How many of you carry a gun as part of your cycling equipment?



Scream said:
I can't imagine a world where I knew ½ (or more?) of the citizen I see downtown are running around with guns, I wouldn't dare to go out at all :S

Wow - you think that 50% or more of your fellow citizens would be a threat to your security and safety if they have some advantage over you? You either live amongst people who hate you (protected only by a police state) or you are major paranoid...
 
Scream said:
What is wrong with America lol, I'm glad I live in Denmark, I've never seen a non-police gun, nor ever held one, please let it be like that.

Are Americans paranoid, or?

Edit: Now it registered my first message

Oh thank God there are others willing to take up arms, at low wages, to save you from having to take responsibility for your own safety. If they fail and die, they must simply be insufficient, eh?

There was a time when men of Denmark stood up on two legs, but those day are past...
 
OK....whoever dredged this thread up should go flog themselves. I thought that we had put it to bed long ago, and then someone has to go and either agree or express outrage with the original post or any one of the 3062 posted opinions. Come on, let it die!
 
kdelong said:
OK....whoever dredged this thread up should go flog themselves. I thought that we had put it to bed long ago, and then someone has to go and either agree or express outrage with the original post or any one of the 3062 posted opinions. Come on, let it die!
Maybe we could shoot it. Its the obvious solution.;)
 
Scream said:
Holy ****, I can't believe this, is America this... Old? Carry a gun while you cycle? Oh man, I LOVE DENMARK!

I've never seen a non-police gun, nor ever held one :eek: I don't want to either.

If the Danish were "allowed" to have guns,they would use them to revolt against the government for the high taxation.
 
wolfix said:
If the Danish were "allowed" to have guns,they would use them to revolt against the government for the high taxation.

Uhh, no; you see, in stark contrast to Americans, the Danish are not stupid. It is unlikely that they will be interested in lowering their quality of life to US-American levels. But, dream on...
 
As I have stated before I carry a big club in case I come across a dead horse to beat, like this thread. I would seem cruel to shoot a dead horse when you can beat him.:rolleyes:
 
Danish people would not attack their government lol, We're used to the high taxation, and honestly, I don't care, I don't need anything, I'm living perhaps just under whats average, and I dont need anything, If I want something I buy it, besides, lowering the tax would mean more poor people and a bigger and bigger gap between rich and poor, as in the US, I don't remember when I last saw a man sleeping in the street...

CBjesse: Actually, I want to become a police officer, I think it's a very interesting job, but honestly, being a police officer has nothing to do with arms, 2 policeofficers can pacify close to anyone in Denmark with their bare hands. So... We're not nutties having a shotgun under the table afraid of getting robbed, sleeping with a 9 mm or whatever, Jesus Christ, I thought Americans were smarter.
 
Joe West said:
Just wondering how many of you carry a gun as part of your cycling equipment? Here in Arizona we can legally carry open and concealed (concealed with permit).

For long distance touring and bicycle camping... I think I'd feel safer carrying my .45 semi-auto pistol (concealed so it doesn't freak people out).

Anyone else carry while biking?

JW
You bet I do now days you better have one on you or you may not get to where you want to go.Its sad but I feel better with one on me.I have never had to use it so I have been lucky so far and hope to stay that way too.My dad always told me better to be safe than sorry.
 
Scream said:
CBjesse: Actually, I want to become a police officer, I think it's a very interesting job, but honestly, being a police officer has nothing to do with arms, 2 policeofficers can pacify close to anyone in Denmark with their bare hands. So... We're not nutties having a shotgun under the table afraid of getting robbed, sleeping with a 9 mm or whatever, Jesus Christ, I thought Americans were smarter.

Agreed - arms are simply a tool one employs if and when necessary. In some countries, crime has become an accepted part of the culture, to the extent that police do little or nothing and victims shrug it off. It seems that if the police don't go after criminals and honest citizens don't resist crime, criminals employ less violence as they ply their trade.

America is an exception, in many ways, and may be younger and more violent than other cultures. We might settle down to where there is a more hospitable relationship between honest citizens, criminals and police, but for now, we still fight back.

Curious statistics at www.nationmaster.com indicating:
TOTAL CRIMES per capita
#2 New Zealand - 105.9
#4 Denmark - 92.8
#6 UK - 85.6
#8 US - 80.1

As far as firearms homicides go, we've got you all beat - no arguement there. Justifiable homicides (self-defense) are up as much as 50% in some US jurisdictions, as armed resistance becomes more broadly legal.
 
