Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here's some ground breaking research from the USA. This is particuarly relavent to my job but you may find it interesting too.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press- ... 02007.html

I wonder how long it took the people at Harvard to think up that one?

I read it and found a place where it said 5% of suicides are with guns and another said 50%. They said 75% were with drugs. Hard to know what is what.

I had a gun rack of my own at 13 years old (first .22 at 12). It was locked and I had the key. If my parents wanted to commit suicide, they would have to ask for the key. I am not sure I would give it to them; they were not as mature as I was. They would probably calm down in a while and feel better.

This could be a solution to overpopulation - volunteers to leave.

Another controversy, but lets not pursue it. I do not think suicide should be a crime. What are the gun laws in Australia? You have a lot of outback country. People would probably need guns there. On the otherhand big cities would probably have different rules. The rules in the USA vary by State.

as far as I know, hand guns are illegal here in Qld. Long arms are only allowed under strict licensing conditions. Locked cabinet, that sort of thing, verified by a police inspection of the cabinet (every couple of years I think?)
All this info from me is hearsay and should not be counted as the facts

I own long guns that were handed down through the generations. I sold all but one of my handguns after I left law enforcement. I have a concealed weapons permit and have the ability to carry my one and only handgun wherever I go in the State of California. However, I see no need to, and the only time I carry a sidearm is when I am in the wilderness/outback.

As far as suicide, it can be a very impulsive decision that leads someone to take thier own life with a readily accessible gun to facilitate the task cleanly and expeditiously. I wonder how any of those suicides could have been prevented had the person had someone to talk to first?

Anyway...... gun control. I am glad I live in the USA for that reason. I don't believe in violence, but I believe this is a violent world. When everyone puts down thier guns, so will I.

I dare say that comment was made in jest, but if you ever had a friend or relative commit suicide you wouldn't even think that crap.

The thing that got me about this research was how much time and money it would have taken to come to the conclusion that guns kill people, and that often its the person thats actually holding the gun that dies. There seems to be such a strong correlation between liberal gun laws and suicide. Where people dont have access to a gun they still might try to commit suicide, but through less violent means, and are more likely to survive which means they might get help (better late than never!). We can all make jokes about population control and people having the right to kill themself if they want to, but unfortunatly though alot of people who kill themself actually have a illness that is treatable, and if it was treated then they wouldn't want to kill themself. In Australia we have much tighter gun laws, especially since the Port Arthur deaths, and therefore we have less murders and less suicides (although having said that, our suicide rate is still very high )
Is this too heavy for a Saturday morning? (I'm at work so its OK for me)
Sounds like a job for Michael Moore. (Anyone seen "Bowling for Columbine"?)

Sorry, my comment was in bad taste.

I have never given suicide a thought and I guess I did not think that it made sense to outlaw guns for everyone for such a reason. Passing such broad reaching laws for such exceptional reasons seems inappropriate. It could lead to more such restrictive laws that treat us as children.

I hope everyone with a mental problem, like depression, gets help. We can not outlaw everything that would be handy to suicide with, on the other hand.

Laws should be for improper use of a gun. Not to outlaw guns because they have the potential for being used improperly.

So far as I know, hand guns are illegal in Australia and rifle licenses are not easy to get hold of, you have to have a good reason to have one, like being a farmer where you may need it for shooting vermin, or sick animals.

We had gun amnesties a few years back when many guns, legaly owned and illegaly were handed into police and destroyed.. I mean lets face it, a gun is an extremely efficient tool for killing, apart from shooting targets, the only other use, is for killing things, and less killing is a good thing isn't it....

Doug, you may be happy to live in the US where you have the right to have guns, but personally, I am extremely glad that I live in a country where guns are outlawed for most. This gives me a sense of security..

I was trying to think of a way to say this - well said EB.

On the other hand it has made things a bit difficult for farmers and sport shooters. For some reason we don't seem to have many rabbits or foxes on our place so hasn't caused us too many problems. However the number of times I've been up the back or out bush and I've seen a cat that I would love to take a shot at is many. Because you basically can't take your rifle around with you their are many ferals out there that would otherwise have been collected for my fur lined robes.

On a similar vein Victorias laws that prescribe other weapons (swords, crossbows and other goodies) are not only a joke in their drafting but incredibly unfair and restricitive on peoples hobbies and traditions.

It's not difficult at all if you have a rural property Stuart, have you enquired about getting one?

Not to mention ..only the good guys handed in their guns, the baddies still have theirs and that can not be good.

I wonder whether Stuart means that it is too difficult to carry the rifle all the time - as opposed to a hand gun.

i heard all sorts of storys about the guns that came in during that amnesty, from one station up north was a small vehicle mounted machine gun :

im not sure that hand guns are totaly banned here cause we do have pistol clubs but i know they are very higly regulated, my family are mostly farmers and thus i grew up using guns, and more importanly gun saftey, and have been shooting an many ocasions on various dams in the weatbelt

on one ocasion my brother got hit by some shotgun pelets that richocet (sp ? ) off the surface of the dam cause one old guy was trying to shoot a duck on the water (a BIG NO NO ), luckily the shot had dspread a lot by the time it got to him, he was quite lucky they missed his eyes and he still has one pellet in his face

still it only takes one idiot to ruin everyones day

CHeers
Pete

Its possible if you have a rural property but takes a fair bit of red tape and mucking about. When I get round to it I'll get round to it. Just too many other things to do.