(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Living in England I've grown up in a country where you quite simply by and large aren't allowed guns, so gun crime itself is as far as I'm aware a comparative rarity to say in America. At the very least that's the impression I get. And I like that, because I feel like far too often with everybody owning a gun somebody would do something stupid in the midst of an argument or at the lowest of lows in depression.

On the other hand, I have an enormous distrust for 'big government' and looking at various things I think owning a gun would be a nice security to perhaps allay those fears.

I shan't go beyond that in the OP. Reply away(but preferably don't threaten me with your legally owned pistol).

I've got a few updated thoughts on this.

Bad guys do tend to get guns. Sure, I can see that. But a lot of crimes aren't committed by 'bad guys', but depressed people, maniacal people, et cetera. Any 'good guy' can do something terrible if they're not in the right frame of mind, and sadly sometimes you can't see these things preemptively.

Banning assault rifles seems entirely knee-jerk to me. I think it's a ploy to appease both pro and anti-gun nuts. That's it.

Constitutional rights... hmm. I hate when these pop up, because after all they were created not only by fallible human beings such as ourselves but by people who lived in an entirely different time. When the U.S. was formed I imagine they'd have needed guns for protection, but with how things are now it's hardly the same.

I equally dislike the self-protection argument. How far does that go? Does that apply to nuclear missiles as well? I'd most certainly hope not yet the logic remains the same.

On-top of that the lone reason I semi-supported firearms to begin with was my distrust of the government. Let's be realistic - a trained army with the tech they have will beat the population of the entire world over, armed or not.

So I'm highly in favour of outlawing all firearms. They serve no purpose other than to kill.

There will always be problems with guns even if the government takes measures to remove them from society. Look at England, there government has a strong policy against guns; however, people, gangsters in other words always find a way to acquire guns against the govenments will. Furthermore, no matter what the government does there will always be ways to get them, and ways to use them

Here's where I am: Why do we need assault style weapons? I've seen people posting about "try protecting your family from a bear with a handgun", and that really isn't a very sound argument. If people figured out ways to make things work hundreds of years ago, I'm sure we can figure it out now. Besides, increased urbanization makes that claim largely irrelevant for the majority of the population.

Now, the Second Amendment guarantees our right to bear arms. It doesn't say we need the ability to purchase assault-style rifles, and the biggest claim behind the Second Amendment is that we need to guns to protect us from our government ... So that we can revolt if need be. I suppose there is always the "just in case" argument, but it isn't really realistic to think that the government is going to come marching to your door sometime soon to kill you.

My argument against guns is only partially developed, and I realize there are plenty of arguments for guns. Part of me wants to say eliminate guns altogether, but at the very least reinstating the assault weapons ban would be a smart decision. The events in Newtown were highly publicized because so many children were murdered at one time ... But people are dying due to gun violence every single day.

Clearly. What made Newtown stand out is that it was in a 'good', close-knit neighborhood, and involved several deaths happening simultaneously. Combine that with the fact that the majority of them were children and it's easy to understand why the media hopped on it.

The fact of the matter is, whether we like it or not, much of the world has become desensitized when it comes to hearing about death. You can turn on any news station and you'll probably hear about a murder at some point or another. Naturally, people will begin reacting with shock and simply with a shake of the head. A couple of months ago my mom turned on the news and said "Let's see who got killed today". It's a harsh reality but one we need to recognize. Gun violence, and violence of all kinds, has become so ingrained in our everyday lives and media intake that we're slowly but surely becoming indifferent to it. The exception is when something extreme or socially unacceptable (even for murderers) occurs, like the killing of children in Newtown.

Here's a little background of myself.
I'm 18, Living in California, USA.
Live with my dad, have a minimum-wage job selling jeans, going to college to get my AA.

K, here's my thought on this whole, "gun control, right to bear arms topic"

Growing up, I always knew the basics of the second amendment in the United States, which is simply stated as "The right to bear arms." But for some reason, that's not the actual written text? in the constitution.

It's actually,

"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."

It doesn't really change anything now, but the reason why that is important is because that beginning part is the whole reason why guns are actually legal here in the United States, to protect against a government that is prohibiting Natural Rights.

The thing that some people don't understand about making guns illegal, is that. They're already in circulation. It would be impossible to ban, let's say, iPhone's because they can be used to trigger bombs. What would the process be? How would the government check? What would happen to the company that manufactures iPhones (i.e. Apple in the scenario)? All these things are taken into account, but more importantly, if all the iPhones were taken from people who aren't going to use them as bomb's, and the people who would use them for bombs still had them, because they hid them, or bought them off the black-market, all the people without iPhones would not be able to call for help from any location.

Like guns, the United States government cannot just declare a sweeping declaration making "all guns illegal", because people can still buy them off the black market. The citizens who abide by the law of no guns, would now be vulnerable to the people who want to use guns for harm, leaving them powerless.

That's honestly my take on Gun Control. If guns are already legal in your country, then keep them legal, just make people take a psychological test before.

Its been a while since I been on this site.Happy new year everybody and Good thread. I own guns,and like most of the others here, I am all for human rights and the Constitution. I highly don't trust government/media propaganda and find it funny that the same politicians who want to ban the people from getting guns, use our tax money to hire bodyguards who have guns! Who are these people to decide we can't protect our own lives but they can? Why is it so important to disarm the people? Well if we look at history, whenever the government disarmed the people,the people who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated. Obama is following in the footsteps of Hitler,Stalin,etc. The problem with the media is they only talk about what they want us to see. They don't report the good things about guns like stories of people defending their life or families lives from criminals. The media brainwashing is to get the masses to WANT to get rid of their right to protect themselves.

Now the real problem are not the guns, it's the psychos who wake up one day and decide to do mass killings (with evidence that most of these shootings were staged).But why are they psychos? We live in a society where a lot of ppl are addicted to prescription drugs, which are known to alter the state of mind.The big biotech companies who happen to be in bed with the government produce these things most of the time without even testing them,bribe the doctors to prescribe them, while Big Brother make things like marijuana illegal which was proven to actually help with a lot of different things. So if the tyrants were to have their way and guns are banned, there will still be psychos running around and they'll just find different ways to kill.

You can make the guns illegal, but that still isn't going to stop the criminals from getting them.I live in Oakland,CA. where it's damn near a MUST to have some protection. So many innocents die including ppl who call and wait on the cops. Where I'm at, the police really don't care and will take their damn time or sometimes not come at all, so for the ones who trust government and obey all laws without question, good luck. The way I see it, if the government wants to disarm the public, they'll have to disarm law enforcement,bodyguards,etc. too, it's a double edged sword. Fortunately, guns are selling at an all time high in a lot of places because most of the people are awaken to the big globalization picture and do not trust government.

I live in an area with a rather high crime rate, and having a gun is almost a necessity.

Regardless of the fact that the US may have the constitutional right to bear arms, they can still enforce stringent rules to monitor where the guns are going, and the specific types of guns. Get rid of high powered AR's, get rid of large magazines etc, and enforce universal checks on the people purchasing these weapons. Also look into their expenditure on mental health programs, in understanding and helping those who suffer. That is all.