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Comment by discretion22 | Hacker News Reader

Alas, because you have not heard of them, does not mean your local police have not heard of them (they are probably using them already - even if you have astonishingly low gun crime in Europe, making the exercise a pointless waste of money).

In Europe, companies selling to the police are extremely discrete and generally keep a hyper low profile, particularly when selling technology (dubious or otherwise). These deals generally work by 'befriending' politicians who can instruct police to purchase and that's all back-room type of stuff.

Generally, it's when a politician wants credit by claiming some success in reducing/detecting crime that these things get any press. The publicity focuses not on the company, but on the genius nature of the politicians decision making.

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> astonishingly low gun crime in Europe, making the exercise a pointless waste of money

Worse than that; if you listen long enough and carefully enough, you will hear gunshots. It's like over-used medical testing: look for a problem, find a problem, treat the problem, even if had you never looked the patient would generally be better off.

Rural Canada here, in an area with no real gun crime.

There are people on their farms shooting things (rabid animals), or hunting in season.

I guess you could only use these things in downtown of a city, otherwise so many false positives..

I can't even imagine in the US, land of 7 guns per person, plus of course the dogs are even armed...

>> There are people on their farms shooting things (rabid animals)

I don't really care if "rural people" are using guns but to claim shooting rabid animals is a major use-case is wrong or initially misleading.

I’ve done it once and I witnessed my mom do it once.

I’m sure it’s way, way less then 1% of the shots fired but it’s absolutely something that happens.

You guys actually have rabies over there? Scary.

In the US, I know you guys have to be shooting at anything and everything, just because you have a gun.

In Canada, people on farms often buy guns just as a tool, not for cultural reasons, or pleasure, such as long guns, to shoot.... yes, rabid animals, or things preying on their livestock.

It is a major use case, if you own a gun for rabid animals, and really don't get it out otherwise.

I also have a chainsaw, and never get it out to cut trees, unless it has already fallen, or a danger.

EG, I have a chainsaw, but never use it to cut down trees for fuel.

Why do you object? Some areas have a strong local rabis population...

For most Americans... guns are used as a tool just like in rural Canada.

Maybe, but every time I bring it up, I find myself having to distinguish Canadian usage, from US gun usage. Many Americans seem to think the entire planet is Just Like Them, not realising that many countries don't have issues with guns, and don't have Us VS Them style politics either.

Frankly, the biggest problem we have with guns is smuggled handguns from the US. That is, illegal gun ownership.

Honestly, I think every rural gun owner should get behind gun control in the US. It's the nutjobs, those who snap, or shouldn't have guns (illegal ownership) which is the true problem.

Up here, you have to take a gun safety course to get a gun. It's not onerous, and it's taught by another gun owner, one who decided to set up shop and do so! If you can't pass that course (for example, don't point your gun at anyone -- ever!), you don't deserve a gun.

And it's mandated, and you plain and simple can't buy ammo, or a gun, unless you have a license. And you cannot get a license, if you have a violent past, and a variety of other things.

For example, get charged with a violent crime? Your license is immediately suspended, and you cannot have guns any more.

I guess I have a short fuse here, because your politics are infecting our politics, as many people barely understand the law, or that "there isn't here".

> Frankly, the biggest problem we have with guns is smuggled handguns from the US. That is, illegal gun ownership.

This is a huge problem in the US, as well. Most gun crimes are committed with unregistered, stolen, borrowed, or otherwise illegally obtained handguns. It's uncommon to have a crime where the weapons were purchased legally by the criminal.

> For example, get charged with a violent crime? Your license is immediately suspended, and you cannot have guns any more.

It is the same thing here. If you are charged with a violent crime, your guns will be seized. If you are convicted, you cannot own legally without a court order re-instating your rights.

> because your politics are infecting our politics, as many people barely understand the law, or that "there isn't here".

All politics are local, and the internet is global. The issue in the US is that the urban areas don't understand the need for firearms in rural areas. Rural people don't understand how dangerous firing even a .22 rifle is in a city, how terrifying seeing someone with a 9mm on their hip in a crowd is, or how many street criminals will target you just to steal your gun.

I live in a neighborhood in SF bay inhabited by only billionaires and millionaires. I am always looking up and cataloging all the surveillance devices mounted when I am moving around. We have plenty of ALPR's and other cameras but no shotspotters anywhere near where I live. If I go into Richmond, Oakland, or other blacker parts of the bay, they are prevalent. I heard what sounded like gunshots last night but heard no sirens afterwards. I have more cataloging to do with Vespucci app on my phone or: https://mapcomplete.osm.be/surveillance.html https://sunders.uber.space/

Cool subtle brag

"...even if you have astonishingly low gun crime in Europe...."

Er, no.

You have astonishingly high gun crime in the States.

Sorry 'bout that.

You're getting downvoted of course, but it is true - the US is the outlier among rich nations.

Per capita, the US is just behind Panama; in absolute numbers, Brazil is ahead by about 14%.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-viole...

Comparing just to other rich countries shows stark differences:

https://www.healthdata.org/acting-data/gun-violence-united-s...

It isn't even close.

Our gun crime rates per gun are flabbergastingly low. Our gun crime rates per capita are excellent, except in some of the largest cities.

> Our gun crime rates per gun are flabbergastingly low

I think I'm going to start reporting our bug resolution counts by text editor.

It's like bug reports per user. Obviously if you have 4 users, you're going to have fewer bug reports.

We have lots of bugs in our product, but you will be happy to hear that our ratio of bug per line of code is excellent!

Also US numbers per capita are actually very bad (https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-us-gun-violence-worl...) and worse in rural states, are you just going by feelings?

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