Should guns get banned?

[AllyandJack]

My bad...

It's a tricky one, isn't it?



Rich::

It's very tricky....since the "militia" was comprised of the "people" when the Amendment was written. So, it sort of applied to them by default. Now, we no longer expect all the men to show up with weapons to defend the country. But, the Courts are reluctant to tinker with it except to say that it can be "regulated" to some degree.

I don't know what the answer is...I guess my position is that, unless and until we can ensure that the bad guys won't have them, taking them away from the good guys doesn't make much sense.

I still want to be able to shoot at the range though. DH was an expert shooter in the military and I can beat the pants off him at the range.

 

[dcentity2000]

It's very tricky....since the "militia" was comprised of the "people" when the Amendment was written. So, it sort of applied to them by default. Now, we no longer expect all the men to show up with weapons to defend the country. But, the Courts are reluctant to tinker with it except to say that it can be "regulated" to some degree.

Yeah, I guess if the nswer was easy it would have been sorted out years ago.

I don't know what the answer is...I guess my position is that, unless and until we can ensure that the bad guys won't have them, taking them away from the good guys doesn't make much sense.

I still want to be able to shoot at the range though. DH was an expert shooter in the military and I can beat the pants off him at the range.

BRILLIANT!

Us men need putting in our place every now and then



Rich::

 

[Mickey's Monkey]

That, again, is purely a matter for the police.

Perfect police = perfect enforcement.

Good police = good enforcement.

Etc.



Rich::

So, explain why crimes are still committed AND people in the UK are STILL getting guns, despite the ban? Because the police are inept? Your police argument is silly. You are asking for a "Minority Report" type of police force. Good luck!

 

[tubaman]

Why shouldn't people be allowed to own guns?

In my state, guns are a very big part of our culture. In fact because the state gov. cut funding, we no longer have the "Hunters Helping the Hungry" program. And that is really ashame, because it was a great thing.

Anyways guns are important. It would be a lot better to let guns remain legal, than wasting goverment money arresting people who don't give up there guns. My school is way over crowded. We need money to build schools and what not. Why waste money doing something stupid like that.

Just my input.

 

[Crissup]

Absolutely not. Airbags in cars have killed more children than guns in schools. Is anybody trying to ban those?

I agree with you!! The Anti's rarely ever stop to really consider what it is they are asking. The country tried to ban alcohol in the 20's and found that it got completely out of control. So, they legalized it again and instead put controls on it. The Marijuana ban sure seemed to do a lot of good too, didn't it?

As for looking at the UK... Hmmm... Seems to me this country was founded by people who were trying to get away from UK laws. After the election, my boss, a brit, kept sending jokes about the election and one of my collegues pointed out that while my boss may not have liked the outcome, we already won the battle that allows us to choose our own government.


edited to correct bad spelling. Musta been my shooting hand hitting the wrong key.

 

[Mickey's Monkey]

Why shouldn't people be allowed to own guns?

In my state, guns are a very big part of our culture. In fact because the state gov. cut funding, we no longer have the "Hunters Helping the Hungry" program. And that is really ashame, because it was a great thing.

Anyways guns are important. It would be a lot better to let guns remain legal, than wasting goverment money arresting people who don't give up there guns. My school is way over crowded. We need money to build schools and what not. Why waste money doing something stupid like that.

Just my input.

My confidence in the youth of this country is restored!

 

[dcentity2000]

So, explain why crimes are still committed AND people in the UK are STILL getting guns, despite the ban? Because the police are inept? Your police argument is silly. You are asking for a "Minority Report" type of police force. Good luck!

Our police are very inept. It's not silly at all - what do you think police are meant to do, bake cakes?



Rich::

 

[dcentity2000]

I agree with you!! The Anti's rarely ever stop to really consider what it is they are asking. The country tried to ban alcohol in the 20's and found that it got completely out of control. So, they legalized it again and instead put controls on it. The Marijuana ban sure seemed to do a lot of good too, didn't it?

As for looking at the UK... Hmmm... Seems to me this country was founded by people who were trying to get away from UK laws. After the election, my boss, a brit, kept sending jokes about the election and one of my collegues pointed out that while my boss may not have liked the outcome, we already won the battle that allows us to choose our own government.


edited to correct bad spelling. Musta been my shooting hand hitting the wrong key.

Riiiiiggghhht...

Many countries have gun bans and haven't exploded.

Many countries have no gun bans and haven't exploded.

So there is no "certainly not" either which way.

As for the airbag argument, I'm yet to see a criminal attack a bank clerk with that deadly tool or even worse, a heart attack.

That innocence can be worse is no excuse for the minority.



Rich::

 

[Mach]

Should America join Europe in outlawing these weapons?

Should there simply be tighter control?

Or should there be more of them, hanging from trees with bows on them?

I say...

Guns need to be banned. They need to go NOW.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." This is the second Amendment in the constitution of the United States of America, which attracted this comment:



So much, so very much lies locked and loaded in the definition of "the security of a free State". The NRA argues that all states with a weapons ban are invariably insecure which is odd as I live in one famed for good manners and polite old gentlemen in bowler hats. "This amendment was drawn up by people living in an precarious agrarian society unrecognisable to modern Americans, when communities needed guns to hunt and to protect themselves from Indians and highwaymen" states the BBC, echoing a standpoint that the 730 million (United Nations) Europeans live under.

Now, guns don't kill people, people do. However, that's no reason to make their lives so easy.

