MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Despite Obama's efforts for gun control, US firearms production jumped 140% in five years
Despite President Barack Obama’s push for greater gun control measures, it would seem that firearm production has boomed during his administration. The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently released its “2015 Firearms Commerce in the United States Annual Statistical Update,” in which the agency pointed out a nearly 140% increase in gun production from 2008 to 2013, the last year with available statistics. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesNo wonder that there is a massacre weekly in the United States. Sometimes two.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 10:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0With all social and economic data that we all have access, I can not understand how the US can be considered a developed country. A nation of fat people, with an awful weather, pockets of poverty reminiscent of Africa, violence in every corner and in every church, racial conflicts that verge on civil war, stratospheric national debt, budget deficit champion, most wars provider that the world has ever seen...
If that country is the world leader, I believe that soon there will be no world.
What an absolute pathetic article.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 11:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0Obama can't be blamed for any of this.
Americans just love guns. It's weird and most other countries don't understand it.
But thankfully there and not here.
@1. A comment from the murder capital of the world! No wonder Brazil has, as its major characteristics, corruption, crime, murder, unlawful killing, pollution, poverty, druggies, political/financial scams.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 12:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If current plans go ahead, Brazil will be charged with the premeditated governmental murder of Olympic athletes.
There does seem to be a case for taking the chance of global annihilation provided south america is destroyed first. Hands up those who agree with the obliteration of argieland, bolivia, brazil, ecuador, peru, venezuela!
The right to bear arms is a constitutional right in our country.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 12:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Liberals want to take this right away from us!
FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!
Liberals want no such thing. Extreme conservatives convince the idiots that that is the case. people, not “liberals” do not want nuts to have guns but these “idiots” find background checks intrusive on the 2nd amendment all the while all the others are pissed on. But that's ok.......the majority of all these shooting sprees take place in “anyone can have a gun states”. You want anyone to have a gun.....live with the tradeoffs.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 01:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Do they kiss you when they fuck your ass sipping their kool aid?
While it's true that whenever any President demands new gun restrictions that firearm sales go up.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 01:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The it's the proliferation of “Shall Issue” laws being passed in the individual States that have led to the surge in handgun sales.
Shall Issue - now effective in almost all the States required that the State shall issue a concealed weapons permit to anyone legally allowed to own a firearm.
Tens of millions of people are walking around with a concealed weapon today and 99% of the time someone would never know that the lady next to you is careing a .45 in her pocket.
And of those newly issued permits, the fastest growing segment are being issued to woman.
Crime rates have been going down simply because even if the person you wanted to rob isn't carring a weapon... That little old lady across the street just might be.
I've been carrying for over 10 years and have never had to “unconceal” it. But it's nice to know its there if I did have to do so.
By the way. Less then 0.001% of concealed permit holders have ever been convicted of a felony. They group of tens of millions is the most law-abiding group of people in the world.
Reminds me of the scene on the train in the second Predator Movie...
Aug 06th, 2015 - 02:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0One pulls out a gun and everyone has one....
Convince yourselves all you like, but there is no justification for carrying guns...I have been offered a gun several times, because of the remote location I stay....
I'm having none of it and yet I still survive....
As you guys know I am very pro gun, but I am also all for ”Only good guns can have guns'.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 03:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There needs to be some common ground struck to make it extremely hard for any nutters or criminals to get hold of guns.
The guns laws here in Argentina are actually quite reasonable (although I would like a concealed carry permit but can't get one here).
Should be instant 10 years in jail for any unregistered firearm.
The big question is: Does Conquerer have access to guns??
8 - even if that was politically possible - which it isn't. There are several hundred MILLION guns owners in the U.S. and the majority will NEVER allow them to be registered. Every US city that did require full registration subsequently outlawed the ownership of those guns and used those registration lists to confiscate them.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 04:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So the real world issue would be that if you made registration a legal require tv with a prison penalty where would the U.S. put a couple hundred million just-beame felons?
Besides its already for a felon to own it have a firearm. Very few of them when cought with one get prosecuted as we already have strong penalties for that.
