I believe in the right to bear arms for home protection and personal protection. I also believe we should know who has them and why. I also believe those who have them should be legal to have them, legal age, legitimately able to pass the tests for a gun, etc...

No there should not be cartblanc when it comes to guns.

I was raised in a household that kept loaded guns in closet for use should someone try to break into the house and us kids were home alone. We were taught to handle them, clean them and shoot them. We only had one instance of trouble with the guns and that was the night my dad got locked out and I was woken from sleep and saw a shadow outside the house and went to the closet and got the rifle out and pointed it, unset the saftey and cocked it at the shadow I saw outside the house. Had my father not spoken at the time he did, I may have killed my own father.

Too many children with emotional and mental problems shoot eachother in homes with guns, this is caused from irresponsibility of the parents. Too many young children shoot other members of their families or friends from irresponsibility of the parents.

Just like my dad told me, an unloaded gun with the bullets in a lockbox on the other side of the room will not help you in a bad situation. Or a loaded gun in a lockbox with a key will not help you in a bad situation. So if you have to lock the weapon up because of the children or unstable people in your house, there is no use having one. I chose not to keep guns in the house with my children. Once I live alone again, I may apply for a gun to keep as a weapon on my person but as long as I have children in my house, no way in hell will I have one.

And I'm tired of hearing guns compared to knives or hands as a weapon.

This comparison is not accurate. It is so very easy to kill someone with a gun. You don't even have to touch them at all.

To kill someone with a knife you have to use a lot of physical force. People rarely accidentally kill another human with a gun or a knife. They have to be trying. There has to be real intent to harm.

But with a gun, it's just a tiny pull of your finger and "bam" it's all over with. Literally.

It's not valid to compare taking away a person's knife with taking away their gun. I would say that it is more accurate to compare a gun and a car if you want to go with the "they are both just tools" argument. After all it's easy to kill or injure with a car. And accidental deaths can be high with both such powerful machines.

But you have to have a license for a car. And insurance. And take driving tests. Maybe that would help prevent poor gun ownership?

I don't see a perfect solution for gun violence issues... after all even with all the controls on who can drive a car death by car accident is still quite common.

Peace.

anoasis, how many fire arms have you handled and fired?

Yes but what about gun crimes?

How many weapons have I personally used? 5 or 6 although I haven't used one in quite a while.

Why do you ask?

just wondering, since unless you know what you're doing it's not always a sure thing that you'll hit someone. that's even more true when you put range between the two

and i've known many a person who could take most any knife and throw them into you with enough force to kill from 30ft or so

Guns are almost non existant in England. The police do not even carry them. I have seen a few documentaries on it. They have crimes but not a whole lot of gun crimes in England.

I meant voilent crimes sorry for the typo.

I understand what you are saying. My point was just that it is so much easier to kill with a gun than without one. And I am tired of hearing, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". Obviously not all gun owners are responsible or we wouldn't have so many "accidental shooting incidents." The VP of the US accidentally shot someone for god's sake. Has he accidentally stabbed anyone?

My family is one of those many sad ones where a child shot another child with their fathers gun. Yes, children accidentally cut one another with knives but the results are rarely so severe.

Someone had earlier equated guns with knives. My point is that they cannot be compared.
And you have a good point. At range it is even less likely you could kill with a knife, yes?

he shot that man because he was being unsafe. when hunting you have a certain range to your right and left that you should follow the target, he went beyond that and shot the man in the face.

idiots shouldn't be the cause of rules

But there is a much easier way to stop that from happening. I am sorry to say but whoever owns the gun is responcible for how it is kept safe. If whoever owns it doesn't lock it up then its thier fault for what happens if something goes wrong. There is a reason we keep cleaning cabnits locked up, but no one thinks we should ban cleaning supplies, cuz some kid drinks drano.

