Umpteenth shootout in the US, this time near New York's Empire State building

[Wezil]

Freedom to vs Freedom from

[Alexander's Horse]

canadians understand this

[Dauphin]

Americans want freedom from non-Americans telling them what to do.

If Americans want guns let them have guns. If I lived in the U.S. I would want stricter gun controls. My brother lives in the U.S. and I don't have any apprehension about him being shot by a gun nut any more than I do about him being mowed down by a drunk driver (which is also much more prevalent in the U.S. than in, for arguments sake Australia or the UK). Intriguingly, it's not the access to alcohol that is considered a problem in these countries (plus no 21 age limit), but the severe penalties for breach of the law (e.g. failing breath tests) is used to cut drunk driving - maybe the answer is more frequent random tests of gunowners to ensure they are maintaining their weaponry safely and in compliance of law. Being no expert, and more than a little tipsy right now, I could be espousing nonsense.

[Wezil]

I'm awaiting the advent of energy weapons.

When Billy Bob can go to the local Walmart and fetch a new phaser things are going to be exciting...

[C0ckney]

Guns are also more popular than drugs.

this is your problem right here, in a nutshell.

[MrFun]

It helps, if the guy wanting to make you not free has one.

You're way too melodramatic.

[SlowwHand]

You're way too sheltered.

[Dr Strangelove]

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEEDOOOMMM!!!

I could have sworn he said "wives".

[Lonestar]

No, I'm seriously trying to claim that we are nothing like Syria, and that we could use our tremendous number of guns to murder collaborators. I'm just curious about what sort of misconceptions you have.

Iraq had the second amount of private firearms per capita during the Hussein years(it went US-Iraq-Finland) and, as we all know, the Iraqis deposed Hussein and it totally wasn't through outside intervention.

Most revolutions are successfuly because of outside intervention, and even those without signifigant outside Intervention(French Revolutioon) require a big chunk of "the establishment" to side with the revolutionaries. Widespread private firearm ownership is not as big a check on a tyranny as people like to think.

[Lonestar]

Also, the bigger story here should be that the NYPD managed to gun down 8 bystanders standing 12ft away from the intended target.

[SlowwHand]

Throwing rocks last helped David against Goliath. People prefer more sophistication these days.

[DinoDoc]

I imagine some officers are going to be spending time at the range.

[Lonestar]

I'd add that Vermont has the most lax gun laws in the country and crime is not a problem there. Or that Finland trails only the US and Iraq in terms of private firearm ownership, and the violent crime rate isn't as bad. Of course, both Vermont and Finland have a much bigger social safety net than the US at large.

Rather than adding ink to the barrel, I can think of several things to curtail violent crime in the US:

(1)More funding for mental health care(which has been slashed for decades), and freeer access for those who need it. People like HC would scream "SOCIALISM" though.

(2)End the war on drugs

(3)Have firearms education be free and readily available.

(4)Encourage to media to stop glorifying these mass shooters.

[Lonestar]

Throwing rocks last helped David against Goliath. People prefer more sophistication these days.

While throwing rocks may have been enough to win against a fellow bronze-age tribal warlord(assuming we take the story at face value), you'd need something quite a bit more than some scratch riflemen to fight off even a modestly equipped and trained modern army, as Baathist Iraq showed.

[Alexander's Horse]

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want
(repeat)

Devo