But our prisons are already overcrowded and we in the U.S. are seriously talking about reform so that fewer people spend time in jail.
So if we hesitate to place exiting criminals found with a gun, why would it make any sense to criminalize a majority of all the otherwise law-abiding people?
The NRA owns the AMerican political system. It is the ONLY amendment in the laughable Bill of Rights. Well that and the 3rd
Aug 06th, 2015 - 04:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The NRA does not want background checks. And where are these mass shooting taking place? In easy gun states. I remember when we called it “going postal” because most were distress vets working at the USPS. Now, anytime a nutjob wants to kill themselves they can easily do it in fashion but going to seven eleven in the hill billy states of the southern bible belt and the rest is history.
Maybe my time in the military made me repulsed by guns, but we really do love our guns and violence in the USA. Hell Florida tried to make it mandatory to own and carry one a few years back. Now how much inbreeding does it take to think like that?
Quote real stats....their are not 200,000,000 gun owners in the USA.....geez.
Those hilly billy states......you can get off of prison after serving 10 years.....go to your local guns and candy store and walk out with anything to want. The real funny thing is that these hard core gun mongers find it okay to have their kids killed in pre-school than to submit to a background check. Oh....being from Maryland as you are Rick, you then know that handgun registration is required there.....Public Safety code 5-143. We all remember the DC sniper.
Most gun deaths are in area with very strict gun control.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 06:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It doesnt work
Just ask the black people in chicago ny dc Baltimore oakland etc.
Americans love guns
they will never go away
I think the “love”'of guns stems from a culture of freedom, self-reliance and a moral aversion to being a victim or having ones loved ones being victimized.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 06:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm not sure if this is actually a true statement of his, but it's been attributed that :
God made all Men. Sam Colt made all men equal. And based on the sales of guns to women... they are catching on too'
Cap: that section only applies to people moving into the State and one implimented by gun grabbing state politicians such as Martin O'Malley.
Guns Guns and more guns, big guns small guns , automatic guns and manual guns,
Aug 06th, 2015 - 07:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0how many guns have police arrested , how many guns have you seen sent to prison or the death chamber,
Guns don't kill people, PEOPLE use guns to kill,
people pull the trigger,
just saying like ...
It's a known fact that the crime rate is lowest amongst communities where there are lots of gun owners.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 07:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That said, @1 brASSHOLE Burraaaaldo, let's analyze your misconceptions :
1) “No wonder that there is a massacre weekly in the United States. Sometimes two. ”
“Massacre weekly” ?? OK, you illiterate idiot, we know what you mean....but before you accuse the USA, how about looking at your own backyard ??
2) “With all social and economic data that we all have access, I can not understand how the US can be considered a developed country”.........
You need to look at the crime rate per 100,000 inhabitants......Brazil is a leader in these negative stats.... and d'you think that all the massacres ('chacinas') that happen on a weekly basis here in Brazil, make news abroad ? ....not likely, who gives a shit ??
3) “....pockets of poverty reminiscent of Africa,”
How dramatic...I lived in West Africa for nearly 5 years, travelled quite extensively to 15 countries, and believe me, it is parts of Brazil that resemble the worst in Africa, where crime and poverty are endemic.
4) “If that country is the world leader, I believe that soon there will be no world.”
I wouldn't worry if I were you....you'll never get to live in the US, but you can always emigrate to Venezuela, where I hear , there is a blooming tropical paradise....where you will be greeted with open arms...
We had a Police Chief here some years back, I was just resettling at the time, He allowed an 8 year old to play with a micro uzi. Short story short, and 8 year old can't handle the kick and kicked up and sprayed round through his own head.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 07:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Man do we love guns here in the USA.
The USA was forged in violence, matured in violence, refused to grow up and will die a violent death as well.
Well Cap, that's one way of looking at it.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 09:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But you might want to ask which other nation on Earth was NOT “forged” by violance? Evil people have no objection to violence if it gains them their desires.
They are still doing so.
Be it a political group or be it the guy who wants to rape your wife.
You can decide- since you live in a free country - what your moral imparatives are.
