courtgreene
Member
This is the most interesting thing I've read on THR. Thanks everyone!
I wonder what kind of SWAT operation would ensue if he took his race gun to school like I did back in the day. Or even leave it in his car, parked on school parking lot.
RetiredUSNChief said:I've got news for them...those who believe this about liberty will eventually discover they have no liberty left because they gave it all away. Eventually their posterity will have to shed copious amounts of blood to regain it
The Europeans have mastered the art of surrendering liberty to their governments.
With the way their leadership was leading the WW1 it is hard to blame them. They basically lost a whole generation on completely pointless and idiotic attempts of trying to get into the German trenches.The dang French embraced the Nazis for example or at least a lot of them did.
I am too young to know anything about that, but I don't think that this was the situation post world wars or even during cold war. Also, the main strategy in cold war was, due to the huge superiority of communist forces, to atom bomb most of Europe, turn it into radioactive wasteland impassable for communist forces. Strategy very much like throwing tens of thousands of men on German machineguns in WW1...And what really, really makes me sick is that we fought 2 wars trying to stop the worldwide spread of communism and the dang Euro trash bashed us every day for doing it.
I hope you are all well, and I am happy we can have this conversation here!I died on the OR table Christmas day - so all you zombie haters can just lay off!
We have very strict safe storage requirements.[...]
It s not that simple - evil nazis and americans saving the world. But that is OT.
At least the understanding is seeping in, that each and every one has to take care of their own safety and well-being, not just leaving to others. Or shortly, as the Clint Smith said - the police is minutes away if you need it right away.
I am too young to know anything about that, but I don't think that this was the situation post world wars or even during cold war.
The commies weren't any angels, but a friggin' treacherous mongols at the time.
Dear Cee Zee, there was no attack on your person, just that the Eastern part of Europe, like Baltics and Finns, have a different view on the classical evil vs good theme.
All of this is JMHO:
The Europeans, for the most part, have abandoned the Judeo-Christian belief system of individual accountability and the value of human life. Just look at the abortion rate of Europe and especially Russia. It's appalling.
I had a discussion with my brother about all this. About 1 year ago we talked about the decline of the Caucasian population in Europe and America, that is, the low birth rate compared to other ethnicities. I told him to look at the abortion rate over the last 40 years of the Caucasian population in the USA and in places like England as to one MAJOR reason for the declining birth rate.
Anyhow, that's a little off topic, my main point is, God is dead in the majority states of Europe and the people are little more than sheep lead by the state. This is one reason why Islam is taking root all over Europe.
The Europeans happily sacrifice individual freedom for their perceived conception of security. It's very ironic because Europe has proven over and over and over again that you CANNOT trust the state.
So I voted that most European states, especially places like France, will restrict even further, the rights of its citizens to arm and protect themselves.
Anyhow, that's a little off topic, my main point is, God is dead in the majority states of Europe and the people are little more than sheep lead by the state. This is one reason why Islam is taking root all over Europe.
Anyhow, that's a little off topic, my main point is, God is dead in the majority states of Europe and the people are little more than sheep lead by the state. This is one reason why Islam is taking root all over Europe.
The Europeans happily sacrifice individual freedom for their perceived conception of security. It's very ironic because Europe has proven over and over and over again that you CANNOT trust the state.
So I voted that most European states, especially places like France, will restrict even further, the rights of its citizens to arm and protect themselves.
Kabal said:It boggles my mind that a 20-year-old can't buy alcohol in the US, or that a twenty-something-year-old female teacher can be charged with statutory rape for having a consentual sexual relationship with a 17-year-old guy.
Well, there are two points here; 1.) Age 17 is still considered a "child" in American law. Children cannot consent to sex. 2.) The teacher/student relationship puts the child in the unfortunate position of being (atleast in theory) "compeled" to have sex with the teacher. It becomes an unfair relationship. This unfortunatly seems more apparent when the teacher is male and the student female. When this situation is reversed, unfortunatly social prejudices come into play in a different way --- the guys tend to snicker and atleast think "why didn't I have a teacher like that 30 years ago when I was in school."
