Australian comedian perfectly sums up why other countries think US gun laws are crazy

[n2doc]

Yesterday in Moneta, Virginia, local news reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were shot and killed on live TV while broadcasting from a shopping center. The suspected gunman has been identified as Vester Flanagan, a former employee of the news station. Flanagan reportedly shot himself after being pursued by police.

Every shooting is its own private tragedy for the victims and their families. But events like this are also part of a much bigger problem. The United States has far more gun violence than the rest of the developed world. To Americans, that can seem like a regrettable but unavoidable fact of life. But to much of the rest of the world, the US attitude toward gun control seems absolutely crazy.

Australian comedian Jim Jefferies was the victim of a home invasion once. He was tied up and beaten, and his girlfriend was threatened with rape. So you might think he'd sympathize with the idea that Americans want guns to protect their families. Quite the opposite — he does an excellent job of summing up why so many foreigners are baffled by America's gun culture:

In Australia, we had the biggest massacre on Earth, and the Australian government went: "That's it! NO MORE GUNS." And we all went, "Yeah, all right then, that seems fair enough, really."

Now in America, you had the Sandy Hook massacre, where little tiny children died. And your government went, "Maybe ... we'll get rid of the big guns?" And 50 percent of you went, "FUCK YOU, DON'T TAKE MY GUNS."

He continues with a blistering smackdown of the idea that Americans seek guns to keep their families safe...

more with video

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/24/8283199/gun-control-comedy-jefferies

[Tipperary]

1. He makes an excellent point. But I do not see the guns of America going anywhere anytime soon.

That is my opinion.

[SwissTony]

4. I can see your point.

The gun culture in Oz was bad enough. Nobody wanted to give up their guns. We even had films such as "Smiley gets a gun" in which a child earns a gun (.22 rifle if memory serves me right). In the 50s.

But we changed the culture. Thank you, John Howard. I still can't believe I'm saying this.

But if you don't try to change the culture, it won't change.

[Tipperary]

8. I certainly agree we should not give up on trying to change, but I know that my

neighbors out here in the country have very large caliber weapons. I hear them shooting all the time. Most of them are hunters, but they shoot year round. Some of these weapons sound like cannons to me, not deer rifles. I can not imagine how anyone could get all the guns that are out there.

[sarisataka]

9. What was done

to change the culture?

[SwissTony]

10. I think it was the fact that both sides of the political spectrum

came out against gun ownership. We didn't really have an equivalent of the NRA in Oz, not in terms of power and influence (and I concede that's a big difference). But the gun buy-back was instituted by Liberal PM John Howard. Our Liberals are our right wing party.

The magnitude of the Port Arthur massacre shocked Australians. 35 people dead plus more injured. We'd had the Hoddle Street shootings and the Queen Street shootings etc which were bad enough. But Port Arthur just blew everything out of the water.

So, Port Arthur (arguably) turned things around.

But we never had the gun culture the US has/had. I didn't know anyone who had a gun except farmers (justified) and would be "hunters" (who would shoot kangaroos for no reason other than they stood still for long enough to be shot). Even if they couldn't find the bush if their lives depended on it. No, not that bush, the great Australian outdoors.

So, that's farmers and dickheads.

I know the US has to start (if it wants to) from a much different and difficult position that we had. A helluva lot of hard work. I know. Actually, I don't know. I don't know American gun culture, except for what I read. And what i read even on DU is pretty scary. But if people say it won't work, it won't. End of story.

John Oliver did a three piece report on gun control. You've probably seen it, but it's well worth watching...

&list=PLOKWcH1zBl2kfnCwyyZWk5MW28lgaNa7L&index=1

[sarisataka]

11. I haven't seen that

but I do love John Oliver. I watch his FIFA segment at least once a week and laugh so hard I cry

I will give his segment a watch because until we can get our two side together we will be locked in status quo.

[SwissTony]

12. I love JO as well.

Like me, he's a great football fan And that's "football" you yanks, not "soccer".

He's actually had a total of 9 segments on FIFA and its corruption. I've got them downloaded and if you're interested, I'll dig out the links.