I choose, and have chosen that my 3 (now adult)and um... Still alive) kids will have the skills and ability to protect themselves and their families long after I'm not able to do so. All of them can shoot - very well.
You can make your decision as you feel best. Please don't infringe on my right to also do so.
We allow people to lead their lives as sheep if they choose, but damn if I am going to support the denigration and elimination of sheep dogs just to spare the sheep from being frightened by their existence.
@16 Captain,
Aug 06th, 2015 - 09:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I respect the position of those who don't want to own a gun, and I firmly believe that a thorough background check should be carried out on everyone (without exception) with aspirations to owning one.....but 'responsible' citizens should have the right to protect themselves.....after they've learned how to handle a gun.
About 30 years ago, I used to travel to certain towns in the interior of Sao Paulo on business, along many virtually unpoliced highways, and to be quite honest with you, to be able to carry a concealed weapon (legally registered with a carry permit) was a relief.
If guns prevent so much crime and lower the crime rate so much.... then why is there lower crime in countries such as the UK and Australia where we have some of the most restrictive gun ownership laws.
Aug 06th, 2015 - 09:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes we supposedly gave up our liberties to be at the mercy of a dictatorial government who would ride roughshod over all our rights...... and yet didn't.
If Americans want to live in a society where guns are prevalent and without restrictions then go right ahead, it doesn't affect me thankfully. But when the bullsh!t claims about how guns prevent or lower crime come out then I have to laugh.
I don't live in a crime free society - there is no such place really - but I never have to worry about being shot. The granny on the tram next to me is packing in her purse and neither is the feral guy picking at his face and thank God the quiet loner in the trench coat isn't either.
Rick's kids and family may all be alive, however with a homicide rate that is only a quarter the rate in the US, then your chances would be even higher in a gun restricted society likes ours where you don't even have to wonder if you are able to protect yourself.
In the States the skinny little runt in the pick up is a threat...in the UK you wouldn't give him a second glance...
Aug 06th, 2015 - 11:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What's the difference....he probably has a gun....
....the same tired old excuses....
You wouldn't need to arm yourselves if everyone also didn't have a gun...
Most of our homicides are in 5 long term democrat conrolled cities but even in these cities the crime is usually restricted to a certain area.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 12:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0The vast majority of the USA is very very safe.
As I've said before where I grew up nobody locked their door. We didnt even have keys when we sold it and I didnt grow up somewhere rural.
Hell. I still don't lock my doors! Well. I lock the front door but leave the back doors open. I don't even know if i have a house key! Ok. The garage door is electronic and I know the code... Only my wife when she's home alone locks that anyway.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 12:28 am - Link - Report abuse 0I don't even lock my car at home most of the time.
A couple dogs and a Remington 12 gauge next to my bed is sufficient security for me at home.
95% of all violent crime is committed within 1% of the country. Ya just have to remember that leaves 4% elsewhere... And be careful within the anti-gun controlled 1% inner-city areas.
Well I can see the propaganda is in full flow.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 12:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Most of our homicides are in 5 long term democrat conrolled cities”
False!
“95% of all violent crime is committed within 1% of the country. Ya just have to remember that leaves 4% elsewhere.”
False!
The U.S. government doesn't lie or hide statistics like Venezuela and Argentina do, so I suggest you avail yourself of it instead of spouting nonsense.
You should know by now I never post anything false.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 05:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0Im on my phone so search is limited but I assure you I am correct.
Remind me next week when im back home and ill find you the links.
There used to be a kind of subliminal smugness in my country whenever a nutcase went on a rampage in the US. And then it started happening here. In the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre we had 13 episodes of mass murder where there were 4 victims or more. Since John Howard, with peerless political skill, instigated a gun buy-back scheme and persuaded the states to change their laws, there hasn't been a single crime in that category. Not one.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 07:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0The American Journal of Law and Economics found that firearm suicides were reduced by 74%.
Unsurprisingly the NRA hates - and I use the word advisedly - our gun laws. ow they are upset that we are planning to ban rapid firing shotguns. This lobby group are so used to controlling the political agenda in there own country they actually think they can do the same here. What these idiots seem incapable of understanding is that our gun laws were only possible because there was overwhelming support for it from the public. And our attitudes haven't changed. And every time a lunatic, or spurned lover, or fired employee gets the marching orders in their head and goes hunting...it just hardens our resolve.
