I like guns, I think they're great. I used to go shooting in Holland at one point and have used the firing range here (which is insanely expensive) a few times too. What I don't like about guns is when they're in the hands of idiots. They should be required to be secured at a range, which should actually be secure, when they're not being used to blow paper targets or animals for eating away.

Having said that. The UK banned gun ranges after Dunblaine (one of only two proper gun massacres in recent history - Hungerford being the other) and I haven't missed them either...

last year in Patttaya a Farang went to the shooting range, paid for 20 bullets shot 17 down range an than put one in his head

how ya going to know who is wacko and who is not ?

ITS not just about gun control or laws making it hard to get one, its about people.

I think lots of the problems began when
1. the family broke up and no longer was mom home when the kid got home from school and the parents, not having a clue what johnny was doing in his room online
2. the internet
3. the news media ( 10 minutes of fame)
4. violent games rented and bought to play at home making kids desensitized to violence

Lets not start about the inner city and kids growing u without a dad an their role model is the local drug dealer an their friends are all in a gang. BUT These kids dont seem to become the mass murderers .

Its the kid that does not fit in and is socially unfit

phuketrichard wrote:last year in Patttaya a Farang went to the shooting range, paid for 20 bullets shot 17 down range an than put one in his head

how ya going to know who is wacko and who is not ?

ITS not just about gun control or laws making it hard to get one, its about people.

I think lots of the problems began when
1. the family broke up and no longer was mom home when the kid got home from school and the parents, not having a clue what johnny was doing in his room online
2. the internet
3. the news media ( 10 minutes of fame)
4. violent games rented and bought to play at home making kids desensitized to violence

Lets not start about the inner city and kids growing u without a dad an their role model is the local drug dealer an their friends are all in a gang. BUT These kids dont seem to become the mass murderers .

Its the kid that does not fit in and is socially unfit

do these kids only exist in america?? cause they dont, you can find plenty of them here in england but you dont see them running up into a school and shooting everybody

I agree that violent video games and recent shoot-um-up movies glorifying the gang-banger life style are a big factor in troubled youths using firearms to wantonly kill others. I was an EMT on a fire dept in Alaska and saw a lot of gun shot wounds ( natives getting drunk and shooting each other, that problem was mostly fixed by banning alcohol in the native villages), and if they showed all the blood and gore from gunshot wounds instead of the shot-out with no blood/gore it might put some of these wanabe shootists off their lunch and thinking twice about making so much blood/gore.

On the other hand there will always be a percentage of crazies in any culture that want to do bad against their fellow man. When I was in OZ last year were guns are banned, the newspapers were full of people being killed with knives, one in particular was a lady killing a whole family. Ban knives?

Sailorman wrote: When I was in OZ last year were guns are banned, the newspapers were full of people being killed with knives, one in particular was a lady killing a whole family. Ban knives?

Guns are not banned in Australia, only semi auto and automatic weapons are illegal. Other rifles require a permit and secure storage, ie a proper gun safe..

"Since 1996 all States subscribe to the National Firearms Agreement, which was instituted through the Australian Police Ministers Council (APMC) with the cooperation of all states. Each firearm in Australia must be registered to the owner by serial number except firearms manufactured before 1 Jan 1901 which in some cases are exempt from a serial number registration or exempt from registration altogether. Some states allow an owner to store or borrow another person's registered firearm of the same category."

Revolvers and Pistols, including air pistols are strictly controlled. They are required to be stored at the registered owners premises in a secure gun safe and removed only for trips directly to and from the range.

