Gun Control, for or against? (Page 2)

Well I'm not going off a poll, I'm just going off of the people I know and the people I talk to. Take for example my place of work. Everyone I work with is very conservative. I'm close to the centre, but lean left. My boss and others I work with are avid hunters. All of them are in a big way against firearms, except for those used to hunt. I really cannot think of anyone that I have talked to in my entire life who lives in Canada who was against restricting access to handguns and the like. I'm am not exaggerating when i say no one. I cannot recall a single person. Granted that isn't very scientific and I don't claim it to be. Just my experience.

Edited to say: I'm not trying to put Canada on a pedistal and say how great it is up here. Just contributing my experience. Me and the wife are planning to move to the US in a few years. She's a Texan, and I think the US is would be a great place to live.

Well just as long as you have your clause for the bumpkins. When I was growing up, we lived out in the County (see country), we have a sherrifs dept and a Vol fire dept. If you house caught on fire you just watched it burn and if you needed the sherrif you have to wait 20 minutes or. I mean my dad doesnt even have 911 service... A security alarm isnt going to do much good if the cops cant get there fast...

So gun control might work in the city but in rural areas I dont see it working so much.

So how do you protect them?

Just for comparison...

Populations....

Welshy...

You live in TX right??? How can you be from there and be for gun control??? That is kind of against your soveirgn states code isint it??

I mean the whole everything is bigger in TX including our guns....

You might get kicked out, be careful...

On the 17th of this month we are due to hit 300 million...

percentage wise that means less that 1% for all of these places... so that kind of puts it in perspective... no place is better than the other

Forgive me for having a very limited scope here, and I don't have any statistics to back up my argument but for me it all boils down to this.

1.  A gun in my house means the chances of one of my kids ever hurting themselves or someone else with it are equal to X.

2.  No gun in my house means those chances are < X.

Therefore:  No gun in my house.

And with all the stories about locks and safes and whatever and supposedly your kid can't get to your gun - forget it.  Kids can always get to it.

I don't even know how to relate this to gun control as a concept because it has nothing to with laws that do or do not exist and are or are not enforced. 

Still make those per capita numbers,

Hangloose, it is all about educating your kids about guns. Of course kids are ALWAYS going to get to what is forbiddon.... I was raised in a house with guns and the thing was never locked, we used to go out and shoot at targets all the time. My dad taught me how dangerous guns were when I was little and I knew they were not play things.

If you educate your kids then you dont have as much to worry about. But if you put the gun in a box on top of the shelf and dont tell them, they snoop around find it and say gee what is this...

I grew up with guns in the house.  My father was an avid hunter and  match pistol competitor and member of the local gun club (one of his prize possessions was a flint lock mussle-loader that he fired a couple times a year).  I was taught how to shoot and gun safety at an early age.

I inherited my father's guns and have kept them, mostly for sentimental value.  I still go to a local indoor range and shoot a few times a year.  And I do keep a .22 semi-automatic pistol unloaded in my bedroom closet, but don't really think of it as a home defense weapon (I'd get a 9mm or a .45 with more stopping power if I was truly worried about that). 

I  think that dead-bolt locks, security lights, motion detectors and frequent visible activity around the house are much better crime deterents than guns hidden in closets. (btw- I would NEVER keep a loaded weapon laying around the house).

Some friends and I got into a wine-enhanced discussion one night at dinner after Katrina hit NO and there was near-anarchy there for a few days, with local law enforcement either absent or overwhemed.  In such a situation, the consensus was that we all would defend our homes and families using whatever means necessary.  Even the anti-gun contingent conceded they would use deadly force if it came to defending the lives of their wives and children.

I offended a few folks back then here on BT for posting the "looters beware - drunks with guns" photo.  I thought it was funny at the time (and still do), but I would venture to say that the neighborhood in that photo probably remained realtively looter-free during that unfortunate time. 

I have no problem with registering my guns, or having a background check for purchasing guns (or ammunition).  But to me it all seems an exercise in futility as the criminals are aren't going to bother doing either.

Mark

(btw -  in case anyone is considering looting my neighborhood, my neighbor across the street and I both have registered & licensed semi-auto AR15's, and could set up a pretty good cross-fire if it ever came to that)

Having been a police officer for 13 years in my opinion I think guns should be gone. Just my opinion.

 Two weeks ago a 16 yr. old brought a gun into the high school in town. He got caught because he got greedy. He was showing it off and someone finally went to the administration and said there is a kid in the school with a gun. The gun was stolen out of a locked gun locker that morning from what I was told.

 Here is something scary, I work in a town with a population of about 37,000. In March of 05 we had reports of 48 shootings. In one month we had more shootings than all of 04 and so far 06. Several innocent people were hit by bullets and luckily nobody was killed. We ended 2005 with well over 100 shootings and only 1 arrest for a shooting. Not to toot my own horn here but I was the arresting officer. I chased a 16yr. old down on a bike who just shot at two houses. I don't think it was poor police work on our departments behalf. Criminals are getting smarter. They have scanners. They can use their Nextel phones to communicate better.

Something has to change. I don't know if educating the public will work. People are more concerned about what  Angelina and Brad ate for breakfast than their own children. On my Yahoo homepage Paris and Nicole might friends again. WHO CARES!!!!! This society and it's values have to change to have effective gun control. I doubt that will ever happen. Even if we got rid of all of the guns people will still find a way to get them. The current laws are being enforced. But how do you stop someone who breaks into a house and steals a gun that is locked up? These homeowners are doing the right thing. They lock up their guns. People just still manage to break in and get them. What good is an alarm system if you power line and telephone line are cut by a falling tree limb in a storm? What about those people that can't afford an alarm system? We as officers can't be on every street corner watching every house. In my community some people don't even know their neighbors. So people aren't watching the neighbors house like they use to for something suspicious going on.

I truly hope that one day we can find an answer to this problem.

Your signature line gave me pause, Rowdy. Most of the arguments in this thread against gun control are based on the premise that we need to protectour selves. I don't know, but I'd be willing to bet that a large number of those 105 officers KIA were killed by guns. And I'd also be willing to bet that most of those officers were armed at the time, and that they had some training in how to use their guns.

So if guns in the hands of trained professionals weren't enough to save their lives, why do we average citizens think they'll protect us?

I would hazard a guess that the number of officers saved by their weapons in the thousands of officer involved shootings annually probably outpaces the number who tragically come out on the losing end of those confrontations.  Sometimes luck wins out over skill, but not nearly as often as the other way around.

bts 

<sniff>

That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me...

I wish nobody had guns, honestly, but how do you stop it?  If you outlaw most guns, then there will just be a big black market for guns.  Now all the bad guys have guns and none of the good guys.  

Also, you cannot control every type of weapon.  If someone is hellbent on killing someone, they will find a way.  A rock, club, knife, or rope can all do the trick  how do we outlaw all of those?  A gun is just the easiest way presently.  If you take that away, something else will be the new weapon of choice.  

Force always creates counterforce.  When you oppose something, you still give it the energy of your attention, even though it is in opposition.  It is the energy of attention that gives life to those things that we want and equally to those things that we don't want.  Mother Theresa understood this concept when she stated, "I will not attend an anti-war march.  However, if there is a march FOR peace, I will attend"  You want less crime, focus on peace not on the "war against crime".  Focusing on peace puts your energy towards peace.  Focusing on being "against crime" puts your energy on the concept of crime.

So let's emphasize positive uses for guns?

bts 

I think they're recyclable. That's good.