No wonder there's so much violence over there if half the people own
   guns... Hmm... kind of reminds me of that 'Trigger Happy' song...
It's not hardly that simple.  Household gun possession is
substantially greater in Switzerland (just about every ablebodied male
has a government issued full auto capable battle or assault rifle and
ammo, and must demonstrate proficiency every year or so, or take a
boot camp refresher course).  Israel also has a high gun posession
rate and a low crime rate. 

I guess it all just depends on who is able to own guns ... it seems that
in the US any sicko can own a gun, like there is no gun laws or no 
system to check people who own guns. 

>From the news here, it seems that shootings and massacers in America
are a daily occurance ... over here, the whole country knows if someone
shoots more than 5 people in one shooting. It's a really big deal
because there are so little shootings and even less massacers compared
to what we hear of the US, and other countries.

   > Stereotypes have their utility; I didn't watch ID4, but we'd certainly
   > use our personal weapons on alien invaders.  I suspect smart aliens
   > would start with countries that have been disarmed by their
   > governments, like yours will be in short order....
   Thank Kamisama we won't end up like American with everyone and his dog
   (or half of them) having guns ... Guns in the hands of a lot of people
   mean that there's a greater change of morons getting guns, as well as
   psychos and other such people who shouldn't be near a gun. This means
   that here there will be a greater chance of morons and other such people
   having their guns taken OFF them! Yay! Guns are only for criminals and
   police and the military!
Just like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of
China, Cuba, etc. etc. etc.  10s of millions of disarmed people have
been slaughtered by their governments in this century (I estimate well
over 100 million, maybe over 200); I'll take my chances on a few
nutcases with guns over the prospect of me and mine getting herded
into a concentration camp without effective recourse.

And, from the news here, it's the people who are armed, they just spend
time shooting each other or another country.

You're government's "Australia Card" efforts would not have me
sanguine over the prospect of being disarmed.  I doubt you're lacking
would be totalitarians Down Under....

Haven't heard of that Card thing in *years*... They gave it up, I
think.

   >    Australia has Mormons, too ... though we all hate them...
   > Your intolerance is appalling.
   I guess you don't have them door knocking and never going away. They don't
   take 'No' for an answer. Same with Jehovah Witnesses...
And the police refuse to cart them away?

Well, you can shut the door in their faces before you need to call the
police, but that isn't really a nice thing to do.

They're more polite in the US as a rule; as Heinlein said, an armed
society is a polite society, and people tend towards politeness in the
homes of others ("your home is your castle").  Although I suspect
you'd best not show them any weakness....

Seems they're polite just because they're too scared to be otherwise.

Ob fanfic: the SM fanfics of Chris Davies are taking the SM fanfic
genre in some very interesting and worthwhile directions.  Not to
mention being very well written.  I'm looking forward to more.

					- Harold

Kun-chan...