My dad is a police officer, and he had many guns while i was growing up. The only time i ever saw them was when he cleaned them, other then that I never say them because he was always careful to keep them locked up.

see that's the thing, it's the adult's responsibility to secure any potentially dangerous items. whether they be drain cleaner or a fire arm. it's also up to that adult to teach responsibility and respect

btw i've been shooting since i was a child

I did see some articles that state this but when I examined them they were all from gun lobbying sources and didn't really match the original data sources. According to our Dept. of Justice crime has been generally increasing steadily in many nations-including the US- but the US still has a per capita murder rate that is 6 times that of Englands and 3 times the rape rate- http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/pub/html/cjusew96/crpr.htm . There were some indications that robbery was becoming more prevalent in the UK but that could be linked to economic issues that have arisen there as well.

This does not mean I advocate that the same gun control laws that are in place there be implemented here. I think you can't compare the two. I believe we need to look at our culture and the problems here and try to figure out what will work here. Education might be more necessary. Guns are glamorized here and I think that is a problem but one I don't have a solution for...




Yes but what about gun crimes?


I saw a bunch of conflicting stats on recent gun crime in the UK which lead me to conclude that they don't have the data seperated out. the BBC had several articles that contradicted one another and the US data didn't differentiate between violent crimes and violent crimes with guns for the UK. There is some good neutral data on gun crime in the US though: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/guic.pdf . 70% of all murders are performed with guns.

I can't find reliable stats on accidental death or injury from guns... all i have found so far are from obviously biased sources one way or the other... this one seems fairly decent... http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/guns.htm

Let me know if you find meaningful unbiased data... there is so much that is obviously skewed that it's hard to find anything else..

That doesn't seem very unbiased. By the same token anything that is potentialy hurtful should be put in the same catagory. I know that haveing a gun is never safe, but the only way to keep bad things from happening is to be responcible. As a kid i remember wanting to see my dads gun but he would never let me touch them and i respected that. And he never gave us the chance to find them on our own. I know i keep going to my own life, but my dad was being responcible, and nothing bad ever happened with his guns.

young lady as with a gun being a pulling of a finger it is a flick of a rist and some one is gone,sisors knife,peice of glass,a simple 8pennie nail,hit a person in artery and they are gone.A gun is a tool as with a hammer or a screwdriver and both the later have been used as wepons and on accident killed some one.the person holding the gun is the killer not the tool.Being raised with guns(and yes young lady I do know someone close that was killed with one) and have help teach people the PROPER use and care of guns I guess I have a byuss opinion.And yes I was accidently shot once and have a scare to prove it but I still beleive in gun control is knowing where that gun is pointed and the safty is in the proper position!Every one has an opinion but if most of us would stop and think a moment about other peoples opinions we all might take a step back and try and see life through other peoples veiws,I do respect your choises as with Tobias and Toasted,and even Mac60s but I wish people would stop and use comen cence and think cars are even a more lethal wepon than a gun and have killed evn more in one week than a guns in a month,but this duose exclude the war. I am sorry if I have offended any one with my baleifs and my opinions.Do have a good and safy weekend all.

if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns

Yes I pointed out that I believe guns and cars are similarly dangerous tools earlier in this thread. I also notice that you have to take a test, written and practical, and renew it periodically and have insurance, to drive a car.

I think the same rules for gun owners might help weed out the irrisponsible gun owners.

And I noted Dragonesses point- many say they have guns for "protection" and not hunting (handguns are the most commonly owned weapon). You advocate keeping guns locked up at all times. I completely agree with you. However, how is a locked up, unloaded gun useful in "protecting" one in their home? Or do you not agree with keeping guns for this purpose?

We can all quote bumper stickers, in my opinion this phrase has no meaning. If you outlaw all guns, which no one here has yet advocated, then all gun would indeed belong to criminals or law enforcement because it would be illegal to own guns.

There is no actual point being made here.

all my guns are loaded and ready. This business of the politically correct Gun owner makes no sense to me. If my gun is in a locked cabinet, and the ammo is stored somewhere else and locked up, whats the point of having them for protection?