all guns should be destroyed

megashawn

Seems like this was a good subject on the last PF. I got to thinking about it because of this story:

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5732349.htm

Basically, this is a person with the point of view that all guns should be destroyed. He cites children killing other children, teachers and such, mostly using there parents guns.

I was raised around guns. I've never killed anyone, purposelly or accidental. I've never met a person I would want to kill. The key to gun safety is, as with anything, good education.

Ok, so the kid used his dad's gun to kill a teacher. He found the key for the gun safe. Did the guns have trigger locks on them? Why was he able to find the safe key? Obviously this particular case was a planned murder, and regardless of the measures taken to secure the guns, the kid had plotted it. I know I could get into anything of my parents.

And think about it. Kids are everymore getting smarter younger. I mean, there are kids who can program, race, play piano, you name it, on the level of professional adults. Whats to say a violent criminal isn't going to get started sooner as well?

People like this guy, thinking removing guns completly will solve the problems. First of all, how many deaths have there been in situations that he described? I'm sure not near as many as the number of people killed in violent crimes in a month. I'm also sure its not as many as criminals deterred or caught due to the victim possessing a gun.

I mean, get rid of guns. Ok. I got a paintball gun, can shoot 450 fps. I can do some mods to it and make it shoot damn near .22 rifle speeds. Now I have a lethal weapon, and fully automatic. You gonna get rid of those as well?

Honestly, there should be a class in school on proper gun safety. Just in case parents don't teach it themselves. As to the bad seeds that for some reason or another decide to kill another, well, it probably is due to the reasons the above author notes at the end of the article. Removing guns will do little or nothing to change that fact.

Ivan Seeking

The reasons that I am in favor of private gun ownership:

1). An armed populace can overthrow a corrupt government. Although I must admit that this may be out of date, I think in principle this may still be an effective lever. Obviously, with the modern weapons at the government's disposal, this argument grows very weak.

2). An armed populous may be the last defense in the event of a large scale invasion.

3). Civil authority can break down at times. Guns may be needed for basic defense and survival.

4). Personal defense.

5) A variation on several statements above; the government cannot guarantee a reasonable level of safety for many citizens

The way I read the constitution and some supporting arguments, I think that it was intended that citizens should own weapons. I don't feel that the reasons for this have changed.

GENIERE

"A gun is a tool, no better and no worse than the man who is using it". (from Shane).

jb

"guns don't kill people, I kill people" (from the big guy's shirt in Happy Gilmore)

why destroy all guns? they won't decide to up'n revolt and start shooting people. and it takes a finger to pull the trigger.

and if there were no guns, i bet you'd read about a lot more knifing incidents at schools. guns just make killing more convenient.

russ_watters

To be fair, the guy did NOT specifically say all guns should be destroyed. Clearly thats not achievable, so there isn't much point in discussing it even hypothetically.

My personal view is that the 2nd amendment is obsolete as written and needs to be changed. Ivan, you said your #1 is "weak" and you're right. #2 fails for the same reason. I think they DID apply in 1789 and were valid points, but they just confuse the issue today.

3, 4, and 5 are valid (you forgot hunting and target shooting) and I think the types of weapons allowed in the hands of civilians should reflect their uses.

megashawn

Taken from the linked site.

To me, these paragraphs imply that this seems to be the only solution.

He didn't come right out and say it, but the whole article is implying it.

I agree that some modification could be done. For instance, what purpose does hand gun serve? Killing or target practice. You can try to hunt with one, and I wish you luck.

Personally, I don't desire to own a handgun. I prefer rifles, shotguns, etc.

Another cool idea about guns comes from Stuck Mojo:

"A gun is no more responsible for killing a person then a shovel is for digging a hole."

I can't believe theres been no real opposition.

I can kinda agree on point 1 being obsolete, but point 2 seems to me to be of utmost importance. I mean sure, and invading force would pay hell to get off the beach, but the few that managed, wouldn't make it to far from it.

Take our guns away and it will be like the simpsons episode where the Aliens came to take over with a board with a nail in it.

FZ+

My opinion is that some more gun control is required, though complete banning isn't really an option. You probably all know my reasons, so I'm not going to go on about this and start too big an an argument over it.

Just point out however in that Simpsons episode, the aliens didn't invade with a plank with a nail in it - they were driven off by Moe holding a plank with a nail in it.

