People are (dead) in France...

[Per]

... as we speak!

[Per]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34814203

[SKYO]

Is it from some islamic military group?

[Rumsfeld]

Of course not skyo, it's a Norwegian sewing circle.

[rats19]

The next few year are going to be bad...hopefully that's all it takes...

[SKYO]

Of course not skyo, it's a Norwegian sewing circle.

Those fucking Norwegians.

[Topper]

.......but JT says there is no chance of a threat in Canada.

Looks like Marine Le Pen will do well at the polls.

[rats19]

.......but JT says there is no chance of a threat in Canada.

Looks like Marine Le Pen will do well at the polls.

She is on public trial for islama-phobia....

[Strangelove]

It's a world gone mad...

[Per]

Really sad what happened in Paris. On the other hand, it's a huge relief that the three suicide bombers that blew themselves up outside Stade de France did not get in. There were some 70,000 people there watching a friendly cap between France and Germany. Apparently the suicide bombers had tickets. Imagine the mayhem that would have resulted if they had manage to blow themselves up in different sections inside the stadium... Apart from the initial deaths from the explosions, thousands more would probably have been trampled to death as panic ensued.

Seems security at the stadium did a good job, stopping them from entering. Those guys were true heroes. And I assume they died from the explosions.


I hear Trump has suggested lives would have been saved if Parisians had been allowed to carry guns. Sure. He may have a point, albeit most (if not all) of the terrorists had suicide bombs strapped on, and they would have killed a bunch of people either way, but sure, I accept that the death toll could have been 20-30% lower if someone had been able to take them out.

On the other hand, like most European countries with strict gun control, France has a fairly low homicide rate.

In 2012 there were 665 homicides in France, which amounts to 1.0 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. A rate similar to that in other European countries such as the UK (1.0), Ireland (1.2), Germany (0.8), Austria (0.9), the Netherlands (0.9), Italy (0.9), Spain (0.8), Denmark (0.8) or Sweden (0.7).

In comparisson, the USA, with lax gun laws, the homicide rate in 2012 stood at 4.7. You can compare this to other former British colonies such as Australia (1.1) and Canada (1.6) that share much of the culture with the US but practice gun control. I assume the reason the figure is slightly higher in Canada than the UK, Ireland and Australia is because of the influx of guns from its irresponsible southern neighbour.

Anyway, if France had the same lax attitude to guns as the USA, I think it is only fair to assume they could end up with a similar homicide rate. 665 homicides times 4.7 is 3125, or an additional 2460 homicides per year. That would equal 19 massacres of the kind we saw last friday. Per year. So even though Trump may have a point in saying that a gun-toting French citizenry could have saved lives last Friday , I think it is not a particularily good one, if you look at the bigger picture.

https://www.google.se/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... MbOM6zEb_w

[Topper]

Canada has fairly lax gun laws. It is not difficult to legally obtain a gun in Canada. True, not as easy as in the US.

The difference is attitude towards guns. Canada still has a majority gun ownership as rural hunter gatherers, not urban paranoid protectionists. Unfortunately as the urban population grows, that balance is rapidly shifting.

Illegal guns are a completely separate issue and those seeking guns illegally will find them.

[Cornuck]

Yes, it would have been interesting to see how a conceal-carry gun owner would have fared in the concert hall. First, since most (all?) concerts don't allow guns in the first place - but suppose there was a 'good guy with a gun' (GGWAG) in the audience...

My guess is that the person would have panicked a little (or a lot) and unless they were trained to remain calm in an extremely intense situation (military training), they would have likely shot them selves or someone around them. There is a chance that the GGWAG might have hit or even killed one of the terrorists. Of course, the GGWAG wouldn't have got them all, and would have drawn attention to himself and those around him.

One of the missing headlines is that will all of the intelligence and data gathering and other international snooping, the NSA and others had no clue this was coming (or the conspiracy theorists would say they did know).

Shit like this happens almost every day around the world, but when it happens to a nice, western city - people start caring and talking about it and wonder why it's happening.

Excuse me while I go lower my flag to half staff.... AGAIN...

[SKYO]

If only U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, didn't make a coalition mission "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction & end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism.

None of this would have happened.

[Topper]

Excuse me while I go lower my flag to half staff.... AGAIN...

Don't go off half cocked.

If it had occurred in Yemen, no one in the Americas would have cared. We wouldn't putting yemeni flag shading on facebook avatars, or Yemeni national coloured lighting on outdoor venues. A moment of silence for a hundred dead Yemenis before an American sporting event......sure.

[Per]

If only U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, didn't make a coalition mission "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction & end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism.

None of this would have happened.

Especially stupid to dissolve the Iraqi army. Thousands of career military men suddenly unemployed, disenfranchised and pissed off. Guess where most of the ISIS military commanders came from....

If they had kept the army intact, just exchanged the generals, and made sure to get them committed to defending the new democratic regime, things might not have gotten as messy.

Would have been a bit of a challenge though, so yeah, the best option would have been to obey the UN security council and not invade to begin with. The original George Bush opted to stay away from that. Too bad his idiot son didn't follow his father's example.