Questions on gun-control/rights

[gejohnston]

18. nonsense

Here's the thing, the EU and it's connection to its member states might be opaque at best but local democracy works very very well all over Europe

Saudi Arabia has local democracy and even lets women vote, it is still a police state. Besides, pure democracy is two coyotes and a sheep discussing dinner plans.

Protecting rights is also not the most basic thing, at all. Protecting life is the most basic. If your dad your rights are meaningless.

it works both ways. If you have no means to defend yourself against machete wielding thugs, you are still dead.

As for individual freedom, it depends how you define it. I know more than one person trapped by college debt or medical bills. Their freedom is extremely limited. If they lived in Europe they would be endlessly more free.

The way the founders defined it. In Europe, most of them would not be accepted in college to begin with. That is how it is affordable, very few people go and schools have very high standards.

Ireland is a conservative nation - no doubt - but if you think I'd trade endless school shootings for slightly more liberal laws - in a fee limited respects - you'd be wrong. My kids have never even heard of a school shooting. They aren't scared of cops because the cops don't shoot people here.

because thugs don't attack cops there.

There was ONE missing kid here, back in the 80s, and people STILL talk about it, because it was so rare. Kids walk to school and parents aren't scared or drive by shootings, or accidental shootings, or armed robbery, or home invasion or really crime at all. And that's a huge freedom I wouldn't trade away

. I had all of that as a kid, and everyone had guns. So is almost all of the US. My city is still talking about a stabbing thirty years ago.

The freedom from fear of gun violence. The freedom to not worry my kids will be shot in this week's mass execution. Thats a freedom that's worth all the handguns in the world.

There have been something like ten mass shootings at schools in the past decade or more. Mexico has a ban on guns, how is that working out? But you are still not free of gun or any other violence, not completely.