This is indeed a hard topic.

I'd like to own a gun for target shooting, but I can, and do, already go to a firing range and use their guns. Or go to my Pop's place in the country and use his rifle. So I don't really need to own my own one.


More people die in car crashes. So by your reasoning, cars should be more illegal than guns.

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They should be legal it but they should make it a lot harder to own one. From what I've heard all you have to do is take a class to get a license and you can get one; sounds too easy.

To get a gun in america, you just go to a gun show, and bring some money. and they sell you then gun.

cars serve a purpose guns dont
if guns a useless item that can murder people should be legal than a rocket launcher should be legal

This has never really been the case in any countries where guns are illegal. I don't understand this argument simply because it doesn't factually happen. Most of the deaths and assaults we see with guns involved basically come either from total wackjobs or people who really shouldn't have been allowed access to guns in the first place. Looking at, say, Japan (this is a manga site, after all) crime syndicates would still have guns, but is the mafia really responsible for petty muggings and the like? Because those seem to have basically vanished.

I can't say I advocate civilians being allowed to wantonly kill anyway. That's just a bizarre hero complex that justifies an obvious symptom present in most sociopaths.

Generally, not letting the public have guns outside of designated exceptions seems to lower crime rates significantly, so objectively it should be the best solution. Let them have guns at a gun range, let the police have guns, and maybe let farmers have rifles to deal with wild animals (but not handguns, as removing handguns alone takes away the fast majority of gun crimes).

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sure, i live in the States and firearms are legal here. Most people that have a permit for a gun dont go running around shooting people here in the U.S., the gun killing i usually hear of usually comes from gangs who use illegal firearms like Ak-47s.

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You can die a lot of different ways. You can be killed a lot of ways. There are numerous things that are insanely dangerous. That are lethal. That can be used to kill people. There are common household goods that are way more deadly then guns. That are used to kill people. Yet, we do not have laws in place that keep people from purchasing them. On the other had, guns have laws that limit their sale. Laws in place that keep people with ill intent from owning one. Do they work all the time, no. Should we outlaw guns because of that, No.

Lets put it this way. The U.S. is huge. There is an insane amount of guns already within our borders. Not only that, we have large expanses of completely unprotected borders that every day are crossed by people bring in illegal contraband. You can buy just about anything on the streets of any city in the U.S. let alone the world. Outlawing guns for people that are using them for purposes that are not harmful to others is pointless. It is not even a case of, oh if I had a gun, I can stop crimes. It's just a case that punishing people that are good, to punish the wicked is wrong.

You know the US is quite rural too. There are places in the US were you can't just go to the store for your food. People still depend on hunting to put food on there tables in the US and in many areas of the world. Outright bans on guns hamper those people as well.

and the excuse that gun deaths in Japan are much lower is not a good one. In japan firearms have never been legal for civilian use to my knowledge. They do not have an abundance of firearms already. They are an island that can more readily control what is brought into their country. Thus guns are hard to come by. Still doesn't stop crime. Still doesn't stop people form killing one another. There are other weapons out there that can be used. If you are attacked by someone with something as simple as a kitchen knife, you will fare no better then someone with a gun when you do not know how to defend yourself against it.

As for me, guns has been invented to kill people therefore they should be illegal.

Which could be same for computers. You do not need a computer to live. Everyone lived without computers before the 1980s, so its the same argument.

Reading much of the arguments, many feel the need not to own a gun because it serves no purpose.

Incorrect.

The true purpose of owning a firearm in the US is not to kill people or go to the shooting ranges, it is to keep the US government in check. By allowing the citizens to own firearms, you have literally prohibited those in power from establishing socialism, communism, dictatorships, etc.

Governments should be afraid of the people, not people afraid of their governments.

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There is a simple solution to every problem; finding the simple solution is the difficult problem.

