Reply #123: Here's an indication, I suppose:

[trigz]

If that person got into a martial arts stance after verbally abusing me, I'd be within my legal rights to cap him right then.

Actually I admit I might've put a couple of words into your mouth then, but the scent of your argument remains more or less the same.

You say you've been involved in 'plenty of bar fights and never pulled the gun, much less shot somebody'. Which is a good thing. But what if your gun was nicked and suddenly used against you? How much good would that do you?

Seriously, from whence did this seemingly societal urge to pop a cap in someone's ass if faced with a possible fistfight come from? What happened to the old, honest smack on the nose, fall on your arse, done-with-it-now-piss-off-you-twat thingy?

I suppose one important question is (and I repeat): How many people have barfights and end up getting a bullet in the brain in America? How many people have barfights and end up getting a bullet in the brain in almost any other country in the world? WHY aren't proportionally the same amount of people getting a bullet in the head as a result of quarrels, barfights, foulmouthing or just straight, old-fashioned paranoia in every country around the world? Obviously the immediate access to firearms, or the lack of such, is a crucial element.

I've not seen any stats on the amount of regular fistfighting, or stuff like that, but I do doubt that there is a significantly higher chance of getting into a fistfight over at your end than any other place in the world. Especially Norway, Oslo in particular is a good place for getting a bloody nose when the streets fill up with drunk Norwegians over the weekend...we drink like peasants in this country and probably fight like peasants too, but we don't end up shooting each other. Neither, might I add, do the British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Finnish , Romanian, Bulgarian, Moldovan, Latvian, Estonian...I could go on for ever. Why? Why? Why? Guns! Guns! Guns available everywhere. You can't spit bullets at someone, can you?!

Inducing fear and paranoia into the population is a measure of control, of conditioning of the population, as I'm sure you know. How many times have you watched the news without there being some story on a few homicides, drive-bys or what have you? You talk about the chance of someone trying to kill you as an odds-on possibility that could occur at any time. If that's not a good measure of paranoia, I don't know what is, mate...