More than 14,000 homicides were committed with firearms in 1996. Of the dead, 68 were children below the age of four. More than 5,500 of those killed were aged between 15 and 24.

In 1998, Americans recoiled in horror after the shooting dead of four students and a teacher at a school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In April 1999, 15 died at the barrel of a gun at Columbine High, Denver. Jul 1999: Atlanta - 13 dead. Sep 1999: Wedgewood Baptist Church, Fort Worth - 8 dead. Dec 1999: Radisson Bay Harbor Inn, Tampa - 5 dead. Dec 2000: Wakefield Massachusetts - 7 shot dead. Mar 2001: Santee, Calif - 2 dead.

But the worst?

Victoria Clydesdale, Emma Crozier, Melissa Currie, Charlotte Dunn, Kevin Hasell, Ross Irvine, David Kerr, Mhairi McBeath, Brett McKinnon, Abigail McLennan, Emily Morton, Sophie North, John Petne, Joanna Ross, Hanna Scott, Megan Turner and their teacher, Gwenne Mayor, were all shot dead in their classroom at Dunblane, Great Britain.

This was too much for the nation to bear and like so many others banned firearms from the public domain. The UK is yet to shrink, die, explode, shrivel up or otherwise fall in any way, shape or form as a result. There have been few if any calls to reverse the ban.

In America, things remain different. However, on 8 April 1999, anti-gun campaigners celebrated an important symbolic victory when Missouri narrowly rejected proposals to allow the carrying of concealed weapons.

The result, watched by the entire nation, came after high profile campaigning from Hilary Clinton and, on the other side, a $4m NRA offensive. The NRA would hate to see those guns taken away from them. The "need" them. Despite the Dunblane children.

However.

Letisha Shakespeare, 17, and Charlene Ellis, 18, were two college friends shot in a crossfire while celebrating New Year in Aston, Birmingham, UK, from illegally held weapons. There is no such thing as an absolute ban on guns as this shows - the most we can hope to do is limit the damage they do and whether this is through a total ban, enforced as best we can or tough legislation so we know what people have, we need something the world over, Amnesty International argues.

Amnesty International goes on to talk about the progress made in the third world country Brazil:



Despite bans in the UK, law remains enforced and generally parallel with the USA state, the Hague finds (you can download the statistics as an attachment here or below.)

Happily, even with countries in the minority when compared to the developed countries of the world with legal weapons, some countries are not totally hung on having a weapon. Over half a million mothers in the USA marched to disarm America under the last Government in a rally supported by the President and the first lady; over a quarter of a million student have signed an obscure online petition.

The world is beginning to speak with one voice, Bush once funnily enough stated. That voice is with us.



Rich::

You live in the UK. The UK has already banned guns. What's you point. It case you haven't figured it out, your opinion about US gun law doesn't matter, you don't live here, you can't vote here.

Sorry to be so blunt.

I've wasted more than enough time on this topic. Bye.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

You live in the UK. The UK has already banned guns. What's you point. It case you haven't figured it out, your opinion about US gun law doesn't matter, you don't live here, you can't vote here.

Sorry to be so blunt.

I've wasted more than enough time on this topic. Bye.

I do live here, and I would like to see a lot less violence. I would like to see a lot less domestic violence incidents where the spouse (partner) picks up the gun and shoots the other party! Don't say they could have just as easily hacked them up either. We all know that shooting someone is much easier, and happens much more often!

 

[dcentity2000]

You live in the UK. The UK has already banned guns. What's you point. It case you haven't figured it out, your opinion about US gun law doesn't matter, you don't live here, you can't vote here.

Sorry to be so blunt.

I've wasted more than enough time on this topic. Bye.

What happens in one country affects the world at a glance.

Sorry you feel this way and that we could't agree, but do have a good future

Bye!



Rich::

 

[dcentity2000]

No-one's changing their minds here, people are getting agitated and we're going around in circles. Shall we abandon the topic, if there are no new points of discussion?



Rich::

 

[JimB.]

Did you honestly expect to change peoples opinions?

The UK & USA are different cultures. Your outlook is different from ours. Your laws are different. Rights granted to you are apparantly diffferent, probably due to the roots of the Origin of our Nation.

Rights to firearms are inherent in our culture....................

"to disarm the people is the best & most effective way to enslave them"
- - -- George Mason, "father" of the bill of Rights


"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted & better for the assailants............"
- - - -- Thomas Jefferson


If you do not wish to own one, fine. Personally, I do NOT own a firearm, but if someone else does, does it safely & uses it safely, that's ok by me.

 

[tubaman]

My confidence in the youth of this country is restored!

Thankyou!

 

[Charade]

Our police are very inept.

Rich::

Then it's probably a good thing that most Bobbies aren't issued guns.

 

[Charade]

I do live here, and I would like to see a lot less violence. I would like to see a lot less domestic violence incidents where the spouse (partner) picks up the gun and shoots the other party! Don't say they could have just as easily hacked them up either. We all know that shooting someone is much easier, and happens much more often!

It's not the gun, it's the people. Taking away the gun will not reduce the violence.

Switzerland is second to the US (by about 1/2) in handgun ownership but their handgun murder rate is almost not existent to ours. Wonder why that is?

Also, in Switzerland, when men become of age to serve in the military (mandatory) they must own a rifle. Shooting tournaments are very popular in Switzerland as well.

 

[Mickey's Monkey]

Our police are very inept. It's not silly at all - what do you think police are meant to do, bake cakes?



Rich::

So, if that's the case having a gun ban is pretty much moot, since according to you they would be incapable of enforcing it.