Bill, Don't take TV and movie appearances of SWAT teams and pistols as common occurances in my neighborhood. The only guns I've seen here have been in the holsters of policemen. I don't ever recall seeing a weapon 'in hand' by anyone.
The situation would be different, I suppose, if I were a 16-25 year old Hispanic or Black kid living on the south or west sides of Chicago. And it's a gang problem... Nobody in my neighborhood straps on a gun and camos every day. I know that you don't like guns and our gun laws, but don't paint us all as a bunch of raving lunies. The area south of you all the way to the Mexican border is 'wide open spaces', with plenty of folks who want to be 'The Marlboro Man'. The rest of us, not so much... Regards, Bob S. On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 9:39 AM, William Robb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 11/08/2011 7:45 AM, Steven Desjardins wrote: >> >> The danger is always that this sort of thing triggers precisely that >> sort of government response, with the consent and support of the >> governed. I can think of how easily Americans adapted to the idea of >> SWAT teams, and never thought of them as "heavily armed, armoured, and >> black clad Ninja cops". > > Much of that is cultural. You live in a society where many citizens strap on > a gun with as little thought as putting on their pants. It's just part of > what they wear, and your society is also very big into military and all the > trappings that go along with it. > When you are carrying a Glock and dress in camo as a matter of course, > seeing someone wearing camo and carrying a rifle is no big deal. > Where I am, I don't even know if we have anything that would compare to one > of your swat teams, but I do know that seeing a bunch of cops running around > in bullet proof vests and carrying assault rifles is very uncommon, and is a > very big deal. > > The first time I saw someone other than a policeman carrying a gun, I was > sitting outside of a laundromat in Jackson Wyoming, and a biker wandered > past me with a very large pistol in a holster. > Before that, I had always felt more or less safe in your country, but after > that, I was always a bit wary travelling in the USA. > > -- > > William Robb > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
