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Are you implying there's a stabbing epidemic in Britain? (apologies if I'm misunderstanding that)
Britain doesn't have a stabbing epidemic[1]. It's a meme
Media attention made the obsession, not whatever actually happens in the real world. Ah, if only people cared as much about heart and brain diseases :(
[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/stabbing-... (click on Rate per 100k on the last table)
No, my point is that the insane knife restrictions we have aren't actually necessary since many countries lack such restrictions and still don't end up with a stabbing epidemic as a result.
1) There is in fact a need to curb knife crime, without these measures people would die a lot more.
2) There is no significant risk of knife crime, UK uses arbitrary law application to harass undesirable individuals and/or instill a "harmless mindset" into its subjects.
Not sure what's worse.
Whatever their problem is it's not guns.
However, easy access to guns mean that people in an unstable mental state might use one to commit (mass?) murder in an act of folly that they would otherwise not do (or at the very least significantly reduce the amount of victims if they had to use a knife instead of a ranged weapon).
Once you exclude these....
> commit (mass?) murder in an act of folly that they would otherwise not do
These become so rare that they are effectively non existent when compared to literally any other cause of death.
What you describe is a definition of a nanny state.
Yes, America has an incredibly violent "macho" culture for a so-called first world country, in general and not just as it pertains to firearms. It's probable that the high rate of gun ownership is a symptom of this rather than a cause. But given that this is the case, proliferating the means for people to easily murder each other in such a society is obviously going to exacerbate things.
Always puzzled me.
Your freedoms end where my freedoms begin, and guns are just a tool to change that dynamic. They serve no other purpose, unless we're talking hunting, for which you can still get guns, after some education.
I don't get how Americans seem to think it makes sense to require a license to drive a car but not to own a gun? Who is more dangerous, a guy driving a sedan or one holding an AR?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-da...
*Note: the government could disallow one from having them so long as that person goes through due process, at which point Constitutional restrictions placed upon the government are relaxed in specific areas.
The right to effective self defence is a natural right and requires no license.
Americans use guns defensively hundreds of thousands times a year.
Encryption can very much be used to facilitate murder.
Your data is not as important as your life.
I don't see how that's correct, defending oneself with something natural sounds OK though.
Same situation. You are home. Should you be forced to engage the criminal with your bare hands knowing that if you lose the fight your kids will be murdered?
The context here is owning something to provide "effective self defense" - so where do we draw the line? Can I decide that only owning a gun is not enough against the other gun owners so I need something more effective?
GP's claim is this right justifies owning a weapon that can easily kill. That's far beyond "effective" in my view.
I think that's the definition of effective. Someone breaks into my home high on pcp, the most effective way to stop them hurting my family is killing them. Is that not a true statement? What is a more effective way to do it, knowing that failure potentially means the death of your kids? I'm not going to engage them with a tazer, there's the chance they will walk right through it, then what?
Anthony Smith, the current #5 ranked light heavyweight in the UFC is 6'4 and probably walks around at 230lbs. A guy on drugs broke into his house and Smith fought him and could not put him down. This is a guy that could defeat 99% of people on earth in a fight. I'm a big strong guy, Smith would absolutely murder me. Why would a normal civilian choose to fight a home invader with their fists when a more effective option is available? What if 2 people break in?
"Can I decide that only owning a gun is not enough against the other gun owners so I need something more effective?" I don't think firing a rocket launcher at someone in your house is going to be as effective as a firearm due to the potential for collateral damage. Also tanks play hell with my new wooden floors. Claymore mines are always a risk when stumbling around in the dark when the dog has to go outside. There is no other rational more effective choice than a firearm for someone defending their home provided they know how to use it.
If you're real argument is that no one should be able to kill someone else even if they are a home invader here to murder your family then Im not sure what to say. I guess I would like to know what you would do in that situation knowing what losing means.
It's fine to like and defend liberties often labeled "natural rights", but justifying them on the basis of their being "natural" doesn't tend to be a strong line of argument—while it does open up room for making jokes by intentionally confusing two senses of "natural", which one may as well since the word doesn't carry much meaning in the phrase "natural rights" anyway.
He runs for office and the people in power simply pull up his chat logs, accuse him of being a racist and thats it for him. This is just one obvious example but there are millions. He is in an open marriage, gay, a swinger, satanist, you name it, it will be used against him.
Its a way for the government in power to stay in power.
The noided assumption is that politicians and business leaders self-compromise in order to boost their chances of career success (and/or that they see getting compromised by Epstein et al as a career perk rather than a career mistake). It's the same principle as cops only being able to get promoted if they're known to be on the take.
This sort of law enables dragnet surveillance. Domestic Intelligence are always looking for new ways to take temperature readings on agitation before it boils over into public protest and to identify previously unknown community leaders that should be placed under more direct surveillance.
They thing is the Brits had a right and gave it up for no reason at all, and will give up more, without a fight.
* UK: Gun deaths per 100,000 people - 0.20
* USA: Gun deaths per 100,000 people - 12.21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...