One last time on the pools, cars, etc. Cars are used for transporation. Banning them would make people use alternative means, such as bicycles and horses. These aren't necessarily safer. Pools are used for recreation. Banning pools would mean people instead go swimming in lakes and oceans which is more dangerous. Guns are used to hunt, kill, and sport.
Why yes. Now that we have clarified this is apples to apples, we can stop talking about banning a type of machine based on crimes that can potentially be committed while using them.
Banning them from the average Joe would mean people would have to use other means to hunt and kill.
Why yes, it would give the klansmen nothing but crossbows to fear and they drag my kind out to teach us a lesson for electing Obama again. It would allow the skinheads to bash gays without fear. Spouse abusing ex's and rapists will be given a free hand to terrorize any victim physically weaker than them. I think gun control supporters should be praised for their honesty, in supporting violent felons. It takes courage to support the strong against the weak, the predator against the elderly and disabled.
The number 2 choice to kill someone is so much less efficient that it would save 10's of thousands of lives/year.
Right, because people can't put a crossbow under their chin and pull the trigger just as they would with a gun. . . . okay. Because IED's are so difficult for those with murderous intent they never get used by under-educated tribesman . .. oh wait. . . In any case, making guns illegal will do absolutely nothing to stop illegal guns from being used in crime. Lets use some common sense. You have criminal organizations which get hundreds of kilos of cocaine & marijuana in to the country, do you have any reason to believe the purveyors of illicit drugs would have any difficulty smuggling items that can't be detected by drug sniffing dogs. Yeah, I can see the Crips and the Bloods now, "oh, guns are illegal, we'd better cancel that drive by till we get our archery skills up!"
Which lives were we saving by criminalizing effective and equal rights to self defense? I am not saying there aren't tragedies like the guy who took his young son to a machine gun shoot and let the boy attempt to shoot a mac10 by himself (the boy lost control of the firearm and shot himself accidentally). Such events are exceedingly rare (one in over 60 years) & harken back to our swimming pool analogy, care to guess how many children die per year because of the "throw 'em in, they'll learn to swim" method? What about the little walmart 6' diameter 18 inch plastic pools. . . how many kids die per year because mom thinks it won't hurt to put the laundry in the dryer and come back to a face down 2 year old? I'll clue ya, it is a LOT more than actual gun accidents. Bear in mind, many gun "accidents" are called that to spare families the pain of calling it what it is. . . a suicide. Bear in mind that your total death toll stats are padded with the 18 year old MS13 on his third felony and the 16 year old Blood shot down while attempting to rob the wrong person. Actual accidents? Not many . . . not many at all, not enough to justify not going after all the other accidental kid killers that have higher death tolls including . . . gasoline. Yup, more kids die huffing gasoline and accidentally getting too much than die in actual non-suicide, non-gang/drug related homicides. You have to stir those and 19 yearolds into the mix to get the numbers you are talking about & as mentioned . . . Crips are going to stop killing Bloods with guns just because Joe Suburbanite can legally buy a skeet gun?
Yeah, okay, what bridge was it you had for sale again?
Here is a clearer, no nonsense way of seeing this issue. 0 guns in the US equates to 0 kids/day dying from guns. We can't ever achieve that, but we could ban guns for nearly everyone except certain extreme circumstances.
The problem being, nobody knows when those extreme circumstances are going to crop up.
Should the stalked ex-wife be able to get a gun for self protection? What about the mugging survivor? Just what is an extreme enough circumstance for the weak, the old, the female, the gay, the person of color, the mother with children. . .. to have a right to defend themselves with effective tools?
I'm not naive or trying to paint you as the problem. You and your guns are not the problem. Other than the extreme unlikelyhood of a child getting a hold of one of your guns, I don't think your's will ever be used to kill anyone accidentally or unlawfully.
Thank you, safes are not unbreachable, but they do a fair job of keeping most pests out. I have found though that education and family values is even more effective. I was given my first gun at age 9 and always had at least 50 rounds for it, 12 I got my first shotgun and always had a box of shells to spare. Those hung on my wall in my bedroom as a juvenile, though I always knew where my fathers guns and ammo were, from about age 4. I couldn't tell you when I learned to shoot as I was too young to remember. When we educate, we take the mystery away. Gun accidents happen when parents have guns and don't teach their children early. Ignorance kills, knowledge is power.
A lifestyle where we talk about things, have open communication, educate about internet predators, traffic safety while bicycling, etc, should include firearms safety, it is the loving thing to do for children.
The problem is, the criminals and stupid gun owners have ruined it for everybody.
The problem is drunken criminals and stupid drivers have ruined auto safety. . . . it just doesn't work. They are apples to apples.
I'll give you a comparison related to my job. I work on ships and I would love to have a beer once in a while. There are just too many idiots who would overindulge so now there is a 0 tolerance for alcohol even when in port.
Many industries have standards that differ from general society. . . any idea about airline pilots vs general public (regarding mandatory physicals)? How about truckers and sleep (regarding hours spent driving per day)? I hear what you are saying, but regulated industries are not the general public.
I know that for the forseeable future the US would never attempt to ban guns.
Correct, it isn't even an admirable cause. It frames one as supporting violent felons, rapists, abusers, skin heads, klansmen, etc. .. . I would not want to be associated with supporting those causes by disarming their intended victims.
What I find really appalling is the unreasonable attitude that some people have about gun ownership. It seems there is no limit to the number of children that could die each day due to guns before they would change their gun stance.
Cars, pools, gasoline . .. give those up & get the nation to go along with it. Seal off the country so no illicit drugs get in and squash domestic production of meth and marijuana. Create some viable multi-shot tool with which citizens can defend themselves against stronger and multiple attackers. It needs to have more range than a taser and it needs to have multi-shot capability. In short, get the police on board with carrying this alternative in place of firearms (both pistols and long guns) for at least a five year trial period. Leap those hurdles first and then we can talk about your gun control proposals.
Nice try. Funny though, we still take precautions in the places we do go, to position ourselves in case of a problem & think I could get them to cover pretty fast. I always have the ability to return fire & frequently carry something that will difeat even the body armor the aurora shooter wore.
