The Poland thing was because thats where Quarto says he is. It would have been a better example a few years ago when their neck was still under the Soviet boot.
And the US would have been a really bad example 230 years ago or so... what's your point?
Communist Poland was a different state.
Now, let's review the facts, as they stand today. Poland has plenty of human rights laws, as TC has pointed out. And, if that isn't enough, everyone has the rights to appeal to the Human Rights Tribunal in Strasbourg. So, unlike a US citizen, a Polish citizen can appeal to an international court, if all else fails.
Also, Poland does not deny POWs the rights granted to them by the Geneva Convetion. Poland does not engage in racial profiling. Our police has never gunned down a man because of his/her colour, nor have they ever beaten the hell out of anyone because of his/her colour. All of the above has happened in the US.
All in all, it seems perhaps you're overestimating the human rights advantages of the US. Especially with all the new "security" laws coming into effect after the WTC bombing, you as an American have no right to dictate anyone how human rights should be handled.
That out of the way, let's get back to firearms. This is a reply both to you, Ripper, and to SkyFire's earlier post.
1. If you need a gun to defend yourself, it's your police force that's the problem. Perhaps, instead of telling us about your "God-given" right to have a weapon, you should be more concerned with improving the police force itself.
2. The reason why you can't buy an F-16 off the shelf is because they're only produced for the government's needs. If conventional firearms were only produced for the government's needs, the number of illegal weapons on the street should go down greatly. There will still be some (some always get through), but that's why we need a good police force.
3. Criminals with AK-47s don't justify possession of guns anyway, because guns don't offer any protection against such high-powered weapons. Since you use criminals with guns as an excuse to get a gun, will you use criminals with AK-47s as an excuse to get an AK-47? And then a bazooka?
How do you see that? The stock market has gone down because of investor fears, and a blow to certain industries through illegal processes. The government's involvement, or non-involvement isn't the issue with the lowering of the economy.
Yes, it was - the illegal processes were allowed to go on because of the
lack of sufficient government involvement. Also, the changing of Federal Reserve interest rates always has a significant impact on the economy.
It'd have prompted them to go out and get jobs? Even ones they didn't think were "paying enough" or even earning what they thought they needed. Had the Liberatarians been in office, they would have had a Free Trade system in any event, which, should you follow that concept, would have done a lot to prevent that problem anyways.
Yeah, "Go get a job" always works well during a recession, which caused the person in question to lose his job in the first place. As for free trade alleviating the problem - for one thing, you have no reason (other than wishful thinking) to claim that. Secondly, since the recession was caused by an external factor (the Arab countries breaking off sales of oil because of the Yom Kippur war), free trade would not have helped anyway. If anything, it would have worsened the situation, because the economy would have no support from the government.
