[Archived] Gun Law Debate: Please keep posts civil and conversational

[Steve Moss]

Please explain also why you think it is safer and preferable to live in a country where most people are armed and are prepared to use those arms rather than a country where the use of arms is so rare it makes newspaper headlines when it happens.

The right to keep and bear arms has historically been the hallmark of a free man. It is a civil liberty. In England you've chosen to essentially give up that right, or more correctly the ruling class feared unrest within the working class and so took it away. Here is a pretty decent, albeit dated, article: http://reason.com/ar...wisted-outcome.

And England has a violent crime rate five times higher than the USA. http://www.dailymail...a-U-S.html. So much for your safer society; if you are violently assaulted, don't you dare use an improper weapon.

Simply stated, the issue is individual rights vs. public order. You've chosen one way, we've chosen another. History will judge which was the wiser course.

Sorry Steve, how does me having a firearm at home make me safer ? Along with another guy on this site I've been in a position of being so angry as a young man that if I'd have had a gun I may have used it. I'm not normally an angry man. My personal safety wasn't at risk but my life was being made intolerable. If I had have used a gun my life would have been changed for ever. I'm just glad I wasn't armed then.

It is not a requirement to own a firearm. If you are happy not to own one, that is your right. And if you have temper or judgement issues which would have caused you to misuse a weapon, you shouldn't.

Since you've used yourself as an example, I'll use myself, my wife and our families. I'm the eldest of seven. My wife is the youngest of five. All of use have owned firearms all of our lives. None of us have been charged or convicted of any crimes. So the twelve of us should give up our rights since one person (you) can't be trusted with a firearm?

[thenodrog]

Sorry Steve, how does me having a firearm at home make me safer ?

If you ever wake at night and hear intruders downstairs in your house and knowing that there is only you able to defend your wife and children I'm sure a gun in the bedroom will make you feel a whole lot safer. As it stands the police simply can't be relied on to turn up on time in response to a phone call can they? It's no good thinking 'if only' after a horrific event has occurred is it?

The imprisonment of Tony Martin for killing the gypsy vermin and serial burglar Fred Barrass was ludicrous. He should have been given a medal..... in fact two and a knighthood if his aim had been higher with Brendan Fearon.

[Tom]

Guns are essential to survive life and death situations you see:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/Nose+Hill+Park+confrontation+makes+visitors+feel+unsafe/7050028/story.html

Life or death I tell you!

But seriously I am against the American gun laws and personally believe it causes far more deaths than it saves

[purplegrover]

Life or death I tell you!

If I'm ever confronted by a thug wanting to know if I've seen the Stampede, I certainly will want to immediately draw my semi automatic and blast his brains and anyone who happens to be standing near him to where he belongs. Summary justice !

Petty crime should always be punishable by death. Now thats my idea of a safe society.

Seriously, if this clown was accosted in the same way in the US, the thugs would have drawn guns. It was probably only due to the fact that they were in Canada that the thugs probably weren't armed, and the 'victims' were able to evade the interaction and ride away.

[eire3382]

This issue is huge but not for the US but for everyone else.

I think its too late for the States, too many there have guns and everyone else only feels safe having guns.

We (europe, aisa etc) should take note of the mess created there and not let a similar situation ever arrise in any of our countries.

Americans are too split on the issue to ever make the correct moves. I mean being able to purchase an automatic weapon of any kind is rediculas.

[thenodrog]

of any kind is rediculas.

Isn't that a curse from Harry Potter?

[jim mk2]

Simply stated, the issue is individual rights vs. public order. You've chosen one way, we've chosen another. History will judge which was the wiser course.

History shows Britain is a safer society than the US because of its stringent gun laws.

As for the present it's a case of carry on shooting in the US.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/13/justice/texas-am-shooting/index.html

[BuckyRover]

Incredible.

