Calling all avid Gun owners if there are any

[EnglishGolfer]

I'm so completely behind Rock on this one. In general people are just too damn stupid to own guns. Saying that you need one to defend yourself and your family is not good enough as that just means any idiot can get hold of one and there will just be more in circulation.

There has recently been a knife amnesty in NW England which resulted in hundreds of them and knuckle dusters etc being removed from the streets and therefore out of temptations way. Knife crime is bad enough, I can't imagine if it were the same for guns.

If guns are accesible to the public they are accessible to druggies, people who might go off the rails after a few drinks and people who are just down right insane.

Even the reputation of your postal workers mental stability is renound world wide! How crazy is that?!

 

[BigJim13]

Sooo, anything made with another purpose, like a baseball bat or a butcher knife, or even an automobile is an appropriate way to kill a person. Again, you want to hold the instrument and not the person with a few loose screws responsible? How are these any different? Get rid of the bats, the knives, and automobiles or anything that could possibly be used to harm someone and you will really be doing the people a service of having to take no responsibility for their own action. Then we can wrap everyone in foam padding just in case they are clumsy and fall down alot. It is acceptable to steal a car and run it through a crowded room, because the vehicle serves another purpose? Or should we get rid of vehicles as well. Or are you going to tell me that by taking guns off the street, these people that have the desire to murder innocent people will automatically be cured because we removed their fixation.

I suppose next you are going to tell me that we should all have to drink cold coffee because some idiot couldn't keep it out of his lap.

Perhaps you should use that calculator to add up all the idiots in this world that feel they should take no responsibility for their own actions simply because it is easy to blame another for making something too convenient. God knows you won't be able to add them up on your fingers and toes.

Could not have said it better myself.

I wonder how many people that argue against guns have ever shot one. In all honesty shooting, as in target practice, clay pidgeon etc is one of the best stress relievers i have ever tried. After your done its like the tension has been...blasted for lack of a better word...out of you...its great you should all try it sometime :hunter:

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

I'm so completely behind Rock on this one. In general people are just too damn stupid to own guns. Saying that you need one to defend yourself and your family is not good enough as that just means any idiot can get hold of one and there will just be more in circulation.

Yet you don't think people in general are too damn stupid to drive cars? You should come drive in the Northeast US sometime. And to think, these idiots go out and buy 2 or 3 of them. What, you really need 3 cars to get to work.

As stupid as people are, it would be much easier to do away with the roads and make everyone move to within walking distance of work.

 

[DaveE]

I don't own a handgun so maybe I should stay out of this. Of course I won't. Texas passed a right to carry law in 1996. Many people were afraid it would lead to an increase in crime as well as shootouts on the freeways. I was one of the people that thought it was a bad idea.

The results of that law were very different than what most people thought. Crime went down and the people who got the license to carry a conceiled weapon are close to 8 times less likely to arrested for a violent crime. If you're interested, heres a link to an article that has the stats.

I should point out that the reason I don't own a handgun is that I live in an area with virtually no violent crime.

http://www.texasinsider.org/election_watch/Opinion_Jerry_Patterson_1_6_2006_Guns.htm

 

[Bravo]

Well, I'm not a handgun owner but have no problem with those who are. I have hunting guns. If someone breaks into my house he is dead. I will not HOPE he's a nice guy just there to take some things to help feed his poor starving family. I will kill him. Either with my hunting guns, my Karate weapons or my bare hands. If I go to prison I don't care. I will not have the death or rape of my loved ones on my hands, knowing I could have prevented it in some way. Bottom line. End of my conversation.

WBL:

Ditto for me. I do not own a handgun. Never felt the need. But if someone did break into my home - my 12 gauge Beretta 390 would take care of him....and I also agree with BigJim 13 that shooting sporting clays is (weirdly) one of the most relaxing things I can do. Its utterly strange that this loud repeated blasting with a gun kicking into your shoulder can relax you, but it does for me. After a nice round of 100 targets, I come home really feeling good.