Dietmar said:
Uhh, no; you see, in stark contrast to Americans, the Danish are not stupid. It is unlikely that they will be interested in lowering their quality of life to US-American levels. But, dream on...
m

I am somewhat familiar with the Danish way. My daughter lives there.And her Danish boyfriend wants to live in America in a big way... Quality of life? My daughter had a much higher quality of life here. She hates the health care there, as it's quality is better here.
 
Dietmar said:
Uhh, no; you see, in stark contrast to Americans, the Danish are not stupid. It is unlikely that they will be interested in lowering their quality of life to US-American levels. But, dream on...

The US does have 5 times more guns per captia than Denmark. Is that the basis of your opinion that Americans are stupid and Danish not?

The US beat Denmark on standardized test scores Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) - Average mathematics scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students, by country: 2007

The US has denmark beat by a wide margin in quality of life Quality of Life Index 2008

The US outranks Denmark in Economic freedom as well SSRN-Is There a Relationship between Guns and Freedom? Comparative Results from 59 Nations by David Kopel, Carlisle Moody, Howard Nemerov

Help me understand how you formed your opinion on the stupidity of Americans.
 
cbjesseeNH said:
The US does have 5 times more guns per captia than Denmark. Is that the basis of your opinion that Americans are stupid and Danish not?

The US beat Denmark on standardized test scores Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) - Average mathematics scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students, by country: 2007

The US has denmark beat by a wide margin in quality of life Quality of Life Index 2008

The US outranks Denmark in Economic freedom as well SSRN-Is There a Relationship between Guns and Freedom? Comparative Results from 59 Nations by David Kopel, Carlisle Moody, Howard Nemerov

Help me understand how you formed your opinion on the stupidity of Americans.

If he watches the new and how we are portrayed he wouldn't have much choice but to believe so.
 
Obviously I'm aware of the fact that the US is not STUPID, as in everyone being complete jackoffs, you're the biggest superpower in the world, hey?!
But my general impression of the Americans I've met both in my real life and online, is the fact they're totally average Joe working 8-15 and not much else, besides, how can an intelligent individual agree to something as disgusting as a weapon being okay? It's a deadly TOOL, but what's most disturbing is the fact anyone can use it, your own bloody kids can go to the school and massacre...

And hey, the tests you have there, do they include the "less fortunate"? I'd imagine it would be quite hard to reach those without a phone, internet or whatever...

Edit: Your "standard of life" test is a bit of a joke, honestly. We can't control our climate, which I personally find excellent, you beat us on infrastructure, wow you're 25 mio. people in one bloody city, hey! Besides; your health sucks, and you see yourself as 100% safe, and couldn't that be due to the pedestal Americans are putting themself ontop of WITH a gun?
 
I agree that the average health of an American is horrid and inexcusable.
I myself am in decent health especially for a person of my advanced years.;)
We have been pampered too much and blaming someone else for our own shorfalls is the easy and normal way to go.
A good worldwide disaster of "biblical proportion" would weed out the slackers. :eek:
 
Scream said:
Obviously I'm aware of the fact that the US is not STUPID, as in everyone being complete jackoffs, you're the biggest superpower in the world, hey?!
But my general impression of the Americans I've met both in my real life and online, is the fact they're totally average Joe working 8-15 and not much else, besides, how can an intelligent individual agree to something as disgusting as a weapon being okay? It's a deadly TOOL, but what's most disturbing is the fact anyone can use it, your own bloody kids can go to the school and massacre...

And hey, the tests you have there, do they include the "less fortunate"? I'd imagine it would be quite hard to reach those without a phone, internet or whatever...

Edit: Your "standard of life" test is a bit of a joke, honestly. We can't control our climate, which I personally find excellent, you beat us on infrastructure, wow you're 25 mio. people in one bloody city, hey! Besides; your health sucks, and you see yourself as 100% safe, and couldn't that be due to the pedestal Americans are putting themself ontop of WITH a gun?

You say you really didn't mean STUPID, but then say people who agree to "disgusting" guns couldn't be intelligent. It seems your anti-gun emotions make you find people with guns to be inferior by default.

