I am often puzzled by modern life.

We need an emoji for angry or horrified! I'm both of those @Tidemark

 

And Americans will keep telling you how much safer being allowed to have guns makes them.

 

@Escarpment, maybe add the word "feel" to the end of that sentence.

 

I dont think you can really comment unless you know the crime levels in those areas, what I've seen on TV some places are really bad, and unless you defend yourself nobody else is going to do it for you.
Unfortunately mistakes can happen.

Now over here, you can't defend yourself, the attacker is always mentally unstable and therefore needs more sympathy than the attacked.

I realise the person killed was not an attacker, but do we know the the kind of problems the person who did the shooting had been having in the neighbourhood.

I always remember years ago the case, in the UK where a bloke living alone shot a young burglar and killed him. He had been burgled before by the same bunch and decided to stand up to them, I think he went down for a few years for it and his life was a misery from then onwards. Probably dead now, it was a while back.

If you cant shoot someone who has entered your house to steal its a sad old place.IMO

 

@Tidemark Perhaps we need a new thread along the lines of How many Fallen Angels , Demons or Aliens have you come across recently and has the experience changed your life ?

Re @pete 's mention of the chap who shot a burglar........... I vaguely remember that but was it the same one who shot the teen whilst he was running away and the courts decided that it was therefore murder/manslaughter rather than a case of self defence ?

 

I think he was at the top of the stairs with a shotgun and two teens had broken in. They saw him and turned to go and he shot one in the back.

 

The kind of American suburb where cleaners come in are hardly the kinds with gangs and gangsters running riot. She was a woman on her own. What's wrong with looking thru the window or opening the door on a chain to ask what she wanted? She might have been looking for help!

Trouble is tho, like in the UK, the media hype all the violence and what they call home invasions so common sense goes out the window. Add to that their poor mathematical level and the fact they probably never see, let alone understand the statistics for muder in the USA where they have guns and countries where they don't.

Guns exacerbate violence. Guns kill.

 

We live in a fairly isolated but fairly “comfortable” part of the world. Our front door is always locked, day and night. If I’m not expecting a visitor and the doorbell rings I go to one of the upstairs rooms and look down to see who it is. If I don’t recognise them, I open the window and ask if I can help them. It’s always worked so far.

 

Not only that, but suicide attempts using a gun very rarely fail. 6 out of 10 gun deaths in the US are suicide, an average of 71 a day, according to this website Firearm Suicide in the United States

 

I also dont get the US condemnation.
Some years ago i think I read the most dangerous place to live was South Africa.

I watched a travel show and the hotel in Brazil only let guests go out with the supplied armed guard.

Lots of places that are more dangerous and crime ridden, but I'm getting the feeling its just a case of, we dont like the US, maybe we would not get so much negativity if Mr Trump wasn't in charge, I'm sure a Democrat President would sort it all out in a couple of weeks.

While talking Trump, well, at last the BBC have been found out with their editing and brainwashing, I hope they get more than a slapped wrist, but I doubt it.

 

If I wanted to commit suicide I'd want it to work, Some tablets that are going to cause me to be disabled or just very sick would be pretty pointless.
Apparently jumping of a motorway bridge is pretty effective with a 100% chance of success.

 

Pete, on social media whenever there is a report of something bad happening in the UK - like the stabbings on the train this week - Americans pile in saying the solution is to allow our citizens to have guns. As if that has solved all their problems. They seem to ignore the fact that the bad guys will have guns too, and that very few of the good guys will be capable of drawing their firearm in time and shooting accurately so innocent people will die in the crossfire.

 

@pete - you got your wish.

p

 

But many suicides are a spur of the moment thing - especially in adolescents. If given time the feeling will pass. But if there is a gun easily at hand, there is no chance of that happening.

 

When I went to university there was a double suicide in my first week. A boy threw himself off the top of a building because he'd forgotten to hand in an assignment. His girlfriend went off the same building a few days later.