If you love FIFA (vomit, vomit), you should watch United Passions. It's arguably the worst film ever. In it, "Sepp Bladder" warns some national representatives not to try and make money out of the world cup i.e. corruption. It is truly cringeworthy. I watched it, but I could only do it 15 minute blocks.

[sarisataka]

13. Please send them

Last edited Thu Aug 27, 2015, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

I've been trying for over four decades to get my Fellow Americans to realized 'football' is a match played on a pitch. Not some bizarre spectacle of roided out armored apes bashing into each other once every 45-60 seconds.

And I laugh so hard because I was a certified (low level) FIFA referee for several years and I know he is not exaggerating how awful FIFA is. Back when I was a linesman- yup that long ago- I watched a referee send off a player officially for repeated fouls (3) but really it was because the referee did not like the guy's hair.

[SwissTony]

14. I'll do it tomorrow. Not much time tonight (European time)

I'm absolutely thrilled that Americans are exposing how corrupt FIFA is. Finally!!

Thank you, USA.

[sarisataka]

15. No worries mate

[SwissTony]

16. Here they are

The original just before WC 2014 (you almost certainly have it)

The second edition: arrest of FIFA officuials

FIFA III and United Passions

FIFA IV Oliver drinks a bottle of Budweiser

Jack Walker's appearance on Trinidadian TV

John Oliver: Mittens of disapproval

Jack Walker's response to John Oliver

&feature=youtu.be


JO's response to JW

Blatter and FIFA's problems

[sarisataka]

17. Thanks much

Today is going to be filled with laughter

[Fast Walker 52]

19. Oliver is good at hitting nerves-- let's hope he takes on gun control in the near future!

[SwissTony]

21. I cited a 3 part piece he did for TDS

comparing gun control in the US and in Oz.

Part 1.

&list=PLOKWcH1zBl2kfnCwyyZWk5MW28lgaNa7L&index=1


Here's part 2

&index=2&list=PLOKWcH1zBl2kfnCwyyZWk5MW28lgaNa7L

Part 3

&index=3&list=PLOKWcH1zBl2kfnCwyyZWk5MW28lgaNa7L

[Fast Walker 52]

23. oh yes-- thanks!

I'm hoping he does a long segment on it in his new show.

[CBGLuthier]

18. You are, sadly correct

We can get rid of a stupid flag but guns are the lifeblood of the American experience. Americans love guns more than children, apple pie or life itself because so many Americans know they need a gun to protect them from the tyranny of what has yet and probably will never happen.

They really pledge allegiance to the bullet and the blood for which it stands, one nation knee deep in the bodies of their victims and fuck the justice of it anyway because freedom yeah and America fuck yeah.

The country of my birth has become a grotesque caricature of anything decent and life affirming.

[Beta Male]

2. Not just Gun Laws

Most of the world thinks this entire country is looney-tunes!

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Maybe it is time to start a political organization that can counter the

legal assault that the NRA can afford through its membership fees?

[hack89]

5. People don't care that much

if it were not for a certain ex-republican billionaire and his astroturf organization there would be no organized gun control movement in America at all.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. People who have lost loved ones will support it.

As will their friends and family members.

[Ron Green]

6. The combination of history, geography and our particular capitalism

in the US have given us an exceedingly toxic culture.

[Fast Walker 52]

20. yep-- and colonial culture

[Bigmack]

22. I look at it this way...

Either the problem is that we have so many guns...or that we are that violent.

If it's guns .... we need to do something to control them.

If it's us... that is, if we are just that violent... we need to do something to control the weapons of violence. Which is not frying pans or corkscrews. It's guns.

Other countries like us have restive minorities, gangs, violent movies and videogames, and the same incidence of mental illness. And yet their homicide rates are a fraction of ours.

Same with police killings of civilians... a tiny fraction of ours.

The cause of our violence is either guns or us.. and either way we need to do SOMEthing to change our situation.

[justiceischeap]

24. I agree with your assessment and will take it a step further

People in the US feel they are entitled to be whatever they want to be... if that includes being violent, so be it. With a society full of entitled people, handing out guns like lollipops at the doctors office is akin to giving certain people a license to kill. If we invested half as much time on the mentally ill in the US as we did on lobbying for gun rights, I think our gun violence problem would dwindle.