Do you have any evidence of that? Blame the media is pretty much another popular tactic used by these folks.
I would but interestingly enough the NRA lobbies against government doing studies on gun violence so all this great information that we could have we don't have. I wonder why that is? However, since you've set the tone by using anectodal evidence to support your claims then I can certainly do the same.
I never claimed that more guns cause less deaths. Guns don't necessary make a situation safer. In some cases they make it more dangerous. But in this country with it's 250 million guns, there's no changing the fact that there will always be lots of guns, legal or illegal. Im arguing that every law abiding citizen has the right to self defense, it's as simple as that.
They'd have a right to self defense without a firearm too and it would be much easier to defend yourself if there weren't 250 million guns floating around where anyone could acquire one without much trouble at all.
Yeah but how do you enforce that? If you could magically make all guns disappear that would be one thing, but you can't. You defend yourself against criminals. Criminals by definition, don't follow the law. They aren't just going to hand in their pistols with defaced serial numbers because some politician says so. By making guns illegal, you would effectively de-arm the law abiding citizens, and keep the criminals armed. That to me just doesn't make any sense.
Nobody is a criminal until they break the law. Newtown guy wasn't a criminal until he slaughtered a bunch of kids in a school. It's too late to wait until he's a criminal. This is just an NRA talking point that is a waste of time. I don't support making guns illegal. I support making them harder to get or making them safer to use. My goal is a safer society, the NRA's goal is more guns, higher membership, and unrestricted access to guns. Their solution to every problem is more guns. Safety is not carrying a gun with you everywhere you go. It's knowing you don't have to.
Ok....I guess we can find some common ground here. I don't agree with everything the NRA wants like unrestricted access to guns, thats not what i'm arguing here. And I agree more guns isn't the solution to every problem, and I support mandatory background checks on all gun purchasers. However, my thread was about making guns legal or illegal. Saying nobody is a criminal until they break the law while saying "I don't support making guns illegal" isn't a very productive set of arguments. Most people who use guns for crime are criminals. There is a very tiny % of people who will use a legal gun for a crime. Most of them were illegally bought on the streets. But do you really think crazy newtown kid wouldn't of gotten his hands on a gun if he didn't happen to be legal?? You think some law on the books will stop a psychopath when there are 250 million guns in this country easily available to buy on the streets?? Punishing the law abiding citizens for something criminals (or people intent on committing a crime) do just doesn't make any sense. Making a law won't change anything.
I have common sense to back up this claim. If someone pulls a gun on you and shoot you before you can react, your odds of fighting back with a gun is very slim unless you're psychic. Instead of using guns to protect against people what want to kill you, isn't handing out bulletproof vests better? Much more difficult to hit the head.
Thats what so many of you in this thread just don't understand. You think the only self defense situation is some dude quick drawing you Clint Eastwood style and blasting you in the brains. It just doesn't work like that in real life.
The poll reads like the last question on a test where the teacher just wants to give you a freebie. I think I nailed it, guns ARE legal!
No, I don't think an autistic kid who never leaves the house knows where to buy illegal guns. In fact I doubt very many people at all know where to buy illegal guns on the street. I think you've seen too many movies. Every one of these public mass shootings that I can recall was done by a non-criminal. You don't have the faintest clue the intentions of a gun buyer at the time of sale. If you sell someone a gun without a background check and they commit a crime with that gun then you should go to jail. Guns aren't toys.
I've never heard anyone say they want all guns banned, just logic regulation so crazy people are not going around killing people. I would NEVER....EVER travel to America because the stats are clear. More guns = more gun deaths. The only way to defend yourself against a gun is to have a quicker trigger finger. The NRA represents the gun manufactueres, they want lax gun laws so the market to sell to is large. Gun regulation means there are less available buyers, resulting in less revenue. I sometimes throw on a hoodie and go for hour walks at night and think, if I were in America I would have been killed by some idiot thinking I was chasing his/her house out. There was a story where this black kid was going into his car and his old neighbour thought he was trying to steal the car...so he shot the kid. The only rela comparable Country is switzerland. They have almost as many guns per capita but there system is tightly regulated. If you regulated your system better, sane people could still bear arms but gun deaths will go down.
Then enlighten me. I've lived my entire life without owning a gun and never came across a situation where someone tried to kill me(given that I am currently alive despite not having anything to defend myself). So tell me, how does the "real world" works where people are always out to get you, your trusty gun ensure you survive the horrors of the streets of Houston(or where ever you live)?
It's threads like these that make me wish I could show some of you people what's in my safes. Yes, plural. Oh, the horrified gasping and hyperventilating, likely tears to follow... I'd lick them off of your white, petrified faces, whispering in your ear how I'd only use them for self-defense... :grin: On the firearms discussions, WAAAAAYYYY to many people who don't have the slightest clue what they're talking about tend to open their traps. It's at once amusing and annoying. Amusing, because I enjoy watching people walk into traps they set for themselves, annoying because morons are very much capable of molding policy in this country. Which is, in the end, the ultimate reason we are allowed to own firearms.
Is this a "yes or no" question? In other words, do I want guns to be illegal? No. However, I also don't want crazed lunatics to have access to them, so I am very much for background checks, and I think a better job could be done with those than what is being done today. They need to tighten that up, in my humble opinion. Also, I'd like to add that some of the more conservative folks around here might be shocked at just how many Liberal Americans own and enjoy owning firearms. Really, some of you have no clue at all.
You are racist. You think only white people don't like guns? You also think that drinking the tears of white people give you magic powers, right? You are some kind of witch, aren't you? Fortunately, I am not scared of guns so I will not cry when you show me your safes. I will rob you of any chance of gaining my awesome white magic tears!
