[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”][quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]America is not the only country with a high rate of gun ownership. Take Switzerland, for instance.
Anyway, like every place, America is very much shaped by its history. It has (had) a completely different set of circumstances to Australia.
Australia was essentially mono-cultural/racial; founded by convicts (not religious puritans), a couple of hundred years later (so there were radically different ideas floating around); federated peacefully and has never fought a war on its soil. Of course that’s going to give a very, very different perspective.[/quote]
I mean guns specifically for shootin’ people. In any case, I thought Switzerland’s guns are mostly hunting, and military - yeah, yeah, shootin’ people related, but essentially with some military discipline factored into their use.
I’d say Australia’s history is equally as violent as America’'s, up to the civil war, and I’m sure our much abused abos could do without being completely forgotten from our early days, especially when we spent so much effort trying to wipe them out. perhaps we were just better at it than Americans?
Hmm, now as for America being so divided, perhaps I should just sit back and watch the thread and ponder. I didn’t really think we’d get to go each other’s throats on here.
HG[/quote]
Well, the guns for shooting people thing again comes from America’s history. America as its modern, political incarnation, started with a war, and it also started in the 18th Century, which was a much different philosophical/political animal than the late 19th Century when Australia was starting to gain a national consciousness. The right to bear arms had philosophical under-pinnings, but it also had a very good practical reason: to be able to stand up to tyrannical government.
I’m not an expert on Switzerland, but from what I know, every adult male is essentially on-call to defend the nation if necessary (which means having a functional firearm). Of course, Switzerland hasn’t been involved in any war for hundreds of years (perhaps because of this, amongst other reasons?), but that’s not the point.
Back to America. America’s more recent gun-woes can probably be related to something else other than the right to bear arms. I’m sure someone could correct me if I’m wrong, but most of the gun-related crime, death, injuries, etc. don’t occur as a result of some middle-aged white dude who lives in the suburbs or countryside and takes a hard line interpretation of the Bill of Rights. The elephant in the room that no one wants to mention is that most gun crime, injuries and fatalities are perpetrated by young, urban, black males. If people really want to get to the bottom of what’s going on with guns, they don’t need to be pointing fingers at the weekend warrior in the 46 inch waist camo pants who moonlights as a civil engineer Monday to Friday.
As for Australia’s history, my understanding of it was that it was actually marked by relatively little military violence. Seriously, the closest anyone ever got to any military action in Australia was what happened at Eureka, or a rum rebellion, neither of which really qualifies. As for the situation with aboriginals, again, I don’t know that it was anywhere near as organised (even if it was certainly intended to be, which I don’t think it was) as how many American natives were wiped out, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I’m not talking about them for the same reason that I’m not talking about American natives: they don’t figure that prominently in circles of power. The much bigger issue of black history in America has no equivalent in Australia.
Anyway, just saying that Australia is a much different nation to America in a similar way that Canada is a much different nation to America.