Poll: There is no justifiable reason for civilians to own modern weapons.

[CNKFan]

If you are safe with a "modern" fire arm then they are no more dangerous than a sofa, but if you are careless or a criminal than people will get hurt.

 

[Eatbrainz]

Civvies should only have access to basic handguns and hunting rifles, in my opinion, anyway.

 

[chronobreak]

maybe a quarter in, interesting it also says that 44% of americans would support a ban on firearms except for law enforcement...

You should tell people you got these numbers from an anti-gun group, that on their own site call guns a "public health crisis". Even if the numbers were real, who is that 44 pecent, because it sure in hell is not the police officers, military, and people who protect us, most of whom will tell you responsible gun ownership should be taken advantage of, because it is part of our freedoms in America. Who are you going to trust, people that hate guns on a moral basis and have probably never used one, or the people that actually use them to defend you?

yes, when their were bears and indians and crap... refer to above reply.

Are you insinuating that there is no longer real threats, in our advanced society, to your safety and life? That's the only thing I could extrapolate out of that sentence.

 

[Slaanax]

Going to the range and shooting is a lot of fun I think. If you don't want a gun don't own one. Just don't deny me my right to own one because I enjoy shooting. Assault Rifles are no more deadly than a Hunting rifle. 5.56 round is .223 caliber so its not even a big bullet. The round an AK-47 uses is actually less lethal a large hunting rifle,The 30-06 uses a larger cartridge so the round has greater force. Guns are only dangerous when not used properly. Plus there is a large amount of saftey equipment available that having a gun in your house should be safe.

 

[Skeleon]

But is it worth this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

What's up with the Finnish gun suicide rate?

They believe the high number of Finnish suicides (overall, not just guns) stems from the long months of darkness in winter high up north.
They are a result of depression and anxiety.

People who live very far north tend to have higher suicide rates.

 

[Fearzone]

Those who wrote the second amendment knew that tyranny is always just around the corner, and pops up when you don't expect it. Germany in the 1800s was an enlightened and liberal nation, and look what happened. Once complacency sets and and a dictatorship is in place, it is too late to arm yourselves then.

 

[funguy2121]

What makes governments so special that they should have thousands of people armed with them but "civilians" should be completely denied access to them? Governments are made up of people and their actions. They're not magic.

The language of the second amendment refers to "well armed malitias." Not that I feel more comfortable with any of the malitias we have here today (all of the ones I'm aware of are involved with hate groups), but that is the purpose of the second amendment. It's not for Joe Dipshit to go out and get a concealed weapon license so he can pull the gun out of his glove compartment when someone cuts him off.

Guns ownership in general, I'm not adverse to. But assault weapon ownership and concealed handgun licenses scare me.

Has anyone said anything about hunting? That's a perfectly legitimate reason to own a gun.

 

[lvl9000_woot]

If you are safe with a "modern" fire arm then they are no more dangerous than a sofa, but if you are careless or a criminal than people will get hurt.

Hahaha...I can just imagine comming home and sitting on my gun

 

[thejrade]

First of all, I'll state that I am an infantry soldier in the American army who lives on Fort Hood. I was close enough to hear the shooting (which I assume is what precipitated this thread) last week. Even in spite of all that, I am still steadfastly in support of the 2nd amendment.

Passing a law taking away the firearms of Americans would be impossible. Period. Not for the foreseeable future and no amount of liberal social engineering is going to be able to change that simple fact for a long time.

It's hard for people who live in other countries to understand, but firearms are a cornerstone of American culture, like tea time in Britain or touching other men's butts in Greece.

When considering the crime aspect, it is very important to consider that taking away guns would only take them away from law-abiding citizens. While only a madman would oppose a magic, hypothetical removal of all guns everywhere, it would require magic to do so. Unless your plan to remove firearms includes some manner of reliably taking them away from crooks as well, you can count my vote out.

 

[CNKFan]

If you are safe with a "modern" fire arm then they are no more dangerous than a sofa, but if you are careless or a criminal than people will get hurt.

Hahaha...I can just imagine comming home and sitting on my gun

Well not really what I was going for with that analogy but I was the least threatening thing that I could think of at the moment.

 

[NemoSD]

But is it worth this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

Especially interesting when comapred to this page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gun_ownership]

Theres an almost 1:1 corrolation between gun ownership and gun death, Switserland has about half as many guns and about half as many deaths, Canada about a third and a third again.

Our 2nd Amendment grants us the right to own guns in order to defend ourselves.

From the government, not from burglars or hold-ups.

The first table here I have an issue with, simply because it includes suicide deaths. If we want to have a discussion about gun violence, then the suicides need to be taken out. It is safe to assume that those who truly intended to commit suicide would not go, "Oh I have no gun, so not going to try the millions of other possible ways to die..." Once you take the suicide numbers out of the chart, then the unintentional

HAHAHA. Okay, I have to stop you there. Why are you taking away the unintentional deaths? That's part of the whole fucking problem we're talking about here!

Apparently you stopped reading there too because my post was talking exclusively about gun violence, as that is what people were talking about when I posted.

 

[Skeleon]

Those who wrote the second amendment knew that tyranny is always just around the corner, and pops up when you don't expect it. Germany in the 1800s was an enlightened and liberal nation, and look what happened. Once complacency sets and and a dictatorship is in place, it is too late to arm yourselves then.

It wasn't complacency that allowed the NSDAP to take power, it was the financial crisis after the first World War.
The Germans weren't forced into it (at least not at first), Hitler became Chancellor democratically.
Things went downhill from there.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

A pistol should be fine for civilians in normal life. I see no reason for anyone to one an Assault Rifle.

 

[chronobreak]

First of all, I'll state that I am an infantry soldier in the American army who lives on Fort Hood. I was close enough to hear the shooting (which I assume is what precipitated this thread) last week. Even in spite of all that, I am still steadfastly in support of the 2nd amendment.

Passing a law taking away the firearms of Americans would be impossible. Period. Not for the foreseeable future and no amount of liberal social engineering is going to be able to change that simple fact for a long time.

It's hard for people who live in other countries to understand, but firearms are a cornerstone of American culture, like tea time in Britain or touching other men's butts in Greece.

When considering the crime aspect, it is very important to consider that taking away guns would only take them away from law-abiding citizens. While only a madman would oppose a magic, hypothetical removal of all guns everywhere, it would require magic to do so. Unless your plan to remove firearms includes some manner of reliably taking them away from crooks as well, you can count my vote out.

Thank you very much for serving, and I hope you are coping well with what happened and didn't lose someone close to you.

This goes back to the point I made before, though. These are the people we want to listen to. If we trust our soldiers and police and to protect us, why won't we trust them when the majority tell us how important the second amendment is to our liberty?

 

[lvl9000_woot]

I own a .22

How 'modern' are we talking?

 

[thejrade]

For additional reading on Concealed Carry permits:
http://www.kc3.com/CCWSTATS.html

I know in my home state no handgun crime has EVER been committed by a CCWP holder. That fact taken with the number of crimes prevented by CCWP holders is pretty significant, wouldn't you say?

While I see what you are saying about assault weapons, it is worthy of note that again, legal owners don't commit crimes. You certainly don't need anything more than a pistol to commit a crime (or a massacre for that matter, see Fort Hood last week and Virginia Tech last year) but you DO need an assault weapon to resist a tyrannical government.

 

[silentsentinel]

There should be limits, I think. Fully automatic weapons and armor-piercing/incendiary ammunition should be off limits.