Your logic does not make sense. Just because people in the 80's didn't need a computer doesn't mean they don't now either. The truth is, life then was pretty much inconvenient compared to now. Pretty much everything is computerized now. This includes education as well as occupations. A computer is indispensable for someone who is living in this era, and anyone who believes otherwise is deluding themselves(unless they WANT to live in some remote corner of the world and practice peace.)
On the other hand, a gun does NOT have such a use and many live without owning a firearm without feeling that they are missing something crucial.
Firearms may have been needed for self defense in an era where there was civilian unrest. But in a peaceful society today, having a need to own firearms shows that the person is actually really insecure about themselves and their environment. There are also quite a number of freak firearm accidents which have taken a number of lives, the most recent being the Oslo incident. Now that wouldn't have happened if the man wouldn't have been allowed owning heavy firearms such as shotguns.
That said, however, I do agree with the self defense aspect to some extent. We should be allowed to own one small pistol or revolver per family. Of course there should be stringent licensing policies to avoid their misuse.

that is moronic how can people with handguns and rifles stand against the government which has drones, rpgs advanced weapons and training not to mention nukes

Yes, computers dominate the world today, but as you said, life was inconvenient before the arrival of computers.

But look at this side of the coin for computers: fraud, identity theft, porn, copyright infringements, on and on. Does this represent the majority of people who use a computer?

Now apply that argument to firearms; do most firearms owners go crazy when they own a gun? No, its the minority that makes the majority look bad.

Let's try this another way; it is my right to own firearms in the US, just as it is your right to not own one. Why does your right of not wanting to own one have to be imposed on me? Shouldn't it be a choice?

Put a loaded gun on the floor without touching it, and what will happen? Nothing, as it comes down to the person using it. Again, firearms isn't the problem; its the lack of education, morals, and training.



Even with all that high tech weaponry, why isn't the US dominating in Afghanistan or Iraq? Guerrilla warfare is an entirely different animal.

Using nukes? Ha. Who would you govern if you blow everyone away?

Last edited by lambchopsil at 9:15 am, Aug 10 2011

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There is a simple solution to every problem; finding the simple solution is the difficult problem.

you have a good point but its still not convincing,im going to quote facts which prove that gun legalisation is unsuccessful for self defense
1-"Responsible adults can still be a threat to public safety if they are armed. Between 1996 and 2000, the Violence Policy Center found that concealed handgun permit holders in Texas were arrested for weapon-related offenses at a rate 81% higher than the general Texas population"
2-"The concealed carrying of handguns increases the likelihood of unintended shootings taking place. According to a July 2001 peer-reviewed study appearing in Accident Analysis and Prevention approximately 50 people are unintentionally shot each day in America and a child under 15 years of age dies every other day from unintended gunfire"
3-"Carrying concealed handguns increases the risk of suicide because one-third to four-fifths of all suicide attempts are impulsive and carrying a handgun gives individuals the means to act on their impulses."
4-"Concealed handguns are not an effective form of self-defense. A Nov. 2009 peer-reviewed study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that someone carrying a gun for self-defense was 4.5 times more likely to be shot during an assault than an assault victim without a gun. Attackers often surprise victims, making it difficult to use a concealed handgun."

these are all facts,you can look them up yourself
im also surprised theres been no mention of point 3 at all in this thread


that doesnt even make sense

My Answer is Yes why? Now the bad guys can just "make" their own gun out of anything even a blower and make nails as their bullets.
We need to defend ourselves from these guys.
Legal or not the bad guys can make weapons or just buy em in a black market

Suicide statistics favor towards firearms because of a matter of convenience. Quick and "generally" painless. If you were committing suicide (please don't, just argument's sake) what method would you use: firearm to the head (which is virtually guaranteed death with no pain) or jumping off a cliff and risk a slow and agony, slow death should you survive the jump?

http://lostallhope.com/suicide-methods/statistics-most-lethal-meth ods

Sad, but look at the agony index, and you can see why firearms are generally the preferred choice.

Yes, I'm not arguing that gun ownership poses its own risks. There is sad statistics of firearms, but the same could be said of people falling down stairs, car accidents, chemical poisoning, drowning, drug use, etc. It is the world we live in, and living is hazardous to your health.

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There is a simple solution to every problem; finding the simple solution is the difficult problem.