23
Aug 07th, 2015 - 12:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0WTF??....search is limited....who'd you buy your phone from Fred Flintstone...?
What no Google...?
Skip ---
Aug 07th, 2015 - 03:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN
April 13, 2009
It is a common fantasy that gun bans make society safer. In 2002 -- five years after enacting its gun ban -- the Australian Bureau of Criminology acknowledged there is no correlation between gun control and the use of firearms in violent crime. In fact, the percent of murders committed with a firearm was the highest it had ever been in 2006 (16.3 percent), says the D.C. Examiner.
Even Australia's Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research acknowledges that the gun ban had no significant impact on the amount of gun-involved crime:
In 2006, assault rose 49.2 percent and robbery 6.2 percent.
Sexual assault -- Australia's equivalent term for rape -- increased 29.9 percent.
Overall, Australia's violent crime rate rose 42.2 percent.
Moreover, Australia and the United States -- where no gun-ban exists -- both experienced similar decreases in murder rates:
Between 1995 and 2007, Australia saw a 31.9 percent decrease; without a gun ban, America's rate dropped 31.7 percent.
During the same time period, all other violent crime indices increased in Australia: assault rose 49.2 percent and robbery 6.2 percent.
Sexual assault -- Australia's equivalent term for rape -- increased 29.9 percent.
Overall, Australia's violent crime rate rose 42.2 percent.
At the same time, U.S. violent crime decreased 31.8 percent: rape dropped 19.2 percent; robbery decreased 33.2 percent; aggravated assault dropped 32.2 percent.
Australian women are now raped over three times as often as American women.
While this doesn't prove that more guns would impact crime rates, it does prove that gun control is a flawed policy. Furthermore, this highlights the most important point: gun banners promote failed policy regardless of the consequences to the people who must live with them, says the Examiner.
Source: Howard Nemerov, “Australia experiencing more violent crime despite gun ban,” Free Republic, April 9, 2009.
@26 Rick from Maryland
Aug 07th, 2015 - 04:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What a lot of US citizens fail to understand about my country's gun laws is that they were not intended to deal with violent crime generally. They were enacted after a mentally disturbed man with an IQ of 66 was able to purchase a Colt AR15 in the state with the most liberal gun laws and murder 35 and wound 23 people in three separate locations over the course of a couple of hours. It was specifically this type of crime the laws were enacted to counter and have been an unqualified success.
The claim your quote makes regarding rape is incorrect. The term sexual assault refers to ALL such crimes, not just rape, and not just women. Australian women are not three times more likely to be raped than American women. Of course, since many women who are raped, in all parts of the globe, do not report the crime, it is actually possible to reverse the conclusion your source claims.
Something else Americans don't seem to understand - we have never purchased firearms primarily for reasons of self-defence. They were purchased then, as now, principally by farmers, sporting shooters and hunters. There was no particular expectation prior to 1996 that a burglar might find himself staring down the barrel of a twelve-gauge. To claim that suddenly aussie criminals were liberated from that particular fear is a fallacy.
Since 1996 there has been no Australian equivalent name for Columbine, Sandy Hook, DC sniper etc...etc...etc...We don't have metal detectors in our schools, there is no call for teachers to be armed, no-one has been murdered in a cinema, no-one killed by a gun in a school, no mass killings in a shopping mall/precinct. We like our laws and we are not going back.
@18 Skip
Aug 07th, 2015 - 06:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“If guns prevent so much crime and lower the crime rate so much.... then why is there lower crime in countries such as the UK and Australia where we have some of the most restrictive gun ownership laws.”
Answer : Either no-one has a gun, and in that nearly impossible utopic scenario, everyone is supposed to be safe - until they start using kitchen knives, like in Rio, several time in the last few weeks, when the robbers couldn't get guns so they stabbed their victims to death; OR, the good guys are allowed to possess guns in order to protect themselves from the criminals, who will never give up their illegal weapons.....despite government campaigns against violence, buy-outs or whatever other lame schemes they come up with...
