Sure its a bumper sticker slogan but there is some truth to the slogan that "If you outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns."
To me the only truly effective way to neutralize criminals or insane irrational people with guns, is to surround them with sane and rational people that peacefully also have guns.
Maybe a better comparison is gun control in other countries.
"Sure its a bumper sticker slogan but there is some truth to the slogan that "If you outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns.""
So what, "some truth to it" is a shockingly low standard.
"To me the only truly effective way to neutralize criminals or insane irrational people with guns, is to surround them with sane and rational people that peacefully also have guns."
To me this is nonsense because:
(1) Countries with gun control have neutralized gun violence without arming the entire populace.
(2) Allowing the entire US population to arm freely has had a net negative effect on controlling insane people with guns.
I just wish people liked guns less.
I dont really think people that like guns are the problem though. I would not classify myself as someone that "likes" guns. On the other hand i know people that "like" guns, and it's not that they likes the power a gun has, but they certainly understand and respect it, and therefore take extra care. They like them because they appreciate them for the same reason that people appreciate works of art, or sportscars. For the Craftsmanship, for the minior details that went into the design of the gun, for the historical value of the gun.
Guns have absolutely no effect on violence. Treat people better, make sure they have access to opportunity and caring about one another is how you reduce violence.
I own more than my share of guns and they have never made me violent, or invoked violence. I have a few knives, they too have never invoked violence in me.
I agree that mental illness awareness is a much better place to spend the $500 million Obama just asked for gun control.
More government always fixes things! .... right?!
Please go to Japan and obtain a gun illegally as proof of this claim.
" I remember my gun nut friends all had illegal assault rifles during the Clinton ban."
Bad regulation is proof that all regulation doesn't work! ... right?
Nevermind the fact that we have millions more guns in our country -- making guns illegal after they've hit such a penetration level would be impossible.
No one ever said that Freedom was easy or that it didn't come at a cost. It does and always will. But maintaining freedom and our core principles as laid out long ago should be a goal we never stop working towards. This seems like a huge step backwards.
So what? Maybe the 2nd amendment is wrong, or a bad idea, or a 200 year old proclamation that is no longer relevant in modern times? People's attachment to this clause is just... fundamentalist.
And why do people insist on equating gun ownership with freedom? You're not allowed to own bombs or missiles, does that also mean I am not free?
There's lots of things we're not free to do which actually makes us freer: not to steal, or house break, or kill people. I for one am glad my freedom is curtailed in this manner. It means i can live in a (largely) peaceful and safe society, and am free to go about my business with minimum threat to my existence or assets. And further adding to my sense of security is the knowledge that I am very unlikely to ever be threatened, injured or killed by a gun as almost no one owns one here - because they are illegal.
Everybody in Europe manages just fine without owning guns, what makes american's so special? why do you need to own a gun? (yeah sure, self defence, but if no one had them in the first place that wouldn't be necessary)
We are the same country that came to the worlds aid (and europe, especially) during WW1 and WW2.
Our beliefs aren't perfect. They just happen to be less wrong then others, IMHO... and in the opinion of a large majority of our country.
If you can't understand why the right to keep and bear arms is an essential aspect of being american then you are short sighted and have refused to see how history repeats itself over and over throughout mankind.
I 100% believe Benjamin Franklin said it best when he said the following: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Once you start picking apart our constitution, little by little, you soon open up the flood gates for rights and liberties to be taken away much more easily.
They can already wire-tap without a warrant. Now they want the guns. This is how it starts...
First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.
Lets modify the above...
First they came for the assault rifles, and I didn't speak out because I didn't own one.
Then they came for the bolt action rifles, and I didn't speak out because I didn't own one.
Then they came for the pistols, and I didn't speak out because I didn't own one.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left with the capabilities to defend me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...
Having the ability to arm yourself and defend yourself and uprise against OUR OWN GOVERNMENT should the need arise is specifically why the 2nd amendment was written the way it was... and I believe they felt very strongly about this. It's #2 on the list after all.
When we try to outsmart the people that made our great country, we usually mess it up.
