Gun culture in USA

[Evans Electric]

Two things  that always stuck in my memory  TBH     I suppose because we're British . 

In the excellent Speilberg  family  film ,  ET      when the kids are  taking ET to meet his mother ship  , on their bikes , which of course  fly ...the police form a road block and as the  12 yr old children approach on their bikes ,  the police /FBI./CIA   raise their rifles ready to shoot them down   :Godno: .    I could never erase  that idea TBH   .      I believe that bit is sometimes edited out  now.

The other one was  , my brother was in the USA  on business , (before he became a priest  I should add)  .  He borrows a firm's car and is bowling along  on a deserted desert road  ,somewhere between Flagsaff & Tombstone  I think ,    cop appears from nowhere , pulls him over and  approaches with his hand on his side arm  .     Brother thinks he will be shot there & then  for doing 60  in  40 zone    ( A 1000 miles from anywhere)    He was really worried about this guy with a gun , but as soon as he  spoke  it was " Hey you're English , welcome to  Arizona  " etc etc    .  Ended up with ticket to see the Sheriff  next day for a rollocking .   Who also said the same thing I think .  

 

[Andy™]

america. the only country where you cant buy a kinder egg because they are dangerous, but you can buy a gun at the supermarket next to the sweet aisle...

 

[phil d]

I nearly went to the states years  ago, I remember my father in law telling me about when he got pulled over one night, the cop was stood by the B post (middle pillar) of the car, just behind the drivers door. He asked him to produce his licence, it was in his inside pocket and he reached into his right hand pocket with his left hand, suddenly he felt something cold touch his ear and the cop telling him not to move. The cop had his gun pressed against the FIL's head, cutting a long story short, when it was over he was telling the cop he was English and how he'd gone into the pocket to get the licence as he normally would. The cop told him he'd been lucky, there were several people who'd been shot dead doing what he'd done, reaching into a pocket, he actually told him that if he got stopped again to tell the cop he was English, and tell him that his licence was in his right hand inside pocket, then wait for the cop to tell him how to get it.

They do have some strange idea's about guns over there. I was speaking to a yank the other day about home defence, and telling him how over here we have to be careful how far an Englishman goes defending his 'castle'. He told me about an incident that took place in his town  fairly recently, there was a prolific burglar who for some reason had, despite committing many offences, managed to avoid jail. Anyway this cop was off duty and at home when he saw this bloke prowling around his garden, he began to force a window, the cop did nothing, he began to climb in, still the cop did nothing, the burglar entered the room and was halfway across the floor, the cop reacted, shooting him dead!

Apparently, not only did he face no charges, but he was highly regarded by the locals as he'd managed to rid the area of one of it's most prolific offenders. The guy was saying that they think no more about shooting a burglar, or a prowler, than they would about shooting a rat, or some other form of vermin.

 

[Tony S]

I hope we never get to the stage of armed police being the norm. That said, I was quite happy to see an armed response team at work.

It wasn’t unusual to see vehicles that had mistaken the works entrance for the main road so normal practice was stop them and point them in the right direction. Not often would you be looking down the wrong end of a shotgun. Foot down and ****** off quick at the same time radioing the control room who called the police. We held explosives on site so the turn out was impressive.

All in a days work for an electrician.

 

[OnOff]

My cousin in Florida , gun mad. Tbh I idolized him a bit as an impressionable youngster. The baby of the family and spoilt rotten. Levi Jeep, big bike he'd take me out on. As I say, gun mad; AKs, M16s, M1s, shotguns. His idea of fun was to shoot alligators.

Not long after we came back to the UK he got into trouble with the law after nicking a police radio. Holed up in a relative's house where they tracked him down. Blew his brains out.

Ah, memories!

 

[Tony S]

If the states do finally see the folly of their gun laws, how the hell do they get things to some semblance of a safe and stable society? It would be mission impossible as they’ve never really had a safe and stable society to base guidelines on.

 

[binky]

give 250 million people guns and this is what happens....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

 

[Sharpend]

Judging by that’s Binks, they’ll take the view that whilst suicide by gun out numbers homicide by gun then their heading in the right direction— simple yank logic applied.