How do my fellow escapists feel about guns? (The real kind)

[veloper]

It causes more trouble than it might help prevent crime.

Criminals own guns no matter what the law is, look at the mess in california and its illigal to have a gun outside your home and how it peopl are still shot with guns Bought off the black market? now look at texas were you can openly walk around with a gun and compare the crimrate between taxas that allows citizens to carry guns to california that does not allow citizens to carry guns and tell me what the differense is. Would anyone risk robbing a person with the strong possibility of being shot in the process? i own a few rifles, handguns and shotguns all locked up, empty and trigger locked in a weapons locker. I also live in california but i am not allowed to walk out of the house with it.

Most murders are commited by people who know their victim. You're more likely to get murdered by a neighbour, a family member or just a madman living nearby, than a career criminal.

If bank robbers enter your bank, you let the cashier hand over the money and let the police deal with it. That way you won't get shot. The bank is insured anyway.
Criminals more often kill other criminals.

Mass shootings are always committed by crazies, or frustrated teens who borrow their parents' weapons.

Finally, if someone does want you dead, owning a weapon is of little use. It's not like murderers announce their plans and give their victim time to grab a pistol before they kill.

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

Guns aren't the root of the problem anyway. If we somehow found a way to take guns away from everybody, both the lawful and unlawful, we'd see a rise in killings from cruder projectiles or explosives. And if somehow you manage to remove ALL weapons from the entire world, we'd start beating the crap out of each other with our fists, rocks, wooden planks, etc.

This is a little unrelated, but this comment reminds me of a robbery that happened a few weeks ago. The guy didn't have access to a gun, so instead he beat the store owner with a giant walking stick and stole the money.

Wait a second, are you talking about that video where it looked like he was holding a small tree?? And the owner was trying to hold him off with a hammer? If so I saw that video.

Yep that's the one. It basically enforces that idea that if someone is crazy or desperate enough anything becomes a weapon.

 

[Ekibiogami]

I love them. And I think it should be the Law to carry them... But I'm a Texan so... ;p

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

You hit the nail on the head with the hunting comments. I cannot stand to see someone killing an animal just for trophies sake. Every single deer I have ever killed I harvested ever single ounce of usuable meat from them, and ate it. Its delicious, by the way! I can remember one hunting season where I lived almost completely off of deer meat in one form or another... I mean, I ate other things, but deer meat comprised of about 60% of the meals I consumed that season.

Even that can depend though. It irks me when i know that's the only fate of the kill but some people share the body. There may be a deal set up where the guy that kills it takes some horns or something and his buddy or cousin uses the meat, fat and bones.

 

[Talon88.1]

I find this to be such tripe. Australia has NO guns for anyone, and contrary to the posts before, their crime rate has gone from low (Before gun removal) to matching America (After gun removal). And just to be clear, I don't mean murders, I mean thefts, property damage, etc etc.
Ive had guns most of my life, and while I have an advantage in being taught about them because my father was a Nam vet and a police officer for 31 years, I do realize the need for training and proving your ability to use it responsibly before being allowed to carry one.
And in response to the aforementioned 'Guns are only for killing'...
NO. SHIT. SHERLOCK.
Guns were originally formed to enable us to kill animals for food and defense. Our soldiers use them to protect themselves, or our police to defend us.
And to all the bleeding heart liberals, let me make this clear: Ive lived around cops most of my life, Ive heard the stories, and you know what I have found? The people who end up DEAD the most from burglars and home invaders are the people who didnt have a gun in the house. The ones who did, more often the not, lived to tell the tale. So yes, I realize that this isnt going to change someones opinion, or their worldviews, but Im sick and tired of people trying to validate their arguments with half-truths and BS.
So yes, flame on and whine away, you wannabes.

 

[PureChaos]

whenever guns are mentioned i always think 'i prefer swords' and i do

I tend to prefer swords as well, but how much fun they are isn't really the issue. The People Who Know What's Best don't care whether it's guns, swords, nunchaku, or a woodcarving tool. Their philosophy is: everything that's pointy, loud, looks vaguely dangerous or we just don't understand is bad for the subjects. Prison is healthy though.

someone in something said 'a rookie with a sword will be beaten by a stone if thrown by a master' or something like. i'd love to have a collection of swords though, like Hatori Hanzo does in Kill Bill.

