Hijexx wrote:

adam wrote:

absolutely but america will never disarm
how many Wacos would there be if the attempt was made

*sigh*

Are you saying every American is a polygamistic charismatic cult leader with a messianic complex?

Since this is a pay site, I can't read the article you meme'd.

i'm certainly not saying that "every American is a polygamistic charismatic cult leader with a messianic complex" but i'm saying that Americans love their guns and that there is a significant minority that completely agree with Charlon Heston when he says "they" will only get his gun(s) by taking them from his "cold dead hands"
the reference to Waco was because the issue which started that siege was, if my memory serves me correctly, firearms -- initially the authorities outside Waco were the ATF (the Treasury bureau responsible for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms)
America is full of ordinary decent libertarians, right-wing fascist shit heads, god bothering charismatic backwoodsmen, and a wide spectrum of people who don't fit any particular label or category but wouldn't part from their guns without a fight
i'm not arguing the ethics of gun control -- to me gun conrol is bloody obvious -- i see no reason why i need a gun as a UK citizen -- there is no ethical reason but the problems with gun control in America boils down to pragmatics. It may be possible to end the American love affair with the gun, that icon of the West, of liberty, of masculinity -- I hope it is but it is a process which would take generations.

I am sure gun conrol will happen in America but whether there will still be a United States by the time British style gun control happens I doubt -- by that time there will be a global government, we will have colonised the solar system and terrorists will be armed with nanotech virusues -- timescale the next 150 to 200 years
the only way to achieve effective gun control in America is to chip away at the edges -- to me the logic of gun conrol has Satyagraha -- truth-force -- it will happen
so when i said it would never happen
amend that to my lifetime and the lives of my nieces but maybe in their children's lifetimes
i think people should be realistic about what a signicant shift needs to take place as is clear to me when decent intelligent people like dc0de can't be convinced and think it's about their freedom

be a taoist about it -- be like water and wear away at the problem -- don't confront -- don't challenge -- don't threaten -- do what is achievable -- be pragmatic -- i don't mean have a hidden agenda -- be open and honest about what you want -- be reasonable -- be calm -- be like water wearing away a rock

so the approach has to be incremental or there will be lots of Wacos
what needs to change is American culture, the American zeitgeist
part of what i'm attacking is what to me is bullshit macho individualism "he can't be a man if he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me" -- not to destroy it for I believe it has many positive attributes but rather to encourage a sea-change -- in the full Shakespeare's The Tempest sense

RE: Hooked on Violence - New York Times