Guppy, you dont like Britain or us Brits much do you?
My immediate family is English and Welsh, and my extended family is Irish.
As you know I hold FAA ATP.
I didn't know. Now I do. Thanks for sharing that.
Talking of the American Constitution, as you were, perhaps you can tell me this. Where did most of the wording come from?
James Madison.
You may be referring to the English Bill of Rights...which unfortunately wasn't provided for or available in any form of freedom to the colonists who elected to reject the monarchy and embrace a democratic republic. The magna carta had certain influence...itself a document formed from uprising and change. The actions leading to the development and signing of the magna carta weren't terrorist in nature, either. The big difference was that the Barons who forced John into the signing agreed to future loyalty, whereas the uprising colonies which became the United States rejected the monarchy out of hand, without exception.
Yep, give em guns, tell them they've got a democracy & they will think they are truly free. Just make sure most of them aren't educated enough to work it out. Speaking of democracy, didn't Bush get voted in a second time on the basis of the "war against terror?"?
Bush lost the popular election, actually. He certainly wasn't elected on the basis of his "war against terror." That's something he invented, and with which few people are stupid enough to side. Were it a pure democracy, Bush wouldn't have won the election; he lost the popular vote. Mine included. I wouldn't really call the United States an uneducated country.
Gun control worked for Hitler. It worked for most of the dictators and tyrants throughout history; disarm the populace in order to control the populace. A government should never have need to fear it's own constituancy. Then again, thankfully the US was able to liberate itself from an oppresive tyranny early in the game, and that mate, was done with personal firearms. Freedom has never been purchased, but with bloodshed and the point of a spear.
SN - slightly confused, you chastise us for not taking terrorism as seriously as the USA on this issue,
I didn't make the comparison. I did state that those who dismiss the risk of a terrorist action using light aircraft as nothing, who suggest that it's not a threat because of the lack of potential collateral damage, are naive and are certainly missing the big picture. It was others here who defensively missed the point and suggested that instead the UK has great lessons to teach the world on the subject.
As well they should, mind you. They've been driven from most corners of the world at one time or another (yes, the sun really does set on the British empire...most of the time).
For your deeply educated British mind, you perhaps missed the point.
Light airplanes are an ideal terrorist weapon. That they may pose little physical danger is really quite irrelevant.