Knives are also heavily restricted, different states have slightly different laws. Here's an extract from NSW legislation:

It is an offence under s 11B to have an offensive implement in one’s custody in a public place or a school without a reasonable excuse (maximum penalty—50 penalty units ($5,500) or 2 years imprisonment). There is no legislative guidance as to what might constitute a reasonable excuse under s 11B, but there is a non-exhaustive list of reasonable excuses under s 11C(2). It is not a reasonable excuse to have a knife solely for the purpose of self-defence or defence of another (s 11C(3)). Section 11C specifically relates to the custody of a knife without a reasonable excuse at a public place or school (20 penalty units or 2 years). The penalty for this offence was recently increased by the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Possession of Knives
in Public) Act 2009 (NSW).
More info here relating to knife crime in Australia http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/pub ... tbp045.pdf

same in england, knives are banned, its not legal to carry a knife around in public, and even keeping certain knives at home is illigal
we definitely have no right to bare knives lol
It is illegal to:
sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under 18
carry a knife in public without good reason – unless it’s a knife with a folding blade 3 inches long (7.62 cm) or less, eg a Swiss Army knife
carry, buy or sell any type of banned knife (the list of banned knives is below)
use any knife in a threatening way (even a legal knife, such as a Swiss Army knife)
Lock knives (knives with blades that can be locked when unfolded) are not folding knives, and are illegal to carry in public.
The maximum penalty for an adult carrying a knife is 4 years in prison and a fine of £5,000.

Good reasons for carrying a knife
Examples of good reasons to carry a knife in public can include:
taking knives you use at work to and from work
you’re taking knives to a gallery or museum to be exhibited
the knife is going to be used for theatre, film, television historical reenactment or religious purposes (eg the kirpan some Sikhs carry)
A court will decide if you’ve got a good reason to carry a knife if you’re charged with carrying it illegally.

Knives that are illegal
There is a complete ban on the sale of some knives:
flick knives (also called ‘switchblades’ or ‘automatic knives’) – where the blade is hidden inside the handle and shoots out when a button is pressed
butterfly knives – where the blade is hidden inside a handle that splits in two around it, like wings; the handles swing around the blade to open or close it
disguised knives – eg where the blade is hidden inside a belt buckle or fake mobile phone
gravity knives
sword-sticks
samurai swords (with some exceptions, including antiques and swords made to traditional methods before 1954)
hand or foot-claws
push daggers
hollow kubotan (cylinder-shaped keychain) holding spikes
shuriken (also known as ‘death stars’ or ‘throwing stars’)
kusari-gama (sickle attached to a rope, cord or wire)
kyoketsu-shoge (hook-knife attached to a rope, cord or wire)
kusari (weight attached to a rope, cord or wire)

I know someone here will say BS, but I did some research on recent crime in OZ after the government gun grab and it went up after firearms were taken away. Armed robbery up 44%, murder up 3.2%. Sweden which bans firearms according to multi reports is now the rape capital of the civilized world.

Statistics show that after the Australian gun grab in 2000-2001 homicides were up another 20%, and in 2000 armed robberies were up 69%. In Sydney alone in 2001 armed robbery with guns went up 160%. (I won't even get into the recent Sydney armed standoff/murders.) A 2006 study shows that the gun grab had no affect on lowing crime in OZ. (Gun Laws and Sudden Death: Did The Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference? Dr. Jeanine Baker and Dr. Samara McPhedran, Journal of British Criminology, Nov 2006.

In England today there is a knife attack every 4 minutes, 130,000 per years.
British Crime Survey 2013

Yes, take all the knives away from those wanker! Give them sporkes to cut their meat with. (remember sporkes?)

"Every since the Collation of Crime statistics was initiated by the Council of Europe, Sweden has had the highest number of registered rape offenses in Europe"
Von Hofer, Hass "Crime Statistics and Constructs, The Case of Swedish Rape Statistics.
Europe Journal On Crime Policy and Research

Sweden: Gun ownership requires a license, most gun owners are hunters, it is illegal for a civilian to carry a firearm.
http://www.sweden.org,za (obviously rapists in Sweden read the laws.)

If you shoot an intruder/rapist in Sweden, you go to jail.

like to cite your sources on gun crime in Oz?
this source is from the oz gov and does not support your statement.
http://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/homicide.html