How would you feel safer with a gun by your bed? Your assumption must be that any intruder would have a gun as well. Hardly puts you at a massive advantage. What if you then assume that the assailant would have two guns, or an assualt rifle or grenade?. Surely you need to upgrade your arsenal too? It requires much more effort to stab someone with a knife or bludgeon with a blunt instrument.

I have never personally seen a gun in the UK (other than a few police at airports etc) and I hope and assume it will stay that way.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Got to agree with Bucky Rover, for me having a gun in the house would be more dangerous than not having one. I've only ever fired an air gun at tin cans as a youth. Would I really pull the trigger on another human being when the chips were down ? I'm sure theorising about it is easy, not so easy in reality. I remember reading a stat that in WW 2 an amazing number of troops admitted they'd aimed to miss in combat.

[RoyRover]

Seven more people killed in Milwaukee last week. Two people killed in College Station, Texas, yesterday. And people don't think there's a need for gun reform?

[thenodrog]

Incredible.

How would you feel safer with a gun by your bed? Your assumption must be that any intruder would have a gun as well. Hardly puts you at a massive advantage. What if you then assume that the assailant would have two guns, or an assualt rifle or grenade?. Surely you need to upgrade your arsenal too? It requires much more effort to stab someone with a knife or bludgeon with a blunt instrument.

Why are you assuming one intruder?

How can you assume to know the intention of the intruder?

Why are you not considering the elderly or lone females?

[Baz]

If you have an intruder in your house they are more likely to be after your possessions than to kill you. The chances they would have a gun are pretty low (at least in the UK).

[Carr]

Fairly new round here but always find this as a hot topic.

Shootings are so common place now in the US as others say you barely even see them on the front page. With regards to the right to bare arms and all that, I'm pretty sure that whilst that is constitutionally correct the fact is when it was written firearms that are readily available today didn't even exist then. Who's to say they'd say the same if they could see the way their work has been taken now. In 50 years will everyone in the US have their own mini nuclear arsenal as others upgrade their weapons?!?

Let's take a look at the major shootings in the UK. Hungerford in 87, in 88 semi-auto rifles are banned and no major incident since. Dunblane 96, in 97 handgun ownership became pretty much illegal, no major incident since and other than that there was the Cumbria shootings in 2010. Yes I'm sure we have other firearm incidents but those three massacres occurred over a 23 year period, that sort of thing could happen in 23 days in the US.

Oh and I'm aware the USA has a much higher population so statistically there will be more shootings but I don't think that's a valid argument for such a difference.

[Tom]

2 plus gunman dead a few days ago in a Mall in Portland

Reports of up to 27 dead in a school in Conneticuit this afternoon

Absolutely tragic

[ABBEY]

evil scum .

HOW ANY NORMAL RIGHT MINDED PEOPLE DONT WANT GUNS BANNING IN USA IS BEYOND ME!!!!

[Amo]

People kill people.

[jim mk2]

US reaps what it sows. As a country it will never learn.

God bless the NRA.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Estimated 18 children dead apparently....some as young as 3 years old.

[DE.]

So sad

[Tom]

People kill people.

Something similar happened in china today, 22 children stabbed but none dead.

As tragic as that is do you think if a knife was swapped for a gun the outcome would have been better or worse? I'd say its more likely that there would have been fatalities

Madmen are all over the world but some places it's easier to get hold of potentially deadly weapons

[jim mk2]

The madmen are in the Republican party and the NRA who defend the widespread ownership and use of firearms. As long as the US guns laws continue as they are at present these atrocities will continue to happen.

[thenodrog]

As Topman says people kill people but guns amplify the damage without a doubt and some of the weapons available in the States are designed for assault not protection. But make no mistake Thomas Hamilton could have done the same at Dunblane with an axe or a knife.

[DE.]

Why would any private citizen need an AK-47?

[koi]

I don't know what to say I really don't

[jim mk2]

There will always be lone nutters like Thomas Hamilton and the Norwegian fruitcake but these events take place in the US on a regular basis. The US needs to have a grown-up debate about guns because as long as their exisiting guns laws remain in place these mass killings will continue to happen.