Robert Ap Ioan

Nicely put! Most people don't want to either have their door replaced after a heavy handed knock on the door at dawn, or have to chat to St, Peter on the gates as it were. I know people who own air pistols for competition shooting, but they are always kept under lock and key, unless being used on a range. The british system always seems common sense to me. My father is a former chemist, I had a good chemistry teacher in school. Explosions is easy! Most of us don't see the need to hurt people when we make things go boom and go to places where people won't get hurt. Personally I prefer burning bamboo, as part of my job!

Ha ha, I will now confess to having ancestors in Lancs! But I'm ok the other side of the Family is Welsh!

Norn Iron is our version of how we view the USA. Mad and backwards, with a history and culture of violence that needs sorting out.

You do realise that technically Britain still has a militia, it has just been controlled by the Army for several hundred years, it's called the Territorial Army. The oldest regiment in the British Army is actually a Militia unit, the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers if your interested - the only regiment to have two Royals in it's title. The next question is why were Militias brought under Army control......the reason is pretty simple - Militias aren't very effective when compared with a real Army, the discipline is lacking and the men become a liability to their own side. There is one militia that is not under Army control and that is the Duke of Atholl Highlanders, look at pictures of them and my point is made. When your country was founded things were very different to how they are now, that is why it has been necessary to amend your constitution. Times and attitudes change, it might be a good time for America to change it's attitude on Guns. The whole developed world looks on in flabbergasted speechlessness at the collective stupidity of Merica..... The Queen is still the head of the Commonwealth, she might not have much power but she does still hold massive respect. She also holds the allegiance of the British Army, if she wanted to cause a constitutional crisis she could call the Army to her will. So we lost control of the Empire, big deal, we still have a pretty loud voice on the world stage. Oh and by the way the Monarchy has not held much power since the Civil War period - back around the days of the Pilgrim Fathers for the Americans. The British Empire is no big loss and caused us more problems in the long run than we gained, apart from the cup of Tea - the one good thing of Empire. I'm guessing you don't know about the raids on the black market gun shops and how effective anti-smuggling operations have been in recent years in the UK. If you have been to London you will have seen Red police cars driving about, they belong to the DPG and contain firearms officers, we do have cops with guns and I have heard them practicing when I was in college. They are well trained and have a formidable set of resources available to them - similar weaponry to SWAT and such. The truth of the matter is that we don't need the majority of the cops to carry firearms and there has been outrage at the prospect of Police routinely carrying firearms in the UK. We don't live in a warzone, I believe the PSNI routinely carry pistols in Ulster, but I haven't been there in person. What ban? When I am working I always have a knife at hand, along with a billhook and other nice hand tools that can do a lot of damage. We do have a ban on lockable blades, but that is a different matter.

Luke 22:51......context is everything. The reason for the verse you give us in verse 37. The disciples are told to take arms to fulfil a prophecy. Also Matthew's record of events demolishes your argument....

Carry on fighting for your firearms, we will keep on watching people die.

I am not sure that bombing is usually taken into account when dealing with murder stats, terrorism comes under another catergory - ask the IRA......bomb making takes skill and bombing is rare as a form of killing people, unless you live in the Middle East, the RAF and co are dealing with the statistics there. When I made that list I had a major brain-fart and bombs should have been on it.

ee bah gum, tha talk proper then! Or is that Lancashire?

I heard that the SAS were ordered not to kill Bin Laden when he was in Tora-Bora, so that the Yanks could do it......

The best thing to come out of Newport, Gwent, apart from the road out of Newport..... This pretty much sums up the thread! I must say that this thread is for me one of the most depressing I have read. I am totally flummoxed by the fact that the Americans on this forum will not appear to accept that having a firearm raises the risk of death in America, and enables increasing the risk of gun related d. To kill 14 people with an automatic weapon is really quite easy. If you ban firearms how do you kill people quickly? Longbow - A skilled Welsh man could fire 8-10 arrows a minute, but this is after many years of training and requires a shit ton of strength to pull off. Ballista - can fire many bolts at one time, takes a while to reload. Trebuchet - catapults projectiles of size which flattens people. Not particularly mobile. Before the automatic firearm there wasn't really a weapon that could kill a !@#$-ton of people in close quarters, especially not a weapon that is light, portable and requires little skill to use. Yes there are other factors apart from the firearm, but the firearm exacerbates the issues. Yes I have! There appears to be a misconception that all firearms are banned in the UK, this is not the case, most people just don't feel the need to own one. We feel safe without them, as do our police. Even in Crawley or Croydon I never felt so terrified that I needed a gun to protect myself. I know of people who leave the house unlocked unless they have gone out. There seems to be a cultural paranoia that America would do well to rid itself of. Farmers tend to own shotguns for pest control. All UK weapons are single shot, thus it is impossible to legally own a firearm that could be used in a massacre. It appears that Kemal has discharged a firearm! There is an issue with gang-related gun crime in London, but in the grand scheme of things its affect on murder rates is negligible. Gang related crime is usually directed at people with links to gangs, or mistaken identity,

