'British version of Walmart'
I thought it *was* Walmart? (In the same way Cadburys are Kraft foods)
Yet another British family has been forced to flee its habitat after an infestation of Brazilian wandering spiders smuggled itself into their nest on the back of a bunch of supermarket bananas. The Brazilian wandering spider's bite is so venomous it can leave males of many species with a painful four-hour long erection before …
@Chris Miller: I seriously doubt it was an aisle, unless you're talking about airsoft or other non-lethal/toy guns. Some of the larger Walmarts in the US do indeed have a sporting section which includes a separate desk with locked display cabinets of firearms behind. Mostly hunting rifles. Its not like you can just wander down an aisle and take an AR-15 off a peg. And while I'm at it, lets end another myth: Whenever you buy a firearm in the US you have to pass an FBI background check before you can take it away (Gun shows and private trades are the only exception). Its just a form and a phone call but nevertheless it's actually not as easy/unregulated as the fact-free sensationalist UK media (including the BBC) would have you believe.
>Gun shows and private trades are the only exception
Online sales in some cases as well. Seen much higher figures but safe to say at least 20% of the guns that switch hands in the US are done without a background check. Still as the poster above implies even here in probably the most gun friendly red state its hardly the wild wild west.
Gun shows aren't an exception, same rules apply. Buy from a dealer and go through a NICS check, private sales may or may not need to depending on state.
Online sales have to go to a FFL in the buyer's state, who will then run the NICS check before handing over the weapon, unless the weapon is Curio/Relic eligible and the buyer has a C&R license.
"Online sales in some cases as well. Seen much higher figures but safe to say at least 20% of the guns that switch hands in the US are done without a background check. Still as the poster above implies even here in probably the most gun friendly red state its hardly the wild wild west"
Since we are going there, HERE is the scoop:
* In the U.S. , there are two types of sales: private sales between individuals and sales from an FFL (Federal Firearms License) dealers.
* ALL new guns are going through an FFL and require a background check. That includes new gun sales from an FFL dealer at a gunshow, or sales over the internet. ALL NEW GUN SALES REQUIRE A BACKGROUND CHECK.
* Between individuals , State law applies. In Georgia, for example, I can sell longarms or pistols face-to-face without a background check. I can send a longarm through the mail to another individual in the state without a background check. I CANNOT send a pistol through the mail to another individual without a background check. I CAN send the pistol through the mail to an FFL dealer in the state, and the receiving party would need to go to the dealer and pass a background check before he could recieve the pistol. I CAN send pistols or rifles to an FFL in another state where an individual can pick them up after passing a background check.
The "gunshow loophole" is simply that individuals go to gunshows with a gun to sell, and may sell that gun to another individual (or FFL) in the state without a background check. This is allowed as all other face to face exchanges are allowed. Again, it is NOT allowed to purchase a gun from an FFL dealer at a gunshow without a background check. So when people are attacking "the gunshow loophole", what they are really trying to do is to prohibit transfers of guns between individuals without a background check. It has NOTHING to do with gunshows.
@JustNiz - it was Flagstaff, AZ (as you say, a manned area at the back of the store, you couldn't just pick up a rifle and put it in your trolley). I had a good chat with the knowledgeable guys manning the area - they were bewildered that we couldn't buy this stuff in the UK :)
Its just a form and a phone call but nevertheless it's actually not as easy/unregulated as the fact-free sensationalist UK media (including the BBC) would have you believe.
Oh yes, good thing the FBI background check phone call stops all mass murderers.
The USA has about as many guns as people.
Therefore, when somebody blows their last mental fuse on any given Monday, then they typically only need to walk to their closet to fetch their existing guns and ammo. There's no "background check" to prevent them from opening their closet.
People go nutz every day. But in the USA, they probably ALREADY have guns.
Background Checks are to Guns what a Drunk Driving Sobriety Test would be to **Purchasing** a Car.
Which would be as stupid and useless as it sounds. ...Just like 'background checks' for gun purchases.
What's actually amazing here is that I'm apparently the first and only person on Earth to figure this out. I've never seen this duh-obvious point made by anyone except me.
Honestly if you don't keep a gun in your house the odds of you being murdered by a firearm outside of some inner city areas is very small even in the US. Significantly more than 2/3rd of all gun deaths are suicides and accidents. The majority of gun homicides are also committed by "loved" ones. Hardly a fan of gun control but don't like the lies that guns make you safer either. Guns don't scare me. ISIS and terrorism doesn't scare me. Traffic scares me, because that is what's most likely to kill me or an immediate family member by far at this point in our lives (more than hour spent in the car daily drives the point home). Can't wait for them to get the self driving cars bugs worked out fast enough so maybe a significant portion of the drunk fools in society pass out instead of going the wrong way on the freeway.
Traffic deaths are decreasing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reported_Road_Casualties_Great_Britain#/media/File:Killed_on_British_Roads.png and that's with traffic and population increasing. Must be all those speed cameras :-) or could it be Kevlar brake pads, radial tyres, jelly-mold car fronts and better road design?
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"In addition to this, before the brand name viagra, they were going to name it mycoxaflopin"
Oh not this one again! The generic name for Viagra is actually Sildenafil - I know because I'm an acquaintance of both the discoverer of the drug, Doctor Drew Peacock, and the owner of the patent, Doctor Hugh Jardon.
<Coughs>
But on a more serious note, what happens if you get bitten by one of these spiders and have to rush to A&E?
- Doctor, help me, a spider gave me this huge erection!
- Pervert. You've got chronic Arachnophilia and you need to go and see a psychiatrist before it's too late...
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> "I know what it means, i didn't even have to look it up......."
I was rather surprised that the author didn't try to work it in somewhere (oops, no pun intended).
Kind of hard (oops) to make a pun out of "priapism", but maybe describe the spiders as "peripatetic priapistic poisoners"?
"It's curious how the company comments are at odds with the obvious facts. They should apologize and pay for the costs involved without fuss.
The obvious facts being that the customer told them it had happened and so it must be true?"
When I was younger there was hysteria about the log flume ride at the new theme park - the hollowed out logs were infested with deadly snakes from South America.
God knows what the death toll was.
That would be the fiberglass logs.
So, count me in the group that needs confirmation for everything.
All our xxx are xxx they are transported to the UK and every single piece of xxx is manually checked for quality and xxx.
I think that that is the standard 'Oh eff off and die" response to the media/public as a whole. Customer Service departments worldwide have an app they use to run off trite like that as or when required.
On the other hand, 1500 baby spiders in the size of a 20p coin, they're tiny. Maybe a fully grown spider can inflict a nasty bite but these are a long way short of that, a long way from their natural environment, not going to survive.
This story sounds a bit like it might be "over-reacting consumer spots an opportunity to screw the shop for compensation". I'd just have gone round with an insecticide spray (just to pre-empt the pedants, yes, spiders are arachnids not insects but insecticide still kills them).
Generally speaking most venemous animals are venoumous right from the get go (as it's used for hunting and defence).
In fact there is a school of thought it may be better to be bittten by an adult snake versus a juvenile because an adult snake has more control and is more likely to dry bite, or only partial inject, (have seen this behaviour with King Cobras) whereas the little uns will just fully envonomate you.
Not sure how that translates to inverts, pretty sure it does with Octopusses, either way don't underestimate venomus animals just because they are babies.