Obviously with the recent tragic events in Colorado and Connecticut, a great deal of focus has been placed on American gun owners and their right to bear arms. I've long been interested in this subject and am subscribed to several shooting channels on youtube. As such I'm kinda torn on the subject. Part of me thinks that it's lunacy to have armed citizens and part thinks the polar opposite. Seems to me that people's fear of guns is brought about largely through a lack of knowledge about them and their use. People I've had discussions with on the subject seem to have a very small amount of knowledge about firearms that they've largely gleaned from films and TV and we're so divorced from the whole culture in the UK that the mere mention of the word, "gun", seems to result in a pavlovian repulsion response from people. Obviously a lot of people in the US are fatally injured with gunshots every year but the naked figures don't tell the true story. The total number is comprised of intentional homicides, accidental shooting of oneself or someone else, police shooting people, people shooting themselves in suicide, people shooting bad guys in defence of themselves etc. To me a gun is just a tool but unlike so many other tools that cause deaths people tend to blame the tool first and the operator second. For example, the car kills more people than guns in the US every year but nobody ever talks about banning the automobile. Whenever there's a fatal car accident the blame is entirely laid at the driver's feet. Same thing would happen if some guy went on a rampage hitting people over the head with a hammer. The guy would be blamed but there would be no call to ban hammers. With guns it's always the other way on. Blame the tool first and then consider the operators actions. Obviously you can't ignore the fact that the gun is a tool designed to kill and not a tool designed for something else which is put to a murderous purpose but the end result is the same. A gun is not dangerous if it's being handled by someone who is of sound mind and proficient. Then you have the balance of power thing. I believe in a human being's right to defend their own life and don't believe that the government has a right to tell you that you can't do this. Obviously this presents a problem. If some 6' 6" guy who weighs 19 stone decided to pummel little old me to death then I'd have almost no chance. With a gun I'd have a fighting chance. No certainty of survival but a fighting chance. Same thing with women and sexual assault. Little or no chance of preventing it if unarmed. The gun levels the playing field to an extent. There is a perennial problem, however. Obviously there are a considerable amount of stupid, mentally or emotionally unstable or just plain crazy people in the world and giving them access to this sort of weaponry seems foolhardy at best and this has led to two different avenues of approach from the US and the UK. The US gives its citizens the right to self-determination and defence against the bad guys and the UK has decided to treat us all like babies to prevent anyone from getting hurt. We're effectively living in a grown up soft play area. Or to put it another way, as far as the US government is concerned you're responsible enough to own a gun until proven otherwise and vice versa for the UK. Or to put it yet another way, America legislates for the honest citizen and the UK legislates for the morons. I think a large part of this is down to the way people think of the government. In the US I get the feeling that people view it as nothing more than an elected body that's essentially employed to make sure that the country works. That the power comes on, the sewage doesn't build up and the taxes are collected to pay for the whole infrastructure. Beyond that they really don't want the government involved in their lives. Here we view the government as the boss. They say jump, we say how high. Mother knows best. I guess that when you get to the bottom of it though you have to ask yourself whether you'd swap our system for theirs and despite the civil liberties issues I couldn't, in all honesty, do it. I think that the internet's a bit of an analogy for an armed society. On the internet people are largely anonymous and can do and say what they want because it's all virtual. One only has to read some forum (not this one ) arguments and the comments on youtube to realise that some people simply aren't grown up enough to have functioning internet connection. Same thing applies to firearms. Your thoughts?
I use guns for my job and I've seen first hand the damage they do in the right and wrong hands. Guns don't kill people, people kill people BUT I don't think guns should be easily available because it makes doing that damage easy.
Police it like here are my thoughts.I am a shooter myself and having a gun has calmed my very bad temper down.In my early 20's being ginger and a good boxer I was an animal.I would fight anyone be them big small or equally as bad as me.I have never got beaten by anyone nor by several guys, I must have a granite jaw, my pain threshold is quite high too.I hate troublemakers and still do but I think about my licence which is precious to me when anger comes in.I signed a mates licence application 5yrs ago and the firearms officer rang me and asked why I signed this guys licence when he too was a naughty boy with a string of convictions abh gbh etc etc and he has got to go and explain to his c/o to let him have a gun.I told him of my earlier life and that I never got caught but it has taught me respect and it will do the same for him.My mate has calmed down too, he thinks twice about clouting someone.So yes it has worked for me and others. The US gov't need to issue a firearms licence and have a firearms dept like ours where they can see the person is a responsible person who will have their guns locked in cabinets like ours if they are naughty the police can take their guns away.Maybe the automatic weapons need to be given a special permit because they can do alot of damage in a small space of time.Those that have guns have to prove they are worthy of a licence with their good history.Having a gun in public places other than a shooting ground should be banned. Shooting innocent people is crazy so something needs to be done.
