Guns

[_zeezrom]

I wish nobody liked guns.

[_Quasimodo]

I wish nobody liked guns.

+1
I own three. A double barreled shot gun that I received as a Christmas present when I was sixteen. I have some guilt about the many rabbits and pheasants that I killed with that gun. I gave up hunting many years ago and I will never use it again (don't even have ammunition for it).

A pellet gun that came from Santa (does Santa carry an NRA card?) when I was ten (more poor little animals that I have to feel guilty about).

And my father's single shot, sixteen gauge shotgun. I keep it to remind me of him. He was teased by his hunting friends in Utah about his sixteen gauge single shot. He teased them back by saying "if you can't hit it with one shotgun blast, you should probably give up". I never saw him miss.

I did see him live out the gun collector's fantasy, once. We lived next to a small gas station on Parley's Way when I was just a kid (you know that street, I'm sure).

In the wee hours of the morning, two rough looking guys were beating up another guy in the closed gas station lot. My dad had been an officer in the British military police. He gabbed is little single shot and and held the two bad guys while my mom called the police. He was in his boxer shorts and bare feet... the gun wasn't loaded.

He knew his way around guns more than anyone I've known since. He never understood why someone would need a handgun.

[_Bret Ripley]

I wish nobody liked guns.

...
I did see him live out the gun collector's fantasy, once. We lived next to a small gas station on Parley's Way when I was just a kid (you know that street, I'm sure).

In the wee hours of the morning, two rough looking guys were beating up another guy in the closed gas station lot. My dad had been an officer in the British military police. He gabbed is little single shot and and held the two bad guys while my mom called the police. He was in his boxer shorts and bare feet... the gun wasn't loaded.

Cool story!

I've collected a few guns over the years. One of my pieces is my grandmother's old single-shot Winchester .22, which she used during the "Dust Bowl years" to keep the crows off the corn. Another is a replica 1860 Army Colt (cap-and-ball .44). I also have a 1950-something Russian SKS with fold-out bayonet. Of course, even the old pieces are potentially lethal.

This is what I think is really stupid: if I didn't volunteer the information, not one of them could be traced to me. The ease and relative anonymity with which guns may be acquired is disturbing. I am very much in favor of strict gun control laws.

And I agree the world would be a better place if nobody liked guns.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I don't know. I have a Springfield XD 40 w/a laser tac light combo. I don't take it anywhere with me. It just sits in my house. I suppose it's there for psychological comfort, and that's about it. I hate to clean it. :)

V/R
Dr. Cam

[_ldsfaqs]

I LOVE guns....

Just as I love any "tool" that serves a useful purpose.
I protects my family, my community, my right to life, my rights period from any sort of oppression, to use for food, and on.

I also LOVE Knives....

Just as I love any "tool".... you get the idea.

In China 9 people were killed with a "knife" wielder, another place 22 wounded.
Should we hate "knives" also?

Why not hate CARS? Cars kill way more people than guns, but I don't see people banning their use? Why not? Just because they are "more popular" than guns? Since when does "popularity" make something good or bad to hate or not hate? Sure, maybe in the mob and liberal minds, might makes right, rather than right makes right.

[_MeDotOrg]

Why not hate CARS? Cars kill way more people than guns, but I don't see people banning their use? Why not? Just because they are "more popular" than guns? Since when does "popularity" make something good or bad to hate or not hate? Sure, maybe in the mob and liberal minds, might makes right, rather than right makes right.

Cars are subject to safety and smog checks. They must be built with airbags and seatbelts and smog devices. Drivers must be licensed and insured. When the title to a car is transferred, it must be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The United States has one of the lowest death rates per passenger mile in the world. Between 1920 and 2000, the number of fatalities per passenger mile decreased by a factor of 17. In other words, the cost/benefit ratio keeps improving.



If you have a car in your garage, chances are it will provide safe transportation for you and your family for your lifetime.

If you have a gun in your home there is no commensurate cost/benefit ratio. If you have a gun in your home the chances are significantly greater that it will be used against someone you know rather than a home intruder.

Many Western democracies function quite well while regulating and restricting firearms. They also have much lower homicide rates that the United States. The U.S. is 4.5% of the world's population but we have about 45% of the privately owned fire arms. Our gun homicide rate dwarfs other developed countries.

[_beastie]

In China 9 people were killed with a "knife" wielder, another place 22 wounded.
Should we hate "knives" also?

Wounded being the operative word.

I don't have a problem with hunting rifes or pistols for protection.

I have a problem with assault weapons that are designed for the WAR field, not the home field. The Chinese nut didn't kill a single person with his knife. Columbine had two armed security guards who couldn't stop the nuts with assault weapons. By the time anyone could stop a person with an automatic weapon with a high-capacity magazine, he/she would have already incurred massive causalties.

This distinction is so painfully obvious that those on the far-right fringe who refuse to appreciate the distinction look like nuts themselves. Most gun-owners are not on this far-right lunatic fringe, and recognize the problem with assault weapons.

Half of those with a gun in the household (50%) say allowing citizens to own assault weapons makes the country more dangerous for citizens, fewer (34%) say this makes this country safer.

Read more at http://themoderatevoice.com/171253/pew- ... DX48lIw.99

[_EAllusion]

If you have a gun in your home there is no commensurate cost/benefit ratio. If you have a gun in your home the chances are significantly greater that it will be used against someone you know rather than a home intruder.

Do you think the only benefit of a gun is the ability to shoot a home intruder?

[_EAllusion]

If you have a car in your garage, chances are it will provide safe transportation for you and your family for your lifetime.

Guns have numerous safety features and if you own one, chances are you and your family will be safe with it for your lifetime. You aren't drawing a distinction here. Cars are much riskier as far as unintentional deaths are concerned, but you bristle at the analogy because you intuitively understand that the benefit that motor vehicle transportation provides people outweighs those risks, and more importantly that people should be able to make that risk/benefit choice for themselves. But, in order to juice the stats in favor of stricter gun control, there's stats flying all over the place that adds in accidental deaths. One can and should tease out the difference between paternalistic arguments in favor of gun restrictions and crime prevention.

[_ajax18]

Many Western democracies function quite well while regulating and restricting firearms.

The USA is not a Western Democracy. It's more of a Latin American country.

Sadly there are places in New Orleans, Memphis, and other places I've lived that I just can't go. Carrying a concealed weapon and having to shoot someone to save my life isn't worth it at this point. But the culture could become so pervasive that you may have to carry a gun to go anywhere. For those on the far left that want to take my guns out of my home to facilitate burglaries and home invasion with the attitude nobody should have to die just because he burglarized and terrorized a house and family, bring it on. You're in for a fight with a man descended from thousands of years of rebels. The Romans tried to enslave the Scots but failed. The king of England thought he'd breed us out, until he met William Wallace. The Union thought they'd waltz into VA and tell us what to do. Then they met Thomas Stonewall Jackson.

No wonder gun sales are going up so much. I can't wait to see Ed Schultz coming to try to take my guns out of my house. I'm sure the Chinese are going to want to collect on all that social security and welfare money loans that were taken out in our names. It looks like they want to make sure America is ripe for the picking when they come to foreclose, which means making sure the people are disarmed.

http://www.americans-working-together.c ... /id10.html