"They'll keep building bigger planks, with bigger nails... until one day they make a plank so big, they will destroy themselves! Mwhahaha..."

But really.... I really doubt the large scale invasion stuff. With the new terrorism orientated warfare of recent years, lots of weapons around seem to be a bad thing. (Consider the washington sniper thing.)

selfAdjoint

The police cannot protect you from crime. They always arrive after the crime has been committed. I think any woman who lives alone should seriously think about getting a handgun and learning how to care for and shoot it. If she doesn't have kids around she could keep it loaded, chambered and on safety, handy to her hand.

Guys and guns are a different story. They have a much worse record of doing damage to themselves and others if they have a gun available.

megashawn

True, but your forgetting a key element to the stupid behavior probably 9 times out of 10. Beer.

There is game somewhere on the net, called Alcohol and Ammo. Searching at yahoo or something should find it. Good example.

What kind of gun controls do you think are in order? Make it more difficult to aquire a gun? Limit guns to bolt action rifles?

Adam

As a former soldier, I personally do not trust civilians with guns. EVERY mook civilian I've seen who says "I have REAL training!" doesn't actually have real training. They are generally trained by complete tossers. Civilians are too dangerous to trust with guns.

Consider:

1) Gun for home defence. If someone breaks in with a gun, do you think he/she will sit there and wait for you to go get your own gun? The only way the gun will work for home defence is if you have it on you at all times, and you are home at all times. And then you have to be certain that you will never have an accident with it. And then you have to ask yourself if you are willing to kill with that gun, if you are willing to end a person's life simply to save your big screen TV.

2) A common argument for private gun ownership is "If I have a gun, people will be too scared to steal from me, threaten me, insult me, or do anything which I might possibly interpret as a threat to me or someone I like". Yay. Great goal there, you monkeys. You want to live in a society in which everyone is too scared to do anything? A society in which YOU are scared to say the wrong thing, knock on the wrong door at the wrong time, et cetera? Pathetic.

3) Another reason for private gun ownership: "We need them in case the big bad evil gummint turns corrupt and beams mind-control rays into our heads from the television". I have news for you: the goverenment is already corrupt, it already feeds you lies, it already taxes you unfairly, and it already pays politicians and large corporations an unfair amount. Are your guns preventing it? No.

4) Here in Australia we have very limited private gun ownership. And you know what? Even reducing the figure for our smaller population, we have far fewer gun crimes than the USA. Guns don't kill people. But guns make it easier for idiots to kill people. It's really friggin simple. If you come at me with a knife or a stick, I won't be too worried. If you come at me with a gun, there's not a damn thing I can do. And even if I also have a gun, all it takes is for you to shoot before I do. There's no skill involved (most criminal gun use takes place at a range of under three metres), no rights and constitutional guarantees. You can have all the guns you want, and it won't stop someone shooting you. If someone pops up beside your car door pointing a gun at your face, you will NOT have the luxury of opening your glove box, pulling out a pistol, and turning it to face the scumbag. You'll simply get shot if you try it.

And now to address points raised by others:

Hitler never killed anyone until he killed someone. My point being that the USA health care system is full of people shot by their own father's and such, parents shot by kids, kids shot by other kids. Prior experience in killing has nothing to do with it.

Unfortunately, having had military firearms education, I have found EVERY civilian unarmed combat and firearms instructor I've ever seen to be grossly incompetent. And even in the military, we don't have privately owned L1A1's hanging off us like handbags. All gun use is strictly controlled.

Exactly. What you're saying is that regardless of what security measures are taken, people will find a way to use the things if they want to. Solution? No guns. You're spot on, dead right. The only way to prevent it is to not have the guns therre.

Kids are as capable now at any given age as they were 500, 1000, or 5000 years ago. However, the technology available changes. Kids today learn different things than they did 5000 years ago. Instead of learning to hide from sabretooths and hunt mammoths, they learn to shoot people on the Nintendo. Mozart composed his first opera at 13, I believe. Spartan children were learning to kill from the age of seven. Basically, this discussiion of age adds nothing at all to the debate.

1) If you're the kind of idiot that modifies a paintball gun to do such things, then you definitely shouldn't have any kind of projectile weapon. You provide a good argument for further restrictions.

2) Paintball guns, too, should require registration and a training course, at the very least.

