Lurkaloid, one last comment before I go; how can you believe that the general public having the right to own small firearms is going to protect them from oppression by a government armed with tanks, fighter jets, missiles, bombers, nukes, and a large highly-trained and highly-funded military-industrial complex?

If anything, the second ammendment HELPS the government if they wanted to oppress the American people; it lets the public naively clutch their useless weaponry and think that they're protected from the slow creep of oppression that they're complacently ignoring.

Real protection from oppression is identical to real protection when driving; it comes from being vulnerable, and realising your vulnerability, and being more aware of your surroundings because of it, leaving you able to spot the danger early and do something about it, rather than breezing along without a clue, blinkers on, clutching your gun, or sitting inside your two tons of speeding metal, ignoring everything because you think you're safe; right up until the tanks are outside your door and the lorry has crushed your "safe" SUV. Meanwhile, the man without a gun has spotted his government's oppression early and made a change at the ballot box whilst he still can, and the man on the motorbike without tons of metal "protection" has seen the lorry well in advance and swerved around it.
(Musuko, Tue 10 Feb 2009, 16:21, 1 reply)

I see your point
but in your analogy, the man in the motorbike would be swerving in between the lorry in the slow lane and the car overtaking it, causing the car drive to put his brakes on suddenly and shout "you cunt!" as the last thing he was expecting was to see a motorbike whizzing past his left hand window.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 10 Feb 2009, 16:49, closed)

I'm a motorcyclist, and doing what you describe is illegal and stupid. There are two kinds of motorcyclists; smart ones and dead ones. The vulnerability of motorcycling very quickly trains you not to do what you've just described. The smart ones, the ones who survive, have to be smart, because there's no safety net of crumple zones and airbags to allow you to be stupid. People who are vulnerable like that are usually the safest, because they have to be on their toes. People who think they are safe are usually not (and that does apply to motorcyclists too, the dead ones; plenty of them are deluded about how safe they are, and do things like you've described).

If you've encountered motorcyclists riding between lanes on a moving motorway, just be aware it won't be me; I'm not dead yet.

The man with the gun, or the man in the 4mpg Land Rover; both are men running blindfolded through a volcano because the salesman convinced them their paper suit is fireproof.

Lane-splitting as the Americans call it, or filtering as we call it, is only legal in Britain when the traffic is stationary (stuck in a queue on the M25 for instance, or waiting at traffic lights).
(Musuko, Tue 10 Feb 2009, 17:02, closed)