Should guns be outlawed?

it all comes down to this, each of us doesn't trust anyone besides ourselves with a gun.

 

You know, as usual, Kickchick is making an excellent point. One of my neighbors likes to go out and fire his shotgun in the air several times a month for no real reason. Since we live in a semi-rural area, the rules are real "grey" about whether its legal or not. Also, he's connected with a politician, so the police are skeptical about doing anything.

Sometimes I think, just let everyone carry a gun. Eventually the gangs will kill each other off, the criminals will eventually get shot by the good guys, and the citizens will finally get their cities back. Oh well, its just a thought.

 

I have always been conflicted about guns. I was raised in and live in a rural area so most people had hunting rifles to protect livestock, despatch sick or injured animals or to hunt with. When my hubby and I got married I asked him not to bring his rifle into our home. I was okay with him hunting, I just didn't want the gun in our house so he kept it at his parents in their gun safe until he decided to sell it.

Now as I get older I am much more frightened by guns. I know many responsible gun owners and some irresponsible ones. Most people use them for their intended purpose but others use them as a replacement for self-esteem and for intimidation. When someone is a recorded marksman and you have heard that they want to "take a chunk out of someone" because they feel wronged by them it takes on a whole different level of threat than if they were just some average Joe with no firearms experience. So should guns be outlawed, no definitely not. There are valid reasons why many people should own a firearm. Should everyone be allowed to have one? Definitely not. I think anytime a threat is made by someone who has a valid firearms permit their guns should immediately be seized. I don't want to be on the losing end of someone else getting the benefit of the doubt.

 

why not just dis-invent them LOL

 

OMFG TEH POLL ISH TIEDDD!11!!

v.v

 

That's the heart of the issue. Once something is in use it's rather difficult to stop its use.

I've lived in areas where many people carried firearms. The crime rate was lower. Criminals don't fear our justice system. They are, however, afraid of armed citizens.

I have been at the wrong end of the barrel more then once: Paranoid? maybe. Victem? NO!

Just last week I attended the first of a series of seminars our school is doing for basic knife and firearm training. Here's a little tip: If you raise your hands (the stick em up bit) I wouldn't try to disarm. In tests with mock weapons that shot pellets the defender could not deflect the weapon in time in most cases (95% as a guess). Starting from a neutral position it was more like 50/50. If you bring your hands up, it's mostly over without a good distraction you have almost no chance. This is somewhat biased as many participants were advanced students and instructors. Not good odds either way.

 

Guns should be legal

Guns don't kill people. People with guns don't kill people. Bullets do.

 

Kwajman: from what i hear from my dive buddies, rmi is quite the paradise. what are your gun laws there like?

 

When setting it up like that, with two very bastant alternatives, it becomes difficult to decide. But if I held the chair as world dictator and had to choose, I'd go for outlawing it. (shooting should ultemately be reserved for military and police)

 

Guns should be outlawed for the serfs. I would retain them!

Guns are for me, not for thee, serf! Back to your plow.

 

I'm not going to give a definate yes or no. They should be legal to those who like to shoot guns, game hunters if you don't think that's wrong. I do, however, think they should be illegal for those that use guns to hide the cowardness in their fight. I think it's kind of dumb when my instructor said that he kne an instructor (7th dan, I think) that shot and killed a guy on a one on one fight! No weapons exept for his one gun! Now, that's just lazy.

 

Guns shouldnt be outlawed it is apart of our freedom as US citizens but to aquire one a person should have to go threw considerable test and requirements to hold one

 

Somthing I find strange:
There are some 5 million decendents from norwegian immigrants living in USA (more than there are norwegians in Norway) Where we in norway have more guns pr. person than USA, we never carry them for self defence, and have litterary no deaths/accitdents with them.

Now, our relatives in USA allso have tons of guns (like us) but acording to the news, most Norwegian-americans wield their sidearm, are member of all gun societies that exisit + 1 or more anti gouvernment-militias, like the one where the dude blowing up a federal(?) building some years ago.

My question is: how can 3 - 4 generations make people so different in respect for human life and wiews on right to shoot any trespassers/attackers?

