Bought a new shotgun

[tChr]

All that to come to one idea : if there are more people killed by guns in the USA, its imho only because guns are more usual in this country.

As I said.. There are more guns in Norway (and switzerland) than in the US, but we dont have these problesm.. On the other hande, there is no gun-shops in norway either.. you get guns at small departments in large sports stores, or through your hunting organization.

[:)]

Guns aren't the only thing: the environment,

Which environment?

The global ecosystem. Our emissions regulations are poor.

religion,

What are the US doing differently there?

Prosyletizing from citizens of the "Bible Belt" region is obnoxious. Have you found Jesus?

units of measure,

Hehe... well, historical reasons. The British brought them the inch... and look what they've made of it. I never understood why some "imperial" units of measure differ between US and UK.

It's rather nice to be fluent in two units of measure. The fact is that science has gone completely metric in the laboratory, but things that the stubborn public are commonly exposed to, like food, automobiles, and weather reports, are still using the old system.

seatbelts,

How so?

Seatbelt usage is around 75% now, but the biggest problem is that schools outside of New York and New Jersey do not have seatbelts on Schoolbusses. It's hard to get people out of their paradigms.

your cars,

Is THAT really weird in the US? I think the Germans must be really weird with respect to cars (well, not all, but many)... but the US?

It's true that many Americans shop for automobiles based on horsepower, which leads them to buy SUV's, trucks, and muscle cars. However, more and more people are changing this mindset; my two friends who owned Jeeps (in an urban area, too) sold them and bought more efficient vehicles, a Volkswagon and a Volvo. Fuel efficiency is the biggest factor I look for in a car.

paper sizes,

Natural conclusion from having those units of measure. Note that DIN A4 is a METRIC format in spite of the weird length and width... DIN formats are defined by "DIN A0 is one square METER in a certain aspect ratio, DIN A(n+1) = half of DIN A(n) (like folding), same aspect ratio". Starting from that, it follows that the aspect ratio must be the square root of two and the sizes of DIN A4 for example are 100/sqrt(sqrt(2))^7 x 100/sqrt(sqrt(2))^9 centimeters.

nothing to add here

why does the US have to do things so differently?

Because?

A history of isolation from Europe has made things what they are today, but really the world is growing smaller and eventually more uniform standards will be adopted worldwide, if that is entirely a good thing.

[:)]

All that to come to one idea : if there are more people killed by guns in the USA, its imho only because guns are more usual in this country.

As I said.. There are more guns in Norway (and switzerland) than in the US, but we dont have these problesm.. On the other hande, there is no gun-shops in norway either.. you get guns at small departments in large sports stores, or through your hunting organization.

The major flaw in the US system is gun shows, held like a convention where weapons distributors spend a week selling as many weapons as possible. There are age requirements to get into the place, but once you are in, you are at one of the easiest places to legally obtain a gun.

btw. I always spelled it as "bayonnette", it's always funny to have borrowed words like that, such as "dérailleur"

After so many school shootings, why haven't you got tighter gun controls? After Dunblane, gun laws became much stricter here and a similar thing happen in Australia around the same time.

Tighter gun controls would have been great, but firearms manufacturers and lobbyists are too powerful for that. So to appease the public concerned about school shootings, school laws, which have less opposition from corporations and lobbyists, were enacted which called for things like "zero-tolerance", meaning a kid who left a butter knife in his truck was expelled from school. Most urban school districts increased security. At the school I was going to, security cameras were installed, security officers were hired, and a police officer was personally assigned to a school of 2000 students. There are now metal detectors in schools, and security would search backpacks. I can't speak for the entire nation, because where I went to school was very racially divided (1950's-era busing for the purpose ending racial segregation was still in place) and there were indeed a lot of fights, but we only had 2 bomb threats during the four years I was there, and one kid got expelled for bringing a water pistol to school. Really though the main function of security now is to break-up fistfights, take disruptive students out of class, and to confiscate CD players, iPods, and Cell Phones, and the police officer is in charge of giving out student parking passes (and tickets) and directing traffic at the crosswalk.

[Shoe]

I think the gun laws in America go back to the days of the militia men, who felt they needed to arm themselves to protect their country. The mindset hasn't changed, even though the threat has - no longer do we really have to worry about an attack on our soil, but it's something that's sadly become to ingrained into our culture that people think they need guns to "protect" themselves. (this isn't related to game hunting - more people who get a bunch of weapons just for the sake of having them)

Also, a lot of gun-related killings happen as a result of gang violence, which is an unfortunate part of our society.

[kozak6]

The shotgun is mostly for shooting at junk out in the desert, trap shooting (at clay pigeons, which are small biodegradable flying discs), and possibly hunting.

It's a poor choice for crime or self defense. It only holds 4 rounds, and the barrel alone is 30 inches long (which works out to 76.2 cm). It's too long for hallway manuevers. The effective range is also poor when compared to other guns, and it is slow to reload.

Interestingly enough, shotguns often are preferred for home defense, but shorter ones that hold more shells are preferred. At very close range, shotguns are very effective, and the spread is nowhere near as much as you'd think.

As for Ed's differences:

Environment-
Lobbyists have tremendous political influence.