 

[Devin Parker]

If the right to self defence is a basic human right then I see it as contradictory to deny civilians any right to firearms and/or the right to use them in self defence.

It's no good to say I can go fisticuffs with hardened thugs who mean me harm when as hardened criminals they'd always have the advantage after leading a life of violence. Not to mention regardless of weapon prohibition they can arm themselves with effective weapons from knives and clubs to black market firearms. Guns level the playing field, favour those on the defensive.

This.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

Guns are for hunting and for the police. I was brought up in a home where I got acquainted with guns at an early age. I shot skeet before I could ride a bike. I fired handguns and revolvers when I was about 6-7. Im the typical child who got used to guns at a young age, and I can tell from reading some other posts here that there are others like me on this thread. Guns are to me, from an artistic standpoint, just like instruments. I can appreciate the beauty in a Winchester 1894 as much as a Fender Jazz '64.

However, we should not forget firearms are made for one purpose, and that is the destruction of life. Whether or not that life is a pidgeon, an elk or a human, guns are tools to kill other lifeforms with. I don't think guns are awesome. I don't think they are cool. They are guns. They are dangerous weapons. They should be treated with respect. They are nothing to collect or show off.

The only reason I own a gun is hunting. Hunting for food, mind you, and I think it is vital that every part of the pray is consumed somehow. Be that meat, hide or antlers.

So just to be clear, I hate what so many hunters have become, or what hunting has become lately. Killing animals for fun is just ridiculous. I can see the appeal in hunting elephants, kudus or wildebeests, but I wouldnt do it myself.

I believe gun control is necessary. I do not think that people in general need anything other than a rifle or/and a shotgun, and that's only if they hunt or compete in skeet shooting or the like. Handguns might be fun for target shooting, but the ownership of handguns should be limited for people who don't actually compete in shooting competitions. (mind you, they usually just own a number of '22s, at the most.) Automatic weapons should not be allowed to anyone but the police and the army.


Also, the gun craze that a bunch of people here seem to display just seems immature to me. "Guns are awesome." What? Why? They are guns. Designed to kill. There's nothing awesome about death.

You hit the nail on the head with the hunting comments. I cannot stand to see someone killing an animal just for trophies sake. Every single deer I have ever killed I harvested ever single ounce of usuable meat from them, and ate it. Its delicious, by the way! I can remember one hunting season where I lived almost completely off of deer meat in one form or another... I mean, I ate other things, but deer meat comprised of about 60% of the meals I consumed that season.

I've spent time around quite a lot of hunters, and I have never seen or directly heard of anyone just wasting the meat. In fact, in my home state, it's actually a crime to fail to use the meat for human consumption(as it should be). I rather assumed that most or all states had similar laws, or at least a similar hunting culture. Hunters are justifiably quick to point out that they are the original conservationists. I'm honestly curious - do you know of any first hand stories of people doing that in the last several decades?

Yes. Sadly, I dont know who did it, I have only seen the remains. Every hunting season, whether it would be a friend of mine, or myself, would find a deer carcass that has been killed and had the antlers removed and then tossed in a ditch. It got so bad one year, several hunting clubs and the local game wardens were going out of their way trying to catch the responsible parties. I dont know if they ever caught them or not, though. But unfortunately, it does happen.

 

[RatRace123]

I like 'em, good test/training for accuracy (at a gun range, mind you. Don't care much for hunting. I'll gladly eat someone else's game but I won't get any myself.)
Plus, in a world where everyone can get 'em, better to have one and not need it than the alternative.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

You hit the nail on the head with the hunting comments. I cannot stand to see someone killing an animal just for trophies sake. Every single deer I have ever killed I harvested ever single ounce of usuable meat from them, and ate it. Its delicious, by the way! I can remember one hunting season where I lived almost completely off of deer meat in one form or another... I mean, I ate other things, but deer meat comprised of about 60% of the meals I consumed that season.

Even that can depend though. It irks me when i know that's the only fate of the kill but some people share the body. There may be a deal set up where the guy that kills it takes some horns or something and his buddy or cousin uses the meat, fat and bones.