Many non-Americans do not understand that so many of our customs and culture came out of the American revolution. There was an EXTREMELY strong distrust of a central government as a result of what occurred in the Colonies from the actions of the crown. After the revolution was won, it took several YEARS for the constitution to be written...in the meantime, the 13 states kind of stood there functioning along on their own. There were extremely strong debates from all states about what they wanted from a central government. The overall sentiment was: 1) Print money and manage currency and 2) maintain an army and navy for common defense. Other than that, the average citizen of the new American republic did not want a strong central federal government. They distrusted it too much.

So until he constitution was written several years after the war ended, these 13 states operated almost autonomously, and the average citizen operated similarly. Individualism was the order of the day and although the citizens were glad the revolution was won, they actually identified more with the state they lived in than they did with USA as a nation. More than anything else, they wanted freedom and "to be left alone". Gun ownership was seen as a key Right of citizens to protect themselves from tyranny. Remember that the first American army that fought in the revolution was a ragtag assemblage of farmers who used their own guns. It wasn't until much later in the war that guns were actually furnished to the army. So personal gun ownership became a strong part of American culture - birthed in the very revolution itself.

On the other hand, the US is undeniably a violent country and handguns are a big part of it. Handgun ownership was not common until the mid-20th century and became more dominant with the rise of organized crime and street crime which is largely driven by drug trafficking and drug addiction. The genie is indeed out of the bottle and will never be put back in. And while I don't own a handgun, I keep my shotgun in my bedroom closet with one box of shells in there, just in case I need to blow the hell out of someone who is trying to kill my family...

 

[Rockford35]

The home of the brave, and the land of the free....


Sure sounds like it when you have to carry around a weapon to defend what is yours.

You guys can keep what's yours. Just don't get all upity when you see problems like Columbine and the like. That's all I ask.

R35

 

[bames]

I own hunting guns but will defend Rock on the point that I don't think it is very easy to ACCIDENTALLY kill someone with a baseball bat, knife, or warbirdlover's karate equipment, but comining from someone who has been accidentally shot by a 12 guage shotgun, (no I did not shoot myself) I can tell you that it is fairly easy to kill someone with a gun without any malicious intent to do so.

 

[smileyrose]

Yeah that's terrible!

Yet you don't think people in general are too damn stupid to drive cars? You should come drive in the Northeast US sometime. And to think, these idiots go out and buy 2 or 3 of them. What, you really need 3 cars to get to work.

Yeah that's terrible, although I'm only envious because some burke wrote my car off and I can't afford to buy another one, well not as good as the one he wrote off! When my hubby divorced me, he left me with an old car, unlike some other people's husband's who when they leave them, they are left with millions of pounds in their pocket to go and buy a new one!

It amazes me how some of these females go out and complain that their husbands didn't leave them with enough money as a divorce settlement, because those females have never had to go through what I've been through! I think as long as a female is more than comfortable after the divorce settlement has been made, then there is no need for complaint!

 

[Rockford35]

I own hunting guns but will defend Rock on the point that I don't think it is very easy to ACCIDENTALLY kill someone with a baseball bat, knife, or warbirdlover's karate equipment, but comining from someone who has been accidentally shot by a 12 guage shotgun, (no I did not shoot myself) I can tell you that it is fairly easy to kill someone with a gun without any malicious intent to do so.

This is exactly my point. If you limit the opportunities, it's fairly safe to say that the incidents will decrease.

I understand that illegal firearms are a problem, and there's not much the average joe can do. But the one thing you can do is limit the opportunity of theft, incidents or the like.

You can't honestly say that securely locking up your firearms (which is law, is it not?) is also a deterent to you just grabbing a weapon and shooting someone?

I can't wrap my brain around this. I can't. I just wouldn't want to live in a place where I felt I needed to defend my existence.

R35

 

[warbirdlover]

Guns are "inanimate objects" and do not kill, the nut on the handle kills.

If someone is so morally lacking that he/she can take someone's life without guilt, he/she can take this life with any "tool" that is available. Fix the human moral problems and not the inanimate object problem.

If you ban guns from citizens, the criminals will have them or get them from somewhere. Remember, they don't follow the laws.

So now you have criminals with guns and good citizens without?

And these criminals know you don't have guns!

Not my kind of situation.

I'm not a gun nut other then appreciating a good hunting arm but I used to be and I wasn't crazy. And most of the "gun nuts" I know aren't either.