Just my 2c.
Errr, that turns out not to be the case. Look at the results of the 2007 Small Arms Survey at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gun_owners... and you'll see it's pretty well armed (drill down to the PDF and even legal registration levels are a lot higher than I suspect you think).
In the other direction, when it comes to mass shootings Europe has been doing worse than the US as of late:
From Wikipedia, school shootings in Europe in this century, last two numbers are killed and wounded:
R., Georg, 18, Sep. 17 2009, Germany, 0, 10-15
Kretschmer, Tim, 17, March 11, 2009, Germany, 15, 9-13
De Gelder, Kim, 20, Jan. 16/23,, 2009, Belgium, 4, 12
Saari, Matti Juhani, 22, Sep. 23, 2008, Finland, 10, 1-3
Auvinen, Pekka-Eric, 18, Nov. 7, 2007, Jokela, Finland, 8, 1
Bosse, Bastian, 18, Nov. 20, 2006, Germany, 0, 22
Steinhäuser, Robert, 19, April 26, 2002, Germany, 16, 1
Merah, Mohammed, 23, March 11–22, 2012, Toulouse & Montauban, France, 7, 8
Amrani, Nordine, 33, Dec. 13, 2011, Liège, Belgium, 6, 123 (he also used grenades)
Breivik, Anders Behring, 32, July 22, 2011, Norway, 75, 242 (a bomb killed 8)
van der Vlis, Tristan, 24, April 9, 2011, Netherlands, 6, 17
Radmacher, Sabine, 41, Sep. 19, 2010, Germany, 3, 18 (arson was also used)
Bird, Derrick, 52, June 2, 2010, United Kingdom, 12, 11
Sacco, Angelo Secondo, 54, June 28, 2005, Italy, 3, 9
Antonello, Mauro, 40, Oct. 15, 2002, Italy, 7
Durn, Richard, 33, March 27, 2002, France, 8, 19
Selamet, Ozan, 42, Jan. 18, 2002, Belgium, 6 (2 strangled)
Roux-Durrafourt, Jean-Pierre, 44, Oct. 29, 2001, France, 4, 7
Leibacher, Friedrich, 57, Sep. 27, 2001, Switzerland, 14, 18
Kaya, Hakan, 24, Dec. 22, 2000, Germany, 6Americans don't have a love of guns, they have a love of confrontation.
That was the most difficult cultural thing I had to learn when I moved to Japan.
I suspect America is a lot closer to the middle than it.
America may be in the middle confrontation-wise, but when you add in the ease of obtaining a handgun, you get the current problem.
The article mentions a staggering obvious truth, "Why would we rush to ban guns, when almost all of our mass murders and most of our violent crimes occur in places with the strictest gun control?" There is also the fact that the proposed gun control laws all talk about assault rifles. That's fine, go after assault rifles but don't overlook handguns too. Last year in Chicago, more people were killed by handguns than the total number of those killed in all of the mass shootings over the last decade. How can those proposing gun control ignore that? Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US yet it has one of the highest rates of murder in the US…most of which results from the use of handguns. Yet, assault rifles and high capacity magazines are the problem….
So you're saying that the universal outrage over all these children being murdered couldn't possibly lead to good faith attempts to reform society to prevent similar events? You're saying it's probably a front for ... something? That the powerful archery, knife and karate lobbies were just waiting for any pretext to get rid of guns so they can start raking in the bucks?
32,367 died in automobile accidents in the US in 2011, but no one is trying to take away your car.
If the Newtown tragedy happened differently and the killer used his car to run over 20 children. Would you want new legislation to limit your access to automobiles?
I understand this is an emotional time, but how is this so difficult to understand?
Let me put it a different way.
Good regulation: Drive drunk and you can lose your right to drive or end up in prison.
Bad regulation: Drive drunk and your neighbor gets his car taken away.
My big problem with NRA is how spammy they are to members. NRA-ILA is one thing, but being offered overpriced auto insurance, etc. all the time was really annoying. I eventually got off all the marketing lists, but it took a few tries.