Very true, and it happens all the time in hunt clubs and such. In fact, I have given and been given deer meat from kills just to make sure it isnt wasted. Thats not what I am referring to, though. The ones that usually do the things I am talking about are usually breaking the law to begin with... ie spotlighting, or hunting illegally on private property, etc. etc.

 

[natster43]

I like guns. But have never used one. I want to get a license for handguns when I'm older and get a Model .500.

 

[randompalindrome]

I don't mind people collecting guns for fun so long as they don't own any ammo.
Ideally I'd like to live in a gun free world and am very uncomfortable being around guns or knowing someone owns a gun. I think they're very odd to want a gun.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

I once saw a guy protecting what was obviously either a drug or gun deal with an M1 carbine. Not hidden or concealed or anything. And this was in California of all places, a state that not only has anti-gun laws, but enforces checkpoints at major crossovers into the state to make sure people aren't bringing in things that are illegal in the state. It doesn't matter what it is, whether vice, weapons, or something softer, if you make it illegal, its trade just becomes an underground thing. Outlawing guns only takes them away from people who abide by the law.

A gun isn't an inherently evil thing. No inanimate object is. Now many weapons should be prohibited for public saftey (don't want the neighbor to be assembling missiles in his back yard), but guns shouldn't be one of them. The current system of requiring higher class licenses for fully automatic mil-spec weapons or whathaveyou is a good practice.

 

[thegamermn]

There's a law in the state I live in that requires someone to be at least 18 and to go through a background check in order to purchase a firearm...I feel that this isn't enough. Yes:Guns can be helpful and target shooting or hunting can be a good hobby or a good way of getting food you might not find at your local store. The problem lies in the fact that we've reached a point where parents are waiting too long to teach their children how to respect a firearm. From the time I saw my first rifle at six my father taught me that guns were not toys and that they should always be treated like they could go off, even if you know it's not loaded.

So yes:while I like guns (I still have a remington .22 rifle). I think there needs to be a bit more enforcement on it. you're required to go through a safety class to hunt. I think this should be done before someone can purchase a firearm as well.

 

[DanielDeFig]

Guns are the accumulation of knowledge gathered on how one human can most effectively kill another human. That's what they are. What this means is that guns are dangerously easy to use and acquire. What THAT means is that civilian should not have access to said guns, because it is too easy for them to use and kill another human being, which is ethically wrong (not to mention illegal in every country in the world). The simplicity of guns have also proven to cause a lot of accident involving children, animals, and careless adults.

Guns belong on the battlefield where extremes makes applying ethics more difficult. Is killing in itself still wrong on the battlefield? Yes. Does the fact that soldiers are sent into battle for political reasons they cannot currently control, mean they they shouldn't have means to defend themselves with? No. (I believe war to be wrong, but armies are necessary for when the worst happens)

 

[Cat Cloud]

I don't like them. They aren't neccisarry. So are many things, but you can't use those many things to kill people with a single simple finger motion. And in my country, they make it so even the criminally insane can get ahold of a semi automatic weapon. Yay. Now they can protect themselves from nine year old girls. Isn't freedom wonderful?

 

[Andrew_Waltfeld]

Like anything else. Guns are a object. They can be used for good or evil. Good is in limited terms as they most often used in the destruction of life. However a unarmed person is more than likely to fall prey to someone than an armed person. Been shooting .22's since I was a little, planning on getting an Bushmaster Carbon-15 this summer. Guns are like any tool, and it's in how you use it.

Also I'm not surprised that Australia's crime rate has gone up, it's happened almost every single country where guns are outlawed - only the criminals have guns and the police. Very stupid scenario if you ask me. Which is why I believe Civilians should have fire-arms. Cause like hell I'm waiting for 20 minutes+ for the police to arrive (I live in the boon docks of no where).

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

They do a hell of a lot of bad and no good. Their function is to kill, pure and simple, and no good can possibly come of that. Furthermore, billions of dollars go into the firearm industry every year, money which could be far better used on much more important substances and situations.

 

[amadhatter]

As I slowly become more and more paranoid about the government, I find myself being more against gun control. And I would love to own an AA12 auto shotgun. Load it with rubber shells for non-lethal home protection. Maybe next christmas, Santa!