 

Good point, Stolenbjorn. Not many law abiding citizens carry weapons but quite a few have weapons for home defense. The militias are really a small percentage. Distribution of wealth , destruction of the community infrastructure and family unit due to the devaluation of ethics, drugs, government interference, media manipulation and geographic separation (...and this is the short answer).

By the way, Do you know any Gudjonson's?

 

Stolen, McVeigh (who blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in retaliation for the federal government's burning down a church) is a Norwegian name???

Where do you get the idea that it is lawful to shoot trespassers in any state of the USA? What makes you think there is a distinction between Norwegian and American respect for human life as codified?

Why is it wrong to defend yourself if being attacked? Did not the Norwegians attempt to defend themselves from the Nazis?

 

No, it sounds scottish, but my point was that many norwegian-americans join "paramilitary anti-USA-militias" of the same kind that McVeigh was a member of. (Thanks for providing his name, by the way)

I'm not saying it is lawful, I just say that from what we get on the Norwegian news (that are biassed against current USA policy and certain aspects of american life, like the right to carry sidearms for defence) -there seems to be many USA'ns out there that deems it to be their right to shoot in self defence. But then again, I could be wrong, I don't live in your country; you do

Well, since you ask; in Norway, the majority thinks that it should be up to the state to apply violence; Police for domestic violence, Military for external threats. There is somthing called self defence in the law, but they only reduce punichment, people seldom gets completely off the hook after having killed in self defence. A 15 year old kid, his two sisters and the mother allmost got no punichment after killing the father who had systematically raped the mother and his sisters for several years, but the counsel for the prosecution appealed and in the "rematch" they got centenced.

Nazis was an ecternal threat, any USA'an are IMHO in their perfect right to commit sabotage against any foregin invaders on USA'an ground!!!

 

Stolen, thanks for your reply.

I don't know where you are getting this militia information, but I am unaware that there is any sort of ethnic cataloging. Be careful about "militia" as by federal law all males, 17 to 45, are in the militia and in my state, all persons over age 17(male and female) are militia members by the state constitution.

The right to self-defence as a bar to criminal and civil prosecution is codified in federal law and the law of all 50 states. So, I believe that your perception that Americans value their right to life and to act in defence is correct. However, this concept is very, very old extending from The Bible to English law.

I think the different views of individual rights come from our histories. In Norway, you have the history of feudalism where others tell the masses what to do via a monopoly on violence by the elite. In America, you have a history of a free people who created a nation to avoid that situation.

 

I'm very glad to see that it's possible to have a polite argument on MAP

Ethnic cataloging is very wrong, yet there's allways some trace of truth in many prejudices. It's a fact that many carismatic christians are opposed to free aborion-laws, and are pro-jews, for instance. There's allso probably quite true that the black comunity in USA have a lower averidge educational level than the "white" comunity(?) That many decendants from scandinavia and Norway in particular are low educated rather conservative, belonging to what FBI might call troublesome elements that are quite racistic and filled with conspiratoric theories, claiming that the white house is controlled by the jews etc. is somthing I've on in a documentary on Norwegian (biassed)TV. I don't mean militia as in Home Guards/ National Guard! That's somthing quite different;we even have that in Norway

I think you're right. I'm very impressed with your level of knowledge on Norway; a nation smaller in population than Manhattan! Acording to my prejudices on USA'ans, you should believe that Norway was the capital of Sweden -Seriously; thats one of the many things forums are great at; destroying my prejudices!!! I've yet to encounter any american on any forum that didn't know where Norway was! Norway never really had any feudal-system; the topography of norway + the black plague in 1345 -wiping out 50 - 70% of the population -made it impossible to run feudalism in Norway. We later on got beurocrats, and thay quite possebly helped cowing the norwegian "viking"-attitude of honourkillings, bloodfeuds, etc. -somthing I think we should prais them for!

 

All you have to do is compare gun murder statistics between a country that allows guns and a country that does not. As for the protection element, If you need guns to protect yourself then your country is in such a mess that you better think about starting from scratch and reconstruct your society because it has clearly failed.


The Bear.

 

Polar, so murders are not committed in any other way than with guns? Hammers perchance?

Homicide rates are much higher in more gun restrictive nations than more liberal nations.