User blog comment:Forestpaw13/Oh People these days./@comment-24176360-20130419081638/@comment-1839575-20130421234346

......why is economy even relevant right now??

In other news, I agree entirely with Tangle (surprise, surprise). And what I think REALLY showcases the difference between our countries is that after a large massacre with a machine gun back in... 1996, I believe, Australia reacted instantly. They lobbyed hugely for gun control, did everything they could to tighten up every law, and initiated the highly successful 'buy-back' program, where people could return their now illegal guns to the government and would recieve money in return. Anonymity was also promised to people returning guns - so that even if you returned a whole armoury, you wouldn't get in trouble. They ended up recieving a HUGE amount of guns back, and spent the next few months closing down gun shops, confiscating guns from the black-market, and basically bringing the gun-trade in Australia to almost a complete halt. As a result, by the time I was born a year later, we lived in a mostly gun-free country, and I have grown up feeling completely and utterly safe. The only gun-related violent crimes I remember hearing about in the past 15 years of my life were occasional gang shootings in the big cities - Sydney and Melbourne - and the only guns they could find were tiny handguns, which made it hard for them to kill multiple parties. Since 1996 Australia has never had another similar massacre, and we've had very very few gun deaths.

Compare that to the USA in these past sixteen years...