Gun laws-
Gun laws actually vary tremendously by state. In some states, it's incredibly difficult to purchase a firearm. Expensive permits, expensive classes, stringent storage requirements, expensive taxes, many banned categories of guns, and other things.

In my state, much less so. In states with less gun laws, it is a result of sort of a "frontier mentality" sort of thing, I think.

The main reason we don't have more federal weapon laws is mostly due to the current crop of politicians, I think. Most gun laws are passed at the state level. On the federal level, not so much. Many anti-gun politicians are overamibitious. They try to ban handguns or so called "assault weapons" and at a national level, it just doesn't go through.

In some of the more rural states, guns are also more of a part of life. Bullets are cheaper than buying meat at the grocery store, and owning firearms isn't considered unusual.

As for religion, could you go into more detail? Do you mean the opposition to gay)) marriage, abortion, and evolution? Or something else?

Units of measure-
The things is, they are very widely established. Screws, bolts, tools, hardware, machinery, roadsigns, everything. It would be extremely time consuming and expensive to switch over, and the public reaction to it would be mostly negative. And then, the old standards will still be present in everything from before the switch. It might happen eventually, but it will take a long time before it is even seriously considered.

The metric system is much easier to use. I'll admit it. It's true. We are taught it in school for all of our science classes.

Seatbelts? Paper sizes? No idea what you are talking about.

Cars? What about them? The gas guzzling monsters? Or percieved inferiority? I hate Fords too, you know. My brother has an old Ford Taurus, and it's terrible in every way. Poorly designed, and poorly built. It's a real piece of junk. If the rest of Ford's line is anything like the Taurus, it's amazing they are still in business. I don't know anything about Chevy, GMC, or the rest of them, but I don't plan on ever owning a Ford.

Gas was also previously much cheaper, so fuel inefficiency wasn't seen as a problem. I remember a time when I was a child, where gas was less than $1 USD per gallon (about 4 liters to a gallon). The gas guzzling monsters were also popular because the massive size and weight also helps protect you in accidents. It's important, you see, if you like to talk on your cell phone while driving.

Immigration? About 10% of Mexico's population is now living in the US, or at least that is what we are told. Also, it's very complicated because some powerful people want to keep their cheap cheap labor, while others want to give illegal immigrants rights, and while others want to simply kick them out. Mostly, though, it also makes for a wonderful distraction from the war in Iraq.

[Ed]

Gun laws:
The federal/state differences clearly lead to inconsistencies. I guess the lack of federal legislation means that same areas are very relaxed. Still doesn't explain the high number of shootings compared to other countries with relaxed gun laws. Switzerland allows fully automatic weapons yet has a very low rate of gun crime.

Religion:
Opposition to the theory of evolution is a small but important difference. More concerning is how some evangelicals see the war on terror. I've recently read an interview with a leading evangelical cleric who was saying that the war in Lebanon was the lead up to armageddon and Christians and Jews had to unite to destroy Islam. That's more worrying than any of the things they're trying to block.

Units of Meaure:
The UK has converted just about everything in under 40 years. Only transport remains to be done. Of course, there are many people who revert to using pagean units which is still a problem. The other difference in the US is how your 'English' measures differ from our Imperial measures. You use a 440ml pint and a 3.8litre gallon whereas ours were 568ml and 4.54litre. This is a general problem with unsystematic measures which have never been unilaterally standardised, hence the need for metric.

Seatbelts:
Seatbelt wearing in the US is catching up with European countries but has been so bad historically that your airbags are tuned for a person who is not wearing a seatbelt. This is why airbags in the US kill more people than in the rest of the world.

Paper sizes:
You use letter, legal etc. Just about everyone else uses ISO A sizes. If you think it can't be changed, we did in 1959.

Cars:
It's not just the enormous engines but the low specific powers, high weigths, lack of sophistication and poor handling. This page gives some interesting figures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_au ... perlatives

It seems like the only good things that American vehicales can claim in there is high production and having the fastest pick up truck, something else related to the frontier mentality.

[obi_wan]

I remember a time when I was a child, where gas was less than $1 USD per gallon (about 4 liters to a gallon)

interesting thing... how does it costs now ?

for me nowadays it costs 1,30 euros per Liter ($6,30 USD / Gallon) ...

[:)]

Gas right now costs just under 3 USD for a gallon of 87 octane. Everyone complains about it, and there are conspiracy theories in the newspapers, but nobody mentions is that it is ridiculously underpriced, because of deals cut by the Oil Companies and the Administration with oil-producing nations.
Gas should be more expensive here, so people would start considering mass transportation and other more efficient ways of transport. One of the places that I lived had a population of 1.6 million, however the trains there are used for industrial shipping, and the small bus service was only used by the economically disadvantaged. Even at my fairly large university, everyone drives their own car.
When I tell people I only ride my bike and the bus, they can't imagine how that could not be a waste of time.

[tChr]

Gas right now costs just under 3 USD for a gallon of 87 octane.

wtf? 87 !?!

That like raw oil.. i run on 98..

[:)]

going back to Ed's standards complaint

Some nations describe fuels according to the traditional RON or MON ratings, so octane ratings cannot always be compared with the equivalent U.S. rating by the "(R+M)/2 method".