IMHO I would not say “Americans” with such a large brush. They are 320 million here. This is not some island population and not all Americans like the lack of oversight that there is on guns in the USA. Most importantly not all are who they claim they are. I been in Maryland.........WI base area.....For a tiny assed state the crime stats are impressive. To say I don't lock my door....wow. You have a 1 in 5 chance of being a victim of a violent crime in Ocean City.......a major tourist beach area.....and Baltimore? But I digress.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 06:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Do you actually think that 100 million gun owners in the USA buy them for protection? Or even the majority for that matter? Because if you do you are wrong. Now do not confuse the stats. Reasons for issuing a permit versus purchasing a gun is not the same thing.
I live outside Annappolis. Ocean City is a major party town.
Aug 07th, 2015 - 09:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Baltimore has been run into the ground with horrible poverty by the Liberal Democrats that have controlled that city for decades.
We are law abiding folks around here who find lost dogs and bring them back to their families. We wave hi to each other as we drive around and we don't call the police on Independence Day because a neighbor or two gets a bit excited with his fireworks.
Most people here own weapons. I really don't lock my back doors. In fact most nights they are open so the dogs can chase a fox or whatever has the nerve to come onto the deck. It's better to have them run out and have fun then to have to wake up to their barking! Partially because if they bark mean like - I get 12 gauge.
Nobodies been shot. On purpose or accidentally.
But to your point. A section of Blatimore accounts for probably 70% of the entire States violent crime.
When i go there I feel I should be armed.
And just so ya know.
I don't always carry... But when I do it's a Kimber 1911 ACP with 3” barrel.
Gun carrying is for wimps and women I reckon...makes them feel safe....
Aug 07th, 2015 - 10:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Travelled the whole eastern part of the States top to bottom...slept in the rest areas in the car even in Alabama and Georgia when too tired to drive....
Done it at least a dozen times and I'm still alive and kicking....
Yup. Told ha. 99% of the U.S. is perfectly safe. The violent folks don't dare to asault anyone aleeping in a car when that person probably has a semi-auto weapon in his hand.
Aug 08th, 2015 - 01:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0Try sleeping in your car in New York, Philadelphia or even DC!
Folks there can't have guns...
With apologies to Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”.
Aug 08th, 2015 - 05:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0Detroit vs Windsor
Both extremely depressed, high unemployment, drug infested, rust-belt cities that were former manufacturing and auto-giants; separated by less than a kilometre.
Detroit, USA:
Population 688,701
Murder rate: 44/100,000 residents
Windsor, Canada:
Population: 210,890
Murder rate 0.3/100,000 residents (No that is not a typo. About 150x less than Detroit. In 2010-12 they went 26 months without a homicide).
And as far as cities go, Windsor is an absolute shit-hole.
In Canada there are very few long-gun restrictions and they are not registered (except concerning assault rifles and magazine size). It is very difficult to legally own a pistol.
It's a culture. Handgun owners are multiple-times more likely to shoot an acquaintance or a family member than ever use it in self-defence against a stranger. Hanguns only escalate problems. They are seldom used to calm situations down.
Interesting and sad comparison all in one.
Aug 08th, 2015 - 04:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@29 Captain Poppy
Aug 12th, 2015 - 05:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0“I would not say 'American's with such a large brush”. Fair enough.
“Cultural” yes it is.
Aug 12th, 2015 - 12:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Firearms have protected Americans since well before its founding as a Nation.
Individuals had to protect themselves and their families from massacre repeatedly and constantly. Everyday outside the cities they were threatened with death. Indian uprisings, raids and wars placed them and there families in constant danger.
To my Canadian and Aussie /NZ friends I should ask how many times were your homes attacked. How many mutilated bodies of your neighbors did you have to bury? Did the French ever recruit, arm and pay your local natives to conduct barbaric war against you and your farmers?
Did the British and their Indian allies burn you homes, kill your families and cities?
Did your local native nations war with modern weapons on you and your ranchers and travellors killing men, women and children whenever and wherever they found them vulnerable?
