What's the Endgame Here?

[remake it + 288]

6 minutes ago, PE Scott said:

No, I've lost many fine friends to Polish jokes. Friends don't let friends tell Polish jokes.

Why do you lose your friends - is this another American tradition?

[PE Scott + 563]

3 hours ago, remake it said:

Why do you lose your friends - is this another American tradition?

Only amidst the telling of Polish jokes. Outside of that very specific scenario, most of my friends aren't sneaky enough to dissapear. Or, perhaps the sneaky ones already dissapeared during the last telling of Polish jokes and thus are still lost to me.

[remake it + 288]

20 minutes ago, PE Scott said:

Only amidst the telling of Polish jokes. Outside of that very specific scenario, most of my friends aren't sneaky enough to dissapear. Or, perhaps the sneaky ones already dissapeared during the last telling of Polish jokes and thus are still lost to me.

Polish doctors now joke that American brains cannot be afforded in transplant operations because they have not been used but it always used to be the other way around.

[Marcin2 + 726]

I understand this is a twist from Polish joke ?

Edited May 14, 2020 by Marcin2
typo

[Marcin2 + 726]

Is this stereotype so profound that we have only Polish jokes and not Bulgarian joke for example ?

Edited May 14, 2020 by Marcin2
typo

[Marcin2 + 726]

So I do not like Polish jokes.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Marcin2
typo

[Marcin2 + 726]

I did not know that , but read at wikipedia that Polish jokes were created in Polish ethnic areas with significant German minorities just after WW1, and were made popular mainly by Nazi Germany during WW2 to present Poles as dirty and stupid and to justify Nazi crimes at ethnic Poles. Later that jokes were brought to United States by German immigrants.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Marcin2
typo

[PE Scott + 563]

29 minutes ago, Marcin2 said:

I know different version , American brain donors are really sought out, because their brains are like brand new, never used.

Haha! Jokes on you! It was never used because it never worked! It was only enabled to grow to maturity by a progressive welfare system. 

[Zhong Lu + 845]

This has gotten off topic. LOL.  

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

‘When seconds count, the police are minutes away’.

This is true in both large and small counties. It is not due to lazy policemen, it is simply the fact that they can not be everywhere at once.

Now keeping in mind that criminals do not adhere to the laws by definition, they will be armed whether you have strict gun laws in place or not. By enacting strict gun control laws you are in effect handing the advantage to the criminal element.

If you and the citizens of your respective countries are comfortable with this, then please carry on with what you are doing. Americans historically have not been comfortable with allowing criminals to arm themselves illegally while enacting laws preventing law abiding citizens to ‘level the playing field’. Different strokes for different folks.

If you do not have any ‘skin in the game’, ie live in the States...don’t worry about it as it does not affect you.

[Papillon + 485]

59 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

If you do not have any ‘skin in the game’, ie live in the States...don’t worry about it as it does not affect you.

By that logic, almost one hundred percent of what is discussed here does not personally affect others, due to location. When it is about Iran, people are crying out for views and solutions. When about firearms and you disagree with the opinions expressed then 'it does not affect you', so keep quiet please. 

Edited January 15, 2020 by Papillon

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

1 hour ago, Douglas Buckland said:

Now keeping in mind that criminals do not adhere to the laws by definition, they will be armed whether you have strict gun laws in place or not. By enacting strict gun control laws you are in effect handing the advantage to the criminal element.

So In the UK where we have strict gun control and deaths from gun shot wounds are less likely than being struck by lightning.

Also we don’t even arm our police and we get along just fine, it’s safe to walk the streets go to the shops (mall) safe to go into the city bars etc.

we do have a section of the police that is armed for the very rare case of a gun being involved.

in the US it seems like an arms race between criminals and law enforcement/the general population it is just crazy and by the numbers killed each year doesn’t  work.

must be a cultural thing in the US, but the 2nd amendment is just an excuse to carry guns for perceived personal protection, I just wish you would all admit it.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

 

”...must be a cultural thing in the US, but the 2nd amendment is just an excuse to carry guns for perceived personal protection, I just wish you would all admit it.”

 

What we do readily admit to is carrying firearms for protection, there is nothing “perceived” about it.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

https://www.google.com.my/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-47157967

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

https://www.statista.com/statistics/865565/gun-crime-in-london/

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

39 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

 

”...must be a cultural thing in the US, but the 2nd amendment is just an excuse to carry guns for perceived personal protection, I just wish you would all admit it.”

 

What we do readily admit to is carrying firearms for protection, there is nothing “perceived” about it.

Douglas fair play to you for being honest on here.

Many on here have been spouting the 2nd amendment for the reason they carry guns which clearly isn't the case.

i doubt those that do will be storming the White house any time soon.

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

41 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

https://www.google.com.my/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-47157967

A snippet from this

"Incidents of firearms out in our communities are very rare - these are often linked to other offences such as county line drug gangs."

I have never disputed this and agree gun crime is linked directly to drug gangs as I have said before. However for those who are'nt in gangs the threat of gun violence is miniscule in the extreme.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

2 hours ago, Rob Plant said:

Douglas fair play to you for being honest on here.

Many on here have been spouting the 2nd amendment for the reason they carry guns which clearly isn't the case.

i doubt those that do will be storming the White house any time soon.

Many people in the last few years have bought into the conspiracy theory of a ‘palace coup’ in the US. This actually began in the Obama years when the government bought an inordinate amount of small arms ammunition for the various security agencies. The purchase of the ammo is fact, the reasons why are unclear. This became the basis for the theory that the Obama administration was ‘arming’ to prevent a coup. Obviously the conspiracy has morphed into something else under the new administration.