There is one "rule" of life and that is the that those who have an advantage will use it. If this advantage is physical size they will use it to get their way. The same goes for weapons. Look at history. The only time there is "peace" is when there is equality in these checks and balances. When one side gets an advantage (WWII Germany) there is "war". This works on the world scale on down to the neighborhood scale. If you can't see this you haven't lived long enough yet. It's a fact and you have to deal with it and not just run away.

 

[BigJim13]

Guns are "inanimate objects" and do not kill, the nut on the handle kills.

If someone is so morally lacking that he/she can take someone's life without guilt, he/she can take this life with any "tool" that is available. Fix the human moral problems and not the inanimate object problem.

If you ban guns from citizens, the criminals will have them or get them from somewhere. Remember, they don't follow the laws.

So now you have criminals with guns and good citizens without?

And these criminals know you don't have guns!

Not my kind of situation.

I'm not a gun nut other then appreciating a good hunting arm but I used to be and I wasn't crazy. And most of the "gun nuts" I know aren't either.

There is one "rule" of life and that is the that those who have an advantage will use it. If this advantage is physical size they will use it to get their way. The same goes for weapons. Look at history. The only time there is "peace" is when there is equality in these checks and balances. When one side gets an advantage (WWII Germany) there is "war". This works on the world scale on down to the neighborhood scale. If you can't see this you haven't lived long enough yet. It's a fact and you have to deal with it and not just run away.

Again I couldn't agree more, has anybody noticed how crazy the world has gotten since the fall of the USSR? I remember when i was a kid and being worried that the Russians were going to invade or shoot ICBM's at us. It was a little out there to think that, but there was a check in place in the US, the other Superpower. Now that the USSR is no more I have more worries now than ever. I'm terrified of flying to begin with, but since 9/11 its that much worse. The Taliban and other terrorist organizations sprout up like grass.

Is this all due to the fall of the USSR, probably not. I just notice that things have gone nuts since that day....I may be wrong and totally off track, who knows...

 

[SiberianDVM]

The home of the brave, and the land of the free....


Sure sounds like it when you have to carry around a weapon to defend what is yours.

You guys can keep what's yours. Just don't get all upity when you see problems like Columbine and the like. That's all I ask.

R35

Who's uppity? Don't make me shoot you.

 

[Bravo]

I own hunting guns but will defend Rock on the point that I don't think it is very easy to ACCIDENTALLY kill someone with a baseball bat, knife, or warbirdlover's karate equipment, but comining from someone who has been accidentally shot by a 12 guage shotgun, (no I did not shoot myself) I can tell you that it is fairly easy to kill someone with a gun without any malicious intent to do so.

You and I have something in common...we have both been accidently shot with 12 gauge shotguns. Mine was during a hunting trip in Texas when a fellow hunter shot low - kind of like the Dick Cheney deal. The guy was a friend of my brother-in-law and I thought he was going to choke the guy for his carelessness. There's no doubt that accidents can and do happen in the world of firearms.

Small world.

 

[warbirdlover]

Yup. And you can get hit on the head with a golf ball and die. Or get hit by a car. Die in a plane crash. you never know when your time is up.

 

[bames]

You and I have something in common...we have both been accidently shot with 12 gauge shotguns. Mine was during a hunting trip in Texas when a fellow hunter shot low - kind of like the Dick Cheney deal. The guy was a friend of my brother-in-law and I thought he was going to choke the guy for his carelessness. There's no doubt that accidents can and do happen in the world of firearms.

Small world.

I actually took it in the face. The force was enough to knock me on my can but it was a cold North Dakota winter day and I had enough clothing that the only shot that actually penetrated was my face. Not enough to really do any damage. My father tried to pop them out like a zit but in so doing I nearly passed out so we headed for home. We made an agreement that no one outside of the vehicle ever needs to know who the shooter was. The funny part of the story is that after stopping by my father's house on the way into the hospital, my father decided that it was a good time to START SHOVELING THE DRIVEWAY! I proceded to bang on the window of the vehicle and pointed to my face. He reluctantly stopped and took me in. A little minor surgery and some stitching and I was on my way.

Anyway - we are careful, I've shot guns my entire life - I am here to say that accidents can and WILL happen.