Conjsider an alternative. Teach kids ethics from their first years of school. teach them something about decent behaviour. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't rape. Imagine all the gun-related deaths that might be avoided. Better that than simply sticking your finger in the dyke by telling them how best to handle a bad situation. Better to avoid that bad situation entirely, and work toward a culture in which people do not need to live in fear.

Adam

An armed populace can create civil war. And no, Billybob the redneck with his varmint rifle will not stop an Abrams.

Do you have any idea how stupid that is? I'm sure it looked good on Patrick Swayze's Red Dawn, with the Wolverines taking out Russians all over the place, but outside of movies you need to think about such things a bit more. If an invading force can take out your nations military, do you really think a few gumpies with hunting riflers can take it all back? Look at Iraq. Yes, the few armed civilians resisting the invasion/occupation are killing a few soldiers and causing trouble. But they are NOT taking back Iraq. The USA is without doubt the dominant force in Iraq. The real world shows us what this idea results in: the occasional death, that's all.

You've been watching too much Rambo. See every other thing I've posted thus far.

You've been watching too much Rambo. See every other thing I've posted thus far.

1) What would you consider reasonable? Everyone having guns? And none of them killers, until someone pisses them off just a tad too much?

2) Would you be safer in America today if nobody but the police and military had guns? Look at the numbers of accidental gun deaths, manslaughter when people just go a tad off the deep end, and premeditated murders. Think about it.

The USA constitution warrants the STATES maintaining "well-regulated militia". You are not a state. You are not a well-regulated militia. The USA is, remember, a collection of seperate sovereign entities which agreed to function together under one federal authority. The right to militia forces is there to allow those separate states the ability to defend themselves from the federal authority if necessary.

radagast

Adam,
IMO, your culture has skewed your views (as I'm sure mine have). In the US, the highest incidences of gun crime are in the areas that have the strictest gun laws. The lowest in areas with the greatest degree of private gun ownership.

US figures only: Excluding the incidences involving alcohol, areas with higher gun ownership tends to have a lower, per capita, incidence of accidental and children related gun injury - presumably due to greater familiarity and respect for guns and their potential.

The numbers of crimes prevented by handguns is much higher, in the US, than statistics would indicate. Handgun prevention of crime hasn't been a kept statistic, but communities that are starting to keep them are finding much higher numbers than even gun ownership proponents believed. Even crimes prevented via gun, where the criminal is the one shot appears as if it's a criminal related gun injury in most localities statistics.

I am sure Aussies have a lower incidence of gun violence than the US, you have a different culture. Culture has a profound impact on violence in general, as well as the specific means. We have virtually no sword assaults here. Japan is a different story.

While you have you're opinion on our constitution, both the founding fathers, as well as the supreme court interpret it differently than you.

FZ+

Aren't we rather confusing cause and effect here? We have laws against murder, and look, people kill each other happens! So if we legalise murder, no more killing will result!

Also, more incidences of gun crime may be because more incidents are counted as gun crime.

Ok, I'll resume being silent now.

Adam

Could I see some stats to support this please?

If you aren't basing this on recorded numbers, what are you basing it on? NRA advertising campaigns?

Zero

Did anyone ever think that everyone is skewed on this one, and the answer lies somewhere in the middle? Even Bill O'Reilly thinks there should be gun control, after all. No one really needs a gun, except police and the military. I believe that you should have to go to a class, and get licenced for a weapon for the exact same reasons we require restrictions on drivers. Cars may be dangerous; guns are designed specifically to be dangerous.

Adam

I think what it really boils down to is that there are people out there who simply love the big BOOM in their hands. Like watching an explosion in an action movie is cool, they enjoy the BOOM. It's just a fun little hobby. And all the talk of rights and laws and defence and such is just the smokescreen crap they use to defend their hobby, regardless of how many people are actually dying.

Ivan Seeking

Yes they are a very challenging device…very hard to figure out. I had to practice for weeks!

Yes we are only worried about killing people for our TVs. What other great insights do you have to offer?

This is so common that you are the only person that I have ever heard propose this idea.

Yes we should start a civil war instead of vote.

So you mean there are times when personal defense might not help? I had never thought of this.

Now this is a legitimate point.

It is so sad that no one meets your requirements.

Why has this only a problem in recent years? Kids have a long history of access to guns in this country. Only recently do we see real problems.