Let's talk about Massacre prevention, the fact that tighter gun controls has succeeded preventing large levels of massacres in other countries is neither here or there. It probably says a lot that firearms have not played a part in UK terror attacks in recent times.

Bass guitar and percussion. My drum kit currently takes up half my bedroom, I have a Cajon and Djembe downstairs. My Congas live in Church.

For a very short while I could read Church Slavonic, but I have forgotton most of it, except how to correctly pronounce Tebe Poem!

I am good thanks! I use Welsh occasionally but not fluent, so I mostly speak English with the Valleys dialect. I think of some words in Welsh, especially numbers, I can read Welsh well enough. Most of the Welsh I know is from primary school.

Saesneg Tipyn bach Cymraeg.....

I have very mixed feelings on the French bombing Raqqa. I do think that they are trying to be careful and hitting appropiate targets, however I am concerned at the speed of their entry into this conflict. As Tolkien writes "the hasty stroke oft goes astray", in that case the context is of provoking a response from the enemy. I think the people of Raqqa are in for a hard time, either at the hands of ISIS or France, for them there is no good outcome. ISIS need to be destroyed and sadly I cannot see a better way of doing it at present. I totally agree! The worst thing we can do at this time is further marginalise Muslims in Western countries, we need to work to integrate them into non-religious society in such a way as to give no reason to desire to follow radical Islam. I see Ibrahim as a failure of society, what has happened that someone can be so motivated to advocate a law system that would make his life far riskier? We have to treat incomers with compassion to prevent them desiring evil against us. Most people in the UK and America are immigrants of some kind. I wonder if the uprising was able to kick off in Syria because America and her allies took out the majority of the strongmen in the Middle East. By going to war in the Middle East a power vacuum has been created. Vacuums like to be filled. ISIS unfortunately has been able to fill the void, aided by good 'ole Western know how. We have reaped what we sowed. Somehow we now need to repair the damage that we have done. The key thing will be to cut off the financial aid that Daesh is getting from the West and it's allies.

Not if you put special forces in to capture them behind enemy lines.

How is that pro-War? They would be the equivalent of armed police in a war-zone created by the natives and other people who have come into the Middle East.

He might also be amongst the dead that haven't been identified yet.

The British forces have traditionally used the "hearts and minds" principle. You win the hearts of the local populace and there should be no need to fire against them. Firearms should only be used for defence, if you want to see the consequences of things going wrong look at Bloody Sunday.

Nope Ibrahim, I wasn't taking the passage out of context. I am not going to play into your hands. This thread is about Paris and the issues surrounding that, not how Christian the British government is or is not.

I am British I don't do presidents Prince maybe, being Cymreig...... What the Middle East needs is an international peace force, such as in Kosovo, to stop people from killing each other. That is a very different concept to a force of conquest, which is what has been going on at the moment. What the Middle East needs is stability, ISIS and other terrorist groups will not provide that. Where have I posted that I am pro war?

Have you seen me condoning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Nope, you have seen me condemning them often enough. I can't understand why Paris should be attacked when it has only ever been a minnow in these conflicts. If it is revenge they want they are hitting the wrong people. War is never the best solution. My preference is that we should have sent the SAS to capture bin Laden alive and try him for murder in a neutral country - the Hague would have worked. War is always regrettable. Personally I would also like to see Tony Blair on trial.

Ah so they were cowards?

We live in a secular society, the bible can be interpreted in many different ways. I take the view of Jesus, give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is his. I don't desire a fundamental Christian country because we have already had it. Oliver Cromwell is unpopular for a reason.........people who demand a purely religious law usually throw Baby out with the bath water.