The Right to Bear Arms

[Boomer]

Don't understand it.

Don't have it over here.

Don't know why you guys would want it.

How many more Columbines or Amish school shootings or Blacksburg Massacres does America need to endure?

I understand that you want to protect yourself, but if 98% of the population doesn't carry a gun, then protecting yourself becomes less of an issue. And the rest of the world generally protects themselves OK without guns.

I just don't think I've seen a valid argument for wanting to own guns.

Just wondered what y'all thought as this is about the only sensible forum where this subject can be discussed.

 

[Celtkin]

Simon, I agree 100%. Outside of hunting, I see NO valid use for a gun and absolutely zero use for an assault weapon. On the rare occasion I do hunt, I use a black powder rifle or a falcon.

These senseless deaths in Blacksburg would not have happened if we didn't allow the average citizen to carry a firearm.

 

[NJFINSFAN1]

I agree, but the NRA is a very powerful political force, and that's why it stays.

 

[Den54]

Don't understand it.

Don't have it over here.

Don't know why you guys would want it.

How many more Columbines or Amish school shootings or Blacksburg Massacres does America need to endure?

I understand that you want to protect yourself, but if 98% of the population doesn't carry a gun, then protecting yourself becomes less of an issue. And the rest of the world generally protects themselves OK without guns.

I just don't think I've seen a valid argument for wanting to own guns.


Just wondered what y'all thought as this is about the only sensible forum where this subject can be discussed.

It's never an issue untill it's an issue. I don't personaly want to settle for OK protection for myself and family. Even if it's only against 2% of the population.

 

[phins17]

The only thing I can say is some how the criminals will alway find away go get firearms. It is the same a drugs they always find ways. Sad to say but true.

 

[Boomer]

The only thing I can say is some how the criminals will alway find away go get firearms. It is the same a drugs they always find ways. Sad to say but true.

Course they will. Happens everywhere, but massacres at schools and offices, etc. don't seem top happen with the propensity that they do in the US. And that has to be down to the fact that anyone can have a gun.

 

[The Rev]

Simon, I have no problem with the right to bear arms. I have a problem with those who are bearing those arms. :)

 

[Den54]

Simon, I have no problem with the right to bear arms. I have a problem with those who are bearing those arms. :)

Agreed. You can't just throw out the baby with the bathwater because of the horrendos actions of a few.

 

[cmax13]

unfortunately there is no solution. even if the government banned all guns, there are still those that will get them, and do just as much harm. no politician in the US would ever commit political suicide by suggesting or putting a gun ban in place. the citizens would never vote it in, anyway.

i say arm everyone, and then at least one of the people in those classrooms could have stopped the madness before it reached 32. but nobody wants a bunch of 18 year olds with guns. i can understand that.

so what do you guys see as a workable solution? i asked this in another thread and was laughed out.

my only problem with guns is their only purpose is to kill. in a reasonable person's hand they are a tool, but in an unreasonable person's hand... i can kill with a bat, a knife, a pen, a coke bottle even, but at least they have other uses. guns only have one purpose.

i figure the only solution is to be vigilant in our society, because there are too many others that have no respect for life, theirs or others, and are too willing to act on those feelings.

 

[Boomer]

Simon, I have no problem with the right to bear arms. I have a problem with those who are bearing those arms. :)

Surely that argument goes hand in hand, Rev? The more people bearing them means the more problems arise. Surely you lessen the weapons, you lessen the idiots that carry them?

 

[phins17]

Surely that argument goes hand in hand, Rev? The more people bearing them means the more problems arise. Surely you lessen the weapons, you lessen the idiots that carry them?

That I have to agree with you, but the fact still remains that criminals will have have them.

 

[The Confessor]

Be it what it is, it is a "Right" of the American people. To simply say "If we take the guns away, we take the plight of killing people away" isnt really accurate. As stated, it is very easy to illegally obtain guns in this country, and just as easy to kill in mass numbers other ways.

Also as stated, the "Bad" guys that generally have guns, have them illegally to begin with. If you took the "Right to bear arms" away, only those that with bad intention will still have them.

Of course recent events will have everybody in this country double guessing this....

 

[Boik14]

Boomer, Im with you bro, I cant understand what purpose it serves. You cant even argue it can be used for hunting in some parts of the country because there is nowhere to hunt in NYC or LA and other major cities where much of the population is located. Only bad things happen with bullets.

 

[Ohiophinphan]

My Grand-Aunt/Godmother lived in NYC her whole life. The only two times she ever saw a gun was when a mugger stuck it in her face. She thought all guns should be banned and the factories that made them be burned down. She was a radical militant about it.

I've served in rural, NW ohio for nearly 17 years with people who hunt as a hobby, target shoot, and even teach gun safety courses and don't understand why everyone doesn't walk around armed all the time because they would only ever use a weapon except to protect themselves or others.

Somewhere in between these two a civil society must learn to balance rights and needs. I wish I had a simple answer.

My daughter is the chaplain for "Duke Lutherans" this year and one of her active grad students' undergraduate roommates was among the victims at Virginia Tech. She is dealing with a distarught young man who is asking the unanswerable. That story is being played out all around the country in hundreds of ways.

I could launch into a diatribe on the reality of and/or problem of evil but I think my "rant" muscles are now worn out.

 

[Boik14]

My Grand-Aunt/Godmother lived in NYC her whole life. The only two times she ever saw a gun was when a mugger stuck it in her face. She thought all guns should be banned and the factories that made them be burned down. She was a radical militant about it.

I've served in rural, NW ohio for nearly 17 years with people who hunt as a hobby, target shoot, and even teach gun safety courses and don't understand why everyone doesn't walk around armed all the time because they would only ever use a weapon except to protect themselves or others.

Somewhere in between these two a civil society must learn to balance rights and needs. I wish I had a simple answer.

My daughter is the chaplain for "Duke Lutherans" this year and one of her active grad students' undergraduate roommates was among the victims at Virginia Tech. She is dealing with a distarught young man who is asking the unanswerable. That story is being played out all around the country in hundreds of ways.

I could launch into a diatribe on the reality of and/or problem of evil but I think my "rant" muscles are now worn out.

I agree with her. It literally has no other use but to kill someone/something.