guns

[Christopher]

I don't know about guns .. we've just had a porn site post on Belfast Forum.

[celeste]

i havnt heard of one of those, has it got in by stealth or is it allowed?

[Christopher]

It's OK it appears to have been deleted

[celeste]

i bet that ruffled a few feathers

[Christopher]

I think if I'd had a look at the various web sites feathers might have been all there were to ruffle

[celeste]

you really mean you din't have a look - perhaps you didn't want to be influenced

[village_idiot]

Guns
You will never get rid of guns
As long as the Americans have their economy geared up to the amount of money they make out of there being a war somewhere
Lets go drop a couple of thousand bombs on some litttle country then we will have to replenish them for the next time wont we and in the name of democracy we will let the taxes of the people pay for more bombs and so it goes on and on and on
Guns should be totaly banned off the streets and if anyone is caught with them chop their bloody hands off They wont lay on the floor to  pull the trigger with their shoes and socks on will they
Not interested in a society thats soft on these issues
The only people that should have any form of armament is the armed forces
Just a few comments from me like them or not thats not the issue
The issue is one of guns and the deterant to stop [censored] from using them
Good health to yas all
Village _idiot

[TELENY]

Think village_idiot is right . . . unless Americans accept that it is NOT their constitutional right to bear arms, the sooner their society can evolve into what every American politician aspires it to be - CIVILIZED !!

I would, personally, like to see gangsta rappers being charged with something like ' incitement to terrorism ' for the lyrics they use glorifying gun violence and thuggery - inner city communites are literally being terrorized up and down the country.

I wonder if that miserable hypocrite currently occupying 10 Downing Street will have the moral and intellectual courage to deal with this issue - this would bring REAL security to the lives of millions in Britain - (AND we wouldn't have to drop a single bomb) ...

[Christopher]

OK Teleny so if the Government bans guns what are you going to do about bricks which can be thrown through windows, or Molotov cocktails which are extremely easy to make. The ingredients are perfectly legal. Who needs guns?  Maybe people should present their ID prior to purchasing petrol or a bottle of pop. Where do you stop banning things so that people are protected? This year is the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. The people in Budapest found Molotov cocktails to be quite effective as do thugs today.

[celeste]

it's damage limitation , it's a start

[Christopher]

It's a start I suppose Celeste. The problem is so many of the guys who carry guns in British cities and towns are members of gangs. Those girls shot in Birmingham a couple of years ago were shot by gang members. Gangs control areas of cities and fight for territory in the same way countries fight for territory. A couple of crime reporters in Ireland were killed by members of gangs. One was a Dublin reporter called Veronica Guerin,
a bright well educated woman. She had studied accountancy and political research and had founded a public relations company before she joined the Sunday Business Post. The other was a reporter in Northern Ireland, Martin O'Hagan, gunned down as he walked home from a pub with his wife.

It does not matter whether the gangs have no guns as metal bars, baseball hats, cricket bats, heavy boots .. you name it and they'll use them. Gangs are bringing drugs into the country, selling look alike brand name merchandise, smuggling petrol and people (white slave trafficing) .. then there's internet crime as well. I think it would be quite a big job to stop such things happening so that they never happen again.

[celeste]

it is probably on of the biggest dilemmas of our time,  there are a lot of undercover operations going on to try and halt this sort of gangsterism.  There seems to be personality culture that has emerged - if you dont do things my way then i am your enemy - have you noticed this.  It brings to my mind the saying "those who the gods destroy they first make mad with power".  There are bad people, and they get worse when good people do nothing about it, but i would never advocate people risking their lives and leaving their families bereft,  i would like to be more "softly, softly catchee monkey" in strategy. 

[celeste]

a way must be found of arresting these gangs as they bring stuff into the country,  if they are apprehended and found with drugs etc on them,  passports confiscated indefinitely, minimum twenty years and so on.  Perhaps more high-tech equipment and expert customs personnel.  I used to work at Manchester Airport,  if there was a bomb scare, it would be all systems go, a few weeks on and things were relaxed again, cant be like this, there must be levels of security being sustained

[TELENY]

christopher please read my first post on this topic - you'll find I'm not SIMPLY not advocating banning firearms . . . indeed, most firearms are ILLEGAL in Britain . . . I've outlined what I consider to be cultural factors underlying the problem ...

In other words - 'Tough on Guns, Tough On The Causes of Guns' !! 

[Christopher]

I think you meant gladiatorial arena in your first post on this thread, Celeste. You referred to raising the topic again. Does that mean there's another thread for me to read?