Aditional thoughts

On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:06:13 +0000 (UTC), (Dick
Adams) wrote in :

kangaroo16 wrote:

It will be interesting to see the results of the next
U.S. election. I think that the Supreme Court decision
on the 2nd amendment is going to be a major issue, though.

Please enlighten me as to which Supreme Court decision
you are referring.

The original ten amendments, called the "Bill of Rights", came
into force Dec. 15, 1791. Amendment II sounds simple enough:

Right to keep and bear arms.

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of
a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms,
shall not be infringed.

Unfortunately, the original document doesn't define "a
well-regulated militia."
If you do a Google News search on the string

US second amendment decision supreme court

and specify returns for the past month, will give you
~285 returns of recent news stories.

"The high court, which is expected to hear arguments in
the spring and to issue an opinion by July, hasn't ruled on the
issue in nearly 70 years, leaving plenty of uncertainty about its
decision."

From the Wall St. Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1195...googlenews_wsj

In my rarely humble opinion, the gun problem in the US
is due to candy-ass judges not sentencing perps who use
guns to hard time in the slammer.

One of the big problems here is that the USA already leads the
world in prisoners, and prisons are very overcrowded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison

It also costs a lot of money to keep someone in prison

Gun ownership is available in Australia. But use one to
commit a crime and you get a "Go directly to Jail, Do Not
Pass GO, and Do Not Collect $200" card and there are no
"Get Out of Jail Free" cards.

It isn't all that difficult to get a shooters license for
long arms for hunting purposes. Pistols and revolvers have
been strictly controlled since around 1920 from memory.

For the average citizen, a "sporting shooters license" isn't
that hard to get. However "self defense" doesn't constitute
grounds for issuance of a shooters license. Carrying of
many other concealed or concealable weapons, including
knives, tasers, and even pepper spray highly regulated as well.

The US Judiciary needs Judge Attitude Training from the
Aussies, the Brits, etc.

Or perhaps tougher juries? Firearms ownership is much greater
in the US than here, so juries might be more sympathetic to
someone carrying a concealed weapon. An ordinary citizen
carrying a concealed handgun here might not get nearly as much
sympathy from an Australian jury.

Wikipedia has a pretty good writeup:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Australia

Cheers,
Kangaroo16


Dick