Have we made progress?? Are we safer?

Idahou said:

I dont think you can objectively compare "today" with "past".

Its just diffrent times, diffent moral codes and diffent general stress level.
In last years/decades we, regardless in which country, had to deal with new infuences and threats.
That also means more sources of stress
There is also much more ppl (generally) everywhere, meaning its not like old times when everybody knew theirs neighbors and there was some sort of local "social credit" (like "oh, thats old Bills kid going to hunt squirrels" instead "i never saw this guy and he have gun")

For example - there wasnt much of change in Czech gun laws in past 30 years and in that time there was huge changes in crime count in generall.
But gun crimes?
It keeps declining (but now its on such a low level that even one gun crime means like 30% of all gun crimes in year)
Absolute majority dont need and dont feel need to have gun (there is about 330k gun owners in Czech, including game keepers, per almost 11 milion citizens)

Is it because gun laws?
Not quite, i would say.

Till revolution in 1989 there was a big presence of Warsaws (soviets) pact soldiers and when they had to move out... they "lost" A LOT of theirs firearms (and other equipment). They were litterally changing Akms for packs of cigarets or goods valuable in theirs country.

After revolution there was a lot of illegal, untracable weapons, a lot of "revolutionaries", a lot of "broken dreams" and a lot of crime. We dont talk about that much, but it was quite a wild land. Firm communists hand was gone and ppl wasnt sure how to look at "new" LE organizations

Now i can and have legally few weapons and i carry... pepper spray most of the time. Don't get me wrong, i like to carry my gun and it just feels right on my belt, yet there is not really reason. I know its absolutely different view than in US and somebody will say that i will regret it when suddenly a psycho with fullauto will jump form bushes, but that chance is here much more slimer and more likely i will be engaged in some citizen dispute where gun will be more a burden

Just wanted to point on fact that gun laws, gun restriction and its effects are much more complex and non-snad-alone topic

Click to expand...

I do get that.

Gun crime is low, crimes where guns are used are low, even in cities! However they DO attract media attention. Generally speaking, as a citizen, taking a gun to an incident is an escalation, unless there are already firearms present. I was a Police officer here from the 80's to the 2000's. In the mid 80's to late 90's armed robberies were a 'thing' with firearms, they died off after that. Then there were replica's, knives, threats, then blood filled syringes, and things. Firearms offences, unless related to some bikies, became a thing of the past. The current drug issues have made youth crime, robberies using other means, more prevalent again (here, that it a problem of our own creation, with children's rights, the lack of parental rights, and the namby pamby system).

The chances of an idiot with a full auto rambo gun, here, are small! As I live semi-rural, the chances of an armed person trespassing are slightly higher, but most of those are idiots!

When you look at the stats in America, and take away suicides (which is a dumb thing to add into stats aimed at violent crime) you see much the same thing, robbery by other means is far higher than firearms use.

Murders with firearms, in USA is actually static, by the FBI stats>> https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u....019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls
That is around 10,000 a year, in a population over 325 MILLION.

Violent crimes are fairly large, but firearms use is not as high as you would expect, with opportunity weapons (a knife, a piece of pipe), featuring in more:
(from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/violent-crime )
Information collected regarding types of weapons used in violent crimes showed that firearms were used in 73.7 percent of the nation’s murders, 36.4 percent of robberies, and 27.6 percent of aggravated assaults. (Weapons data are not collected for rape.) (See Expanded Homicide Data Table 7, Robbery Table 3, and the Aggravated Assault Table.)

Whilst not saying America does not have a huge problem with its gun culture, violence, and a weird way of thinking about gun 'rights', perception, and reality, for both side of that argument seem a long way from each other.

They need to meet in the middle.

In Australia we have given up some 'rights' in exchange for some 'peace'; the logical was taken, with the illogical, people in the middle of cities don't REALLY need semi-automatic, high capacity firearms, generally. Rural people did/do need reasonable capacity pump/semi-auto shotgun/s, rifles, do need faster access to firearms, however, 10 shots is a comfortable upper limit, 5 shots would be better than nothing. I really liked some of the firearms I surrendered in the buybacks, I do get that it hurts to give up something you've had.

We need to address the fear of those never exposed to firearms, and firearms safety. We need to be truthful about the balance between risk, and freedom. We need to be truthful about incidents, accidents, and the lies that lie within statistics. We need to stop putting up more barriers, creating more legislation, just because it play well in the big cities. We are being managed, the politicians look for scapegoats, especially to cover their failure, firearms control is one of those scapegoats.

We need to ensure WE don't somehow give them an opportunity, that we don't stuff up!

In Australia I believe we went too far, we missed the middle ground, and the logical position; that is true of so much of the Government intrusion in our lives.

And sticking to topic, this is all about firearms, firearms safety, firearms ownership. We are lucky we can own firearms, we can use firearms, we can discuss firearms (just read caution above). I am not referring to political parties, just to facts. We must ensure we don't threaten other with firearms, be aware some feel threatened by firearms, we must show old world courtesy.