You forget, the Indian wars continued almost in the 1900's.
Our entire survival was dependent on an armed population. The U.S. Constitution included the right for individuals to own and bear arms directly because the British wanted to disarm the people making them highly volnerable to massacre and thus dependent on the British army for their survival. Totally a political move that would have lead to the murder and massacre of thousands of men, women and children.
So yes, the private ownership of firearms is cultural thing. Maybe one unique to America, but one created by our unique history.
And while the Japanese planed for the invasion and subjugation of Australia, Yamagoto advised against an invasion or even a large raid against the U.S.. He advised something to the effect that in America, behind every tree and every blade of grass will be an American civilian armed with a rifle... and they are all marksmen. He had spent many years before the war and understood that aspect of our unique culture.
Some say those days are over and the need is gone. Most don't.
Unique? Yes,the U.S. is unique.
@36 Rick from Maryland
Aug 12th, 2015 - 07:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well, for starters, do you acknowledge the inaccuracies contained within the article you quoted? Which presumably you endorse? The ones alleging Australian women being three times more likely to be raped being particularly insulting - not to add utterly ridiculous.
Regarding your most recent post - I don't get what your point is. If you're suggesting that like the US we were a nation armed to the teeth, ready to deter the yellow peril with our marksmanship and this is what stopped a Japanese invasion, well I suggest the real reason had to with logistics, geography and the loss of PNG. In any case the weapons that were common in the bush - a shotgun and a .303 - are still common in the bush. So if the Japs or whoever decide to invade us we can still snipe them into submission.
You make some perfectly valid points about the cultural history of the firearm in your country, but none of that is a convincing argument for why you need so many personal weapons now. The Indian wars are over, no-one is planning to invade you unless you count the Mexicans, and if they did, it would be with guns they purchased in your country.
We used to feel considerable sympathy every time there was a gun massacre in your country, after all we could certainly relate to the damage it does to a community. Then we went through a process where we moved from scratching our heads, shaking our heads and finally just shrugging our shoulders at how you chose to deal with it.
Your laws are your business, as is your culture, but the next time one of your politicians gets shot in face, or a church gets shot up, along with it's worshippers...don't expect us to care. Assuming that matters to you. And if you're going to criticise my country's laws, please try to get your facts right.
I have no reason to criticize Aulstralia. I've visited your country several times and loved it.
Aug 12th, 2015 - 10:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0One visit I drove round trip from Melbourne to Sidney. The drive up was along your coastal road... I say road only in comparison to the highway we took back. Went to the beach and stood there as the Penguins came ashore.
Absolutely beautify and I practically never had to buy my own beer once someone heard my accent.
Peed on a blacksnake too. I didn't see it until my wife's pounding on the windshield got my attention. A blacksnake here is totally harmless. So my reaction was just to turn aside a bit.
Apparently the ones you guys have - with the red belly? - isn't so harmless.
But like all the folks I met in Australia... It was a great sport and cut me a break.
By the way. I reciprocate and buy beers when I meet an Australian here. So much in common but with just enough differences to always make fun conversation.
@38
Aug 13th, 2015 - 05:10 am - Link - Report abuse 0Rick, please disregard my 'yellow peril' remarks. I misread your original comments and there being no edit function...I could't change it. So, sorry about that.
Also, sorry to belabor the point, but after a few bombings the Japanese never seriously considered invading my country. The country is too vast and empty, securing a supply chain would've been impossible and after failing to destroy the US navy at Pearl Harbour, they were a little preoccupied.
My first memory of an American was my brother's godfather, A Standard Oil executive from Houston. Great guy, charismatic as hell and he drove a MGB V8. He and my father were fellow Rotarians. Like all American's of a certain class and age, at the time, he was, of course, named Harry. So I've always been inclined to cut American's a break.
I'm glad you had a good time whilst you were down under but again, not to belabor the point, one of the victims of the Port Arthur massacre was an American citizen. The chances of an American surviving a trip this way have been exponentially increased since 1996. Notwithstanding encounters with red-bellied black snakes, of course...
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