How can I possibly address all the impressions and opinions you hold without knowing the factual basis for your feelings? If you want to provide any referenced data to support your gripes about America, I might be able to respond.

It's your sort of random babble that leaves the anti-gun lobby losing more and more ground year after year in the US. We call them Anti-Gun Nuts" because they can't express a cogent thought without being overcome by their emotions.
 
I'm not Anti-gun by default, It's a very easy tool to use, which makes a whole lot of people able to use it, virtually anyone with 2 hands.

I find people needing to use guns, punches, kicks, knifes, whatever inferior, why do people (americans?) have to sort violence with violence? I'm sure theres alot of standard people, people like us in Denmark, sure we are fewer, but America really seems ****ed in many ways, my mother lived in California as young, she said she was almost frightened of how ignorant and dumb people could be... Defining a whole country by what my mother said is ignorant and stupid, but honestly, are YOU satisfied with your country? I'm not Anti USA or anything, I just simply cannot understand how a life in fear (of guns, ignorance and more) can be, I see Denmark as almost ideal, I've never needed anything in my life, and I'm not a spoiled kid either...

And hey, if anyone defends Americas health system... Lol, why are like 50% overweight? I laugh my ass off everytime I see Americans that fails so badly, ignoring something they are bound to, their body. Feel free to ask me how things are in Denmark, I'll be glad to share.
 
I realize that I am contributing to keeping this utterly inane thread alive, so this is going to be my one and only reply.

The US does have 5 times more guns per captia than Denmark. Is that the basis of your opinion that Americans are stupid and Danish not?

No, of course not, although the quality of the arguments put forward by the pro-gun lobby do form part of such a basis.


O.k., so? You are aware, are you not, that the picture changes as you go into high school and up? That the general level of scientific literacy among adults in the US seems to be stuck in medieval times, with of the order of 40% of Americans believing that the world was created a couple of thousand years go? More than 50% believe in angels, too...

I'll just say that without a detailed, longitudinal comparison of educational systems, you have no point. I suspect you are not bright enough to understand that, but I'll simply leave it at that.

The US has denmark beat by a wide margin in quality of life Quality of Life Index 2008.

Heheh, that one's a real gem. So, you feel by throwing out some random statistics by some obscure little outfit you can contribute to a discussion of the relative quality of life in different countries? Did you actually look at the table you were linking to? You may want to have another look, and see where various countries ended up in that ranking, and why. Incidentally, the UK is listed with a Cost of Living index of 5? Why don't you find out what that is supposed to mean...

You know, let me put it this way: In Denmark, you do not have people in their seventies being forced to work in order to stay alive. If you live in Denmark, you also do not have to fear for your existence to be destroyed, beyond any hope of recovery, simply because you fell ill, or had an accident, or because some gun-toting teenager shoots you in the streets on the southside of Chicago. Speaking of which, as just one little example, in the summer of 2008, the number of people that were shot dead in the city of Chicago was twice the number of US troup fatalities in Iraq. Pleasant place to live in, right? Although, some people may feel that the prospect of being shot by some gun-toting nut does affect their quality of life...


Oh please. Some gun lobbyists desperately trying to find a correlation between gun ownership and something that sounds good. Again, I know you don't understand the data (or otherwise you wouldn't have dragged this nonsense out), but I'll give you a hint: In the abstract to their useless pamphlet, the authors even admit that "The relationship [between gun-ownership and "freedom"] only exists for high-ownership countries". Now, if you look at their data, you can see that this comes close to the truth. To be more specific, if you take the outlier (guess which country that is?) out of their data, then there is no correlation at all.

Help me understand how you formed your opinion on the stupidity of Americans.

All I need to do is observe the current level of discourse on health care reform in our country. There we are, with, by far, the most inefficient health care system among all developed nations, and all you see is people spouting inanities about "socialized medicine", and worse. Notice that I am not even advocating one position or another in this debate (I have one, but that is irrelevant to my point); all I am saying is that the public debate of this topic lacks even a hint of rationality.

But to answer your question more directly, the way I formed my opinion is by actually having traveled to, and in more than a few cases lived for extended periods of time in foreign countries. In other words, the way I formed my opinion is by getting some in-depth information, and not by browsing the web trying to ferret out pieces of information, however questionable, that support my preconceived opinions. You may want to try that approach sometime. Might even learn something new in the process.
 

Similar threads