It’s all bullshit, but it gives the media something to feed on.

The fact is, however you read the US Constitution, the founding fathers wanted the people armed.,They had just successfully won independence with, generally, citizen soldiers - why wouldn’t they want the people armed. Furthermore, the founding fathers wanted the people to be able to resist tyranny it the government became tyrannical. This was long before automatic weapons, Abrams tanks and jet fighters, but the basic concept still prevails. As an aside,,to assume the armed forces would blindly follow an order from the Commander-in-Chief to attack citizens is ludicrous. Soldier are instructed from the beginning that they are not required to follow an unlawful order and attacking civilians is antithetical to the American psyche. 
Throughout American history, from the Revolutionary War, through the Civil War, through the annexation of Texas and the settling of the American West, unto the present, America has always embraced a ‘gun culture’ (for lack of a better term).

It is what it is. Many other cultures seem to have a problem with this. I can understand their issues with it, but at the end of the day, it is not their concern.

On many different issues globally, it is always a bad idea to criticize another culture simply by looking at it from your culture’s point of view.

Simply my take on the matter...  

[Papillon + 485]

Very well put sir. My only wish is for the penultimate line to work both ways on this forum. With respect, Papillon. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 1/14/2020 at 10:08 PM, Marcin2 said:

So you have sth like  lawless neighbourhoods, like in movies ?, I do not believe you, I have never seen sth like this in reality. People would move out from such districts, leaving them empty. Ron you have this list of articles, some are ok, but a lot of are just crazy conspiracy theories, maybe these gangs is another one ?

Well we have about nine murders every year in the small city I live in. They all take place in the "Donut Hole" of old neighborhoods where poor people live. Some are Most are White and many are Black. We have relatively few Hispanics, but fortunately many Mexican restaruants! When I first moved here we hand no Mexican restaurants. We have about five or six murders a year, and most of those are related to drugs. Our small metro area has about 100,000 people. Feel free to research Decatur, Illinois. I have spoken to several inner city residents (where I own two homes, I live about three miles from the inner city).  Those who moved from Chicago were disappointed that our crime was just as bad or worse than Chicago. 

Wherever I travel I try to stay in a fairly safe area for a motel. I do not stay in the inner city unless at a quality hotel, and rarely do that. I try to never travel in inner cities at night, always keep my car doors locked and carry a knife and concealed carry firearm where legal since many cities and a few states do not honor the Second Amendment we have to be careful of that fact. I spend a lot of time in California where I have family. It is just as bad there in most areas, but concealed carry is illegal for most. So many are criminals just trying to stay safe. If you don't care about safety that is OK with me. I don't expect to ever have to shoot anyone and one could go broke trying to defend a shooting in court, so legal gun owners are not going to shoot someone without forethought. It is the criminals who carry guns illegally that kill people and hope to evade police. 

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/decatur/crime

I wonder if your government publishes this sort of specific information, conceals it, or corrupts it?

Edited January 17, 2020 by ronwagn

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

5 hours ago, ronwagn said:

Wherever I travel I try to stay in a fairly safe area for a motel. I do not stay in the inner city unless at a quality hotel, and rarely do that. I try to never travel in inner cities at night, always keep my car doors locked and carry a knife and concealed carry firearm where legal since many cities and a few states do not honor the Second Amendment we have to be careful of that fact. I spend a lot of time in California where I have family. It is just as bad there in most areas, but concealed carry is illegal for most. So many are criminals just trying to stay safe. If you don't care about safety that is OK with me. I don't expect to ever have to shoot anyone and one could go broke trying to defend a shooting in court, so legal gun owners are not going to shoot someone without forethought. It is the criminals who carry guns illegally that kill people and hope to evade police. 

Ron this suggest you are actually frightened to be in any city centre areas, are these "no go areas" because of the drug gangs and potentially being caught up in a dispute on the streets?

What I dont understand is you feel the need to carry a knife and a concealed gun. The highlighted portion of your reply seems contradictory to what you actually do so I dont understand why you feel the need to carry weapons. Is it just to try to make you feel safe??? Because clearly that isnt working so good is it.

[Papillon + 485]

So it appears to be a knife aswell as guns now? What lovely trust this suggests in your government or fellow man. Plus of course the finale of a reference to other nations' governments, as this is relevant to crime within the USA.

6 hours ago, ronwagn said:

I wonder if your government publishes this sort of specific information, conceals it, or corrupts it?

Do you even know where Marcin is from sir, or is it yet another diverting accusation and presumption with regard to other nations, and what you assume to be their crime statistics? 

1 hour ago, Rob Plant said:

I dont understand why you feel the need to carry weapons. Is it just to try to make you feel safe??? Because clearly that isnt working so good is it.

this ^^    - also note that most deaths are 'related to drugs'. Wonderful. I thought it was about protecting yourself from government, but the reasons for firearms and deaths appear to change every few minutes sir. 

Edited January 17, 2020 by Papillon
What about your country though..?

[remake it + 288]

What about China?

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

"also note that most deaths are 'related to drugs'. Wonderful. I thought it was about protecting yourself from government, but the reasons for firearms and deaths appear to change every few minutes sir. "

 

I think Douglas was honest about this when he said its for personal protection.

Those claiming otherwise I just don't get!

Edited January 17, 2020 by Rob Plant

[Papillon + 485]

I agree sir and appreciated Mr Buckland's explanation, honesty and the history with regard to the issue.