It's not about guns as much as it is about a culture that sees guns as a solution not a problem. Switzerland also has a high rate of gun ownership though I do believe each person owns fewer than someone in the US, it hardly matters though most people can only shoot one gun at a time. So, we need a conversation more on how violence is seen as a solution more than we need to talk about how many people own guns and how they get them, which is also important. IMO it's how our culture is steeped in violence and racism that is the bigger issue.

There is a gun culture in this country that is not a positive trend. We need to talk about all parts of the issue and that includes guns.
As President Obama says, we are the only developed nation on the earth that has this type of gun violence problem. As Norm Goldman said yesterday, other countries have mentally ill and angry racists but don't have our gun violence. We do need to talk about guns. Calling it a violence problem or a mental illness problem plays right into the thinking of the gun culture.

We need to expand the conversation to include our violent culture, racism, classism, and a whole lot of other issues. We need to include other countries in this talk as well, why some countries with high ownership don't have this problem and why other's have a high rate of violence with or without guns.

(I do not like the article title's use of "civilized" vs developed, for the record)

It is truly wonderful that Vermont has the lowest homicide rate in the US .... however, Bernie is running for president of the entire US.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/17/lisa-bloom/americans-are-20-times-likely-die-gun-violence-cit/

The global consortium of 34 countries includes Western Europe, Turkey, Israel, Chile, Japan and South Korea. Mexico is also in the group, but the Post did not include it because its murder rate is exceptionally high amid a drug war. (The OECD considers all but Mexico, Chile and Turkey as "advanced" countries. Those three are "emerging.&quot

The United States is tops -- way tops -- for gun deaths, with a 2010 rate of 3.2 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 population, according to statistics collected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Chile was second at 2.2, followed by Turkey and Switzerland, tied for third at 0.8. The rest of the countries fell below 1, if they made the map at all.

The U.S. rate is more than 20 times the rate of Australia, France, the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland), Israel, South Korea, Japan, Norway, Poland and Slovenia. The U.S. rate firearm-related deaths is closer to 10 or 16 times the rates of countries such as Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

(Country to country comparisons are slightly imperfect due to the variance in how data is reported. For example, the rate for Turkey and Switzerland is based on each country’s most recently reported year, which is 2006 and 2004, respectively. You can see more on this Google spreadsheet we compiled using U.N. data for firearm death rates from 2004 to 2010.)

I don't think it's "caution." It's a complex topic that can't be addressed in a soundbite because he sees the solution as bigger than banning guns. The fundamental problems include a sick and broken society, a crazed culture, mental health issues, obscene inequality, and an overall declining country. We need a comprehensive approach to underlying causes. Bans on guns and ammo are quick fixes that don't change anything.

We need to rein in the types of guns out there, & who gets them, how they get them legally. Voting against the Brady Bill is a dark spot on Bernie's otherwise amazingly awesome record. I don't understand why he was against background checks on gun purchasers.

It is one issue he evolved on over time.

The reason he voted against it the first time was not because he was against background checks, but because he felt they could best be managed at the state level.

After Sandy Hook, he voted for them.

And as we see from the Charleston shooting, they didn't stop the killer from buying a gun even though he had a pending felony indictment.


"Gun control is control, not banning." Well effing duh and way to miss the point. The point being that a series of incremental laws banning this type of ammo, that type of weapon, requiring background checks (but with loopholes all over the place), don't address the fundamental problem of a sick society.

We live in a very, very broken society. That is the fundamental problem and until it is fixed, the slaughter will continue.

You see how silly that sounds? Was it necessary to make that point of yours?

But thanks for the info on his evolution. Good to know. There really was no need to get pissy with me.

and you were what seemed to be deliberately evading my point.

p.s. sorry, didn't mean to get pissy. generally feeling pissy due to head cold effing up my week off and now I have to go back to work just as I'm getting a little better.

and now have to re-edit cause I left out the wordy sorry. really, I am.

really, just feeling rotten again.

It is a sad, frustrating time, that's for sure. I totally get it. And I do feel better about Bernie because of the additional info you gave when explaining your post. So thanks for that too!

doesn't appear, as the article infers, that he tried to dodge the issue at all. He simply said that he'd have more details about gun policy at a later date. From what I've seen, Clinton hasn't offered a detailed plan either. Not sure about O'Malley. Andhe didn't seem "cautious" either. He's said the same thing about other issues like taxes.

I think the country is in the mood to do something about guns now.