I for one agree with what has been posted, and as posted guns don't kill people people do I for one have never shot anything and would love to just experience shooting a hand gun, rifle, shotgun etc... And think yes they need to make it a bi harder in the US to ensure the people who can buy guns wont to on a rampage but also store them correctly so your 5yo won't pick it out your bottle draw. But there are some stupid ideas governments have come up with, hand n your knife, lol so your son if he wants one can borrow your 12" kitchen knife from the kitchen Thing is in the end this will always happen, give it a year or3 and another mass shooting somewhere. The media do not help though.
The media want it banned too.I would have no qualms s------- some of them muppets.I think it was staged to bring this gun tightening in.
I've been frustrated discussing this with people I know because they don't know what the hell they're talking about. One guy was going on about how the idiot that shot up the school was armed with an M-16 semi automatic rifle and how people shouldn't be allowed to have guns that "go rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat, emptying all the bullets in a couple of seconds", and how he didn't see a problem with, "people having hunting type rifles but why they need semi automatics", was beyond him. I explained that an M16 is a US Army weapon and that it's not a semi automatic but a fully automatic / burst fire weapon depending on which variant you're talking about and that what the guy had in connecticut was an AR-15 which is a civilian semi-automatic that doesn't fire fully auto. He was adamant that I was wrong and that it was a "rat-a-tat-a-tat" gun and that that's what semi-automatic meant.
I think its the American people who are the problem, not the guns... There now having armed guards at primary school`s.WTF. Apparently 100,000 people a YEAR die from guns in America.... at this rate Americans are going to be extinct.. Guns, Mcdonalds yep there screwed.
Over here you cannot buy a rifle even a 4 shot+ semi auto shotgun unless you have grounds to shoot it on.In US a revolver for protection in your own home and left at home is ok but these assault rifles etc I think are way over the top for protection.Rural areas they could use rifles for deer hunting etc but what would you need an ak ar or even an uzi for?Job creation would be great for them if they decide to issue licences and have firearms officers.
There's a lot of ginger people on here with ballistic weaponry knowledge. I want to say that for all those who insult us regularly. Where do I stand in this debate? Hmm, you can't un invent the damn things so they're here to stay but the truth is they are a dangerous irrelevance. We do not need them to hunt to survive, we only need them to defend ourselves with them against others who use them against us, our military uses them to enforce our foreign policy abroad and their entire raison d'être is to inflict grievous harm on other meat machines. The right to defend your home is a loophole in a 200 year old constitution written by men of good heart in order to encourage a civilian militia to be available, at a minute's notice, to ward off the British. All the NRA bullshit about the rights of the common man to bear arms and the constitution in which they are writ, ignores the historical context completely. I'm reasonably certain that in a rapidly civilising and urbanising, America, safe from the threat of taxation without representation that if the founding fathers could have removed that particular 'right', they would have. Here, gun control is as good as it needs to be. I'd like to think that the less reactionary, common sense of our law makers would look at any request to keep military grade hardware, throttled by semi automatic restrictions or otherwise,in the home with deep, deep suspicion. Hunting vermin with an AK47 may be exciting, but expensive in ammunition as the safest place to be around one in use is infront of it. I've always regarded the cousins as children with the keys to the drinks cabinet. I'm quite fond of them but amongst themselves, without the supervision of a grown up, the sanctimonious, self deluding, potentially globally lethal bollocks that they manage to convince each other (and some of the more self serving, sycophantic, UK premiers) is their 'god given' and only logical course of action on any subject that may interfere with the 'American Way' scares the living shit out of me. But, if Father Christmas would like to bring me an L115A3 this year I'll be eternally grateful.
I just want all the blondes, brunettes and raven haired amongst them to know that we flame haired beauties have a propensity towards premeditated violence, Jez. That's all...
One big reason the likes of America and yes here in the UK will be apprehensive about changing current laws is that they make a great deal of money from the firearms industry. I agree the likes of fully auto rifles are a lil bit excessive for home security but does it not depend on which part of the U.S. ur in as to what types of weapons can be purchased? i.e. each state has different rules? I also agree that the problem with any gun is the squidgy organic blob holdin it, not the gun itself. If someone wants to harm another they will do so no matter what they have at hand! One thing is certain for centuries humans have developed and continue to develop new and seriously screwed up ways to hurt each other! I agree we live in a baby state that has more and more laws imposed on us each year that don’t really make any sense but tbh I think most of these laws (not limited to gun laws!) are created because our MP's run out of stuff to talk about n just think adding more stuff to the current legislation is a good way to show what they do each day.
[video]http://uk.news.yahoo.com/alex-jones-piers-morgan-interview-cnn-rant-on-gun-control-113924767.html[/video] This is why America is screwed..... its full of guys like this..
