So, I saw the Possession of David O'Reilly, and I thought Europeans are hardcore Options

[nezumi]

There was a video I saw with Stephen Fry recently which touched on this. In his words, the British 'philosophy' is one of fairness, social justice. The focus is on helping everyone, not focusing on empowering the individual. This is contrasted with the U.S. 'philosophy', which is very muchso about personal empowerment and success.

Firearms are ultimately a tool of empowerment. It only makes sense, if you're looking to make 'everyone equal', to give them to either everyone or no one (just the government). If you give it to everyone, you'll still have punks who are willing to use them, and therefore are more empowered than those who refuse to. Therefore the 'fair' solution is to give firearms to no one. Permit the government to arbitrate, and keep power in the hands of the collective. In the US, clearly that would be reversed.

[hermit]

A very, very smart man and brilliant observer.

You can easily broaden the social justice/fairnes idea to most of Europe. We do not want American overreaching liberty, we prefer to hand in a bit of individual liberty (preferedly, of course, that of others, like the upper class, especially business upper class) for safety. That extends far beyond weapons ownership; the rage many Americans have against mandatory health insurance is something few, if any, Europeans can understand.

[Redjack]

4. Discussion of politics, religion, and sex are prohibited, except as they directly pertain to Shadowrun or another game. Discussions on these subjects will be watched closely, and any inappropriate posts may result in warnings or suspensions.

While I personally find the conversation stimulating and all participants respectful in their posts, this thread is just begging for a troll... and the conversation has technically evolved to an area that is against the TOS.