad that I couldn’t use force on the burglar…this law SUCKS!
This is how its done in America, and part of what the 2nd. Ammendment covers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AYG4y5et5g Denny Crane, (Bill Shatner,) on gun control.
God save the…second amendment.
Here, Here!! I’ll drink to that!