What's your opinion on firearms?

[JAY942942]

In my younger years, living in the United Kingdom, a nation with very stringent gun control, I was hugely against civilian firearm ownership. Everyone has shocking memories of what happened at Columbine and at Virginia Tech, and more recently at Fort Hood and Tucson. However, when I was 16, I moved to the United States and started to study the topic in greater depth and came to the conclusion that legal civilian firearm ownership didn't seem to correlate with crime (Switzerland has one of the lowest crime rates of Europe, the UK has a crime rate higher than the USA and Mexico has a huge crime problem) and it started to make sense that if law abiding citizens had legal weapons, they could protect themselves from criminals, who would be armed illegally anyway. In a country where guns are illegal, if guns aren't available (and normally they are on the black market) the criminal will simply commit the crime with another weapon, such as a knife or his fists. Even in a country where guns are legal, a lot of crimes aren't committed using firearms, such as rape. This brings us to the question of why do people commit crime. By far the biggest reasons are drugs, depression and poverty, not guns. Guns are tools. Just as you can use a car for travelling as well as drunk joyriding and you can use a knife for cutting food as well as cutting people, you can use a gun for legitimate purpose as well as for crime.

Around the same time, I bought my first "gun", a Red Ryder BB gun. It was then that I started "plinking" and target shooting. Soon, I had a reasonably sized collection of BB guns and pellet guns. When I entered college earlier this year, I quickly got involved with my collegiate shooting club. It was there that I first started to shoot real firearms - .22LR pistols/rifles and 12 gauge shotguns. Not long after this, I decided to buy my first real firearm, a Savage Mark II, which is a bolt action .22LR rifle. In the last few months I've expanded my collection to also include a Ruger 10/22, a Beretta Bobcat, a Ruger Single-Six and a Remington 870. I've increasingly become more and more pro gun rights and against gun control. Firearms have a lot more uses than crime. Target shooting, self defense and vermin control are among these uses. If an armed burglar breaks into your house and it'll take a good 5-10 mins for the police to arrive, do you think you're safer with, or without a shotgun? Similarly, if someone (who may be deranged or on drugs, incapable of controlling himself) brandishes a pocket knife and tells you to hand over all your valuables or he'll kill you, do you think your likelihood of survival is higher with, or without a handgun in your pocket?

Discuss your opinion on gun rights and gun control.

 

[TamaMum]

This whole subject is really complicated. There are lots of layers to the points in favour and those against gun ownership.

I still live in the UK and I suppose I am a product of the anti-gun culture. I really don't like the idea of civilians owning firearms.

I don't see the need for me to have the right to go into any large general store and buy a gun over the counter along with my groceries (despite the fact that I live in a part of North London with one of the highest levels of knife and gun crimes in the UK).

I don't see the need for me to have the right to own or carry a gun that I could potentially use to kill another person (or that could get me killed by another person) - no matter what the circumstances.

I don't feel the need to own a gun for self defence. There are so many other effective self defence options that do not require a weapon.

I really don't need a gun for vermin control - admittedly, I have only had to control mice or rats in my area of North London and there are so many other options that do not require a weapon (I would start with the "Pest Control" section of the Yellow Pages).

Target shooting, yep ... I agree you usually need a gun for target shooting. But I don't have any interest in target shooting as a recreational sport. I also agree that many people do like target shooting - but there's a world of difference between carrying a gun for self defence or keeping one in the bedside cabinet to shoot an intruder compared to a hobbyist who wants to head down to a club and practice target shooting or paint ball in a controlled and safe environment.

So, personally, I think the laws about gun ownership don't really need to change; what needs to change is the way we behave towards each other and the way the law should deal with crime and punishment. That's what needs more urgent change.

 

[Minecraft Addict]

This is a sort of sensitive topic. a lot of people would argue for days about this too. I live in New Brunswick Canada and in a location where crimes like that are extremley rare. so here buying a gun is still difficult, there are specific places to purchase firearms (excluding Airsoft and BB/Pellet guns) and you need a license and to be a certain age (i think its 16 or 18 to legal "Own" a firearm).

 

[katie_bug]

In my opinion the guns should be used for sport.

Similarly, if someone (who may be deranged or on drugs, incapable of controlling himself) brandishes a pocket knife and tells you to hand over all your valuables or he'll kill you, do you think your likelihood of survival is higher with, or without a handgun in your pocket?

I would never suggest doing this. It's a great way to get arrested. The best self defense weapons are pepper spray and stun guns.

As for shooting animals. That your opinion, and a completely different subject.

I do not think guns should be banded. Many people use them to hunt, compete, and just to collect.