I'm not sure I think there's much of a relationship between being religious and a gun owner in America. Generally, liberals seem to be more "antigun" while conservatives more "progun" but even that is at best a crude generality.
16 year olds having legal sex in Germany? Your jungen grow up schnell!
Well, there are two points here; 1.) Age 17 is still considered a "child" in American law. Children cannot consent to sex.
It is 15 here for sport shooters (must be member of a club, from 18 only needs to tick "sport shooting" on the license form) and 16 for hunters.Now it's quite a bit different; 18 is the minimum for all guns.
Do you need any special licensing for a private shooting range in Finland? Here we can shoot only at licensed ranges - which makes sense with high population density and right to pass through any unfenced property, but having some easier process of approval of private ranges would still be great.Only because I have a shooting range of my own and for the most part I wouldn't be caught dead at a public one
Do you need any special licensing for a private shooting range in Finland? Here we can shoot only at licensed ranges
I never made the direct link between Christianity and gun ownership, I made the direct link between the Judeo-Christian ethos of personal responsibility as opposed to giving up freedoms to the state. Sorry for the confusion.Well, god certainly is dead in the Czech Republic and Estonia, both with over 80% atheist population (by FAR the highest percentage in Europe). At the same time people in these countries enjoy much higher standard of freedoms - from freedom of speech through religion to gun rights (those being the only two EU countries with shall issue CC and moreover also may issue access to select fire rifles) than those living in religious European countries. Not to mention basically non-existent muslim population.
As regards abortion, I don't know about Estonia, but the atheist Czech Republic has also one of the lowest abortion rates from countries in the region, and that even when all the "abortion tourists" from christian countries like Poland and Hungary (with limited access to legal abortion) are taken into account. Sure, it is mostly due to use of contraception and condoms, things that youngsters in Poland and Hungary are forbidden to learn about, but hey, I personally prefer contraception & legal abortion over praying & shabby illegal abortion clinics any day.
And as it happens, the one of the worst gun laws in Europe may be found in Poland, the most christian country in Europe. If you believe in god and you think there is a correlation between faith and access to firearms, then your god must have a weird sense of humor regarding Europe.
In general, I think that in most European countries the tightening of gun laws in the 1980s-90s didn't take place on the background of a barter for perceived safety (like it did in England), but more on some kind of idiotic idea that guns don't belong to evolved cultural society. With crime being almost non-existent in vast parts of Europe by the end of 1980s and Warsaw pact becoming a joke instead of a threat, there was, sadly, little opposition to making firearms inaccessible to general population.
When Christianity becomes the state religion, it's no better than Islam. This is why there always needs to be a separation of church and state. One of the things that MOST people don't understand is that the US separates the church from the state in order to protect both the church and the state. That is the state cannot tell the church what to do and the church cannot dictate what the state can do. What the church can do, under the first amendment is speak it's mind. However, the church and state are definitely separate.Religion took a beating in eastern Europe because of the battles between the Muslims, the Catholics and the Protestants. They were actually the most Protestant area of Europe until the Holy Roman Empire forced people to convert. The Muslims did the same thing so that being a Protestant was like being suicidal. It's a shame that corrupt forces that mix God and politics have caused such problems.
BUT, after the fall of the Soviet Union there was a huge rush to reclaim Christianity in Russia. Some friends of mine moved to St. Petersburg to become missionaries. Thousands upon thousands of people joined their church. They had non-stop worship services because they couldn't fit everyone in their space at one time. It was like that all over Russia really. I think since then that some have become disillusioned but Christianity is certainly not dead there. The Russians were traditionally Orthodox of course so there was some conflict between what the old people remembered and what the mostly protestant missionaries believed. But it wasn't that big of a problem.
I really feel sorry for eastern Europe on this front. They are missing the most important aspect of life. I won't say any more because this isn't the place for it. But I can assure you, life is better when you're serving God. I know both sides of that coin and I'll never go back. In fact I would be dead if not for a miracle that was clearly a miracle and clearly from God. That's a long story and I'll tell it to anyone interested but only in a PM.
I don't see any connection between guns and religion though. Not in eastern Europe or anywhere else.