Thread: I have some America questions for you!

Originally Posted by Bobbo

2) What is the difference between a burrito and a Fajita (slightly Mexican question). Is it the way they are folded? Type of meat?

A burrito is usually just ground meat and some kind of sauce in a rolled-up tortilla. A fajita is closer to an actual mexican taco al carbon (not the american taco), and is strips of beef or chicken or pork with accessories rolled up in a tortilla. Usual accessories include beans, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, grilled bell and jalapeno peppers, and grilled onions. Usually an assemble-your-own kind of proposition, which makes them fun.

Originally Posted by Bobbo

3) Do you guys really carry guns around? What percentage of people carry guns? (I'm just interested as there is a thread on this forum about leather holsters and the media coverage of high school masacres etc doesn't paint a great picture). Please don't turn this into a squabble about guns. I just want a percentage figure.

It's pretty rare, even in states which have concealed-carry laws. Usually the CHL (concealed handgun licensee) ratio is only about 1-5% of the general population, and only a fraction of these actually carry on a regular basis. I've got a CHL and carry only when I'm gonna be running errands in a less savory part of town.

Lots of us have firearms in our homes though, and at one time lots of us had firearms in our vehicles for dealing with pesky or stupid&edible wildlife (pickup trucks with gun racks used to be a common sight until theft made it too expensive). I think the US has close to 1:1 ratio of firearms : person, though this is unevenly distributed; rural folk tend to have several (squirrel rifle, deer rifle, dad's shotgun, kid's shotgun, etc) while many city folk don't have any.

School massacres are actually pretty rare, though they do receive a lot of press coverage, made-for-TV-movies and retrospectives and whatnot, and this both inspires copycats and distorts the public's perception of how often they occur. Same thing was true with carjacking in the 1980's and 1990's, postal-service massacres in the 1970's and 1980's, serial killers back in the 1960's and 1970's, gang wars in the 1920's and 1930's, and wild-west shootouts in the 1870's and 1880's.

Originally Posted by Bobbo

4) What does a defensive end do? Stop the linebackers sacking the quarterback?

The defensive end prevents the runner from running the ball around the edges of the field near the line of scrimmage, they also slow down the receivers who are running along the outside, and try to disrupt their timing and routes. They may also rush the quarterback, and other disruptive type things, but their primary job is guarding the outside ends of the line

For more football information, the amusingly unreliable wikipedia actually has a pretty good entry for american football, and how it relates to other similar sports like rugby and soccer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football

I have to differ with the other fellas on who carries.

I personally carry everywhere I go and know several other people who do the same.
Granted that that is a pretty small number but under Florida law (where I live)

(17) "Securely encased" means in a glove compartment, whether or not locked; snapped in a holster; in a gun case, whether or not locked; in a zippered gun case; or in a closed box or container which requires a lid or cover to be opened for access.

You can carry in a snap holster in the glove compartment, a holster in a shoe box on the seat ect. ect.

I know quite some number of persons who do this but aren't part of the statistics due to the lack of liscensing.

Also there are huge numbers of Floridians with CCW permits, last I saw was around 300,000.
More info on that at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry

If you look at he section " Who Carries?" there are some pretty big numbers for quite a few states, although the data is a little dated it is still representative due to increased demand in recent years.

But to put it into perspective, Fl population is around 16,000,000 with 300,000 permits. 53,000 Sq miles and if 1 out of 6 CCW holders carries that means 1 per square mile for some basic math.
If you figure that all of the people stand on half of the land then it goes to 2 per mile. If someone really cared to do the math it could be a lot more, keeping in mind I was assuming that 1 of 6 permit holders actually wears.

I'll bet thats a hell of a lot more than in the UK.

Growing up --everybody I knew owned guns ----mostly hunting weapons and pistols for defense. I know people (including my sister) that carry concealed pistols for road travel but rarely carry on person. I know you don't want to get political but if you mention a situation like high school massacres then I think I have to explain at least that your average citizen who owns legal weapons is not a threat --- growing up even with everyone I knew owning a gun, things like high school massacres were unthinkable --- people in general just didn't solve their problems with guns ---fists yes --but not guns --only for defense and hunting.



Justin