Money & Guns

I like it Phil, but I'm afraid you'll get a lot of grief from many on your point of view. NRA folks seem to feel threatened over the smallest details.

As a non American, I can look dispassionately at this tragic debate. I love the poem by the way. In New Zealand we have the kind of gun control Obama can only dream of. Licensing is very strict, illegal ownership, and possession of firearms is severely dealt with by the courts.  police are NOT armed except in emergencies. Our scenario does NOT stop the odd nutcase  who decides to kill senselessly. But, the level of gun violence is much lower then the USA and by and large we feel very safe in our country. We can do better however, there are countries with less gun violence then NZ. All i can say is, the simple truth is - the more guns there are the more likely innocent folk will suffer for it, despite best intentions by many. Now- off my soapbox (at the risk of this post becoming too political)...but Phil started it with his wonferful poem, congratulations on your courage in writng it.

the well armed mitlitia as as stated in the constitution is intended to defend ourselves AGAINST those same police and military designed to protect us . The colonists saw first hand how their own Government turned on them and wanted to be able to prevent that happeneing to the public in the future. When EVERY so called assault weapon is destroyed , I will gladly give mine up. As long as there is one other person out there with an AR-15 , I am gonna keep mine.

As Twangtown stated nothing can stop a lunatic from taking lives no matter how many laws you pass. during 9-11 the planes were taken over with box cutters , not guns. I ask where was the outcry to ban knives then?

there are several good points brought up here;

1) the guy next door has a gun, so if he loses the plot i can defend my-self. maybe he's thinking the same thing?

2) human kind has killed each other since we came down from the trees. all animals do this even cows that eat grass, lets face it, grass lives, it grows, it pro-creates so if a cow can eat grass to the roots so that it can no longer grow isn't that the same thing? remember, we mow our lawns or dig-up fields to build houses on, there are no innocents!

3) if you have a gun and i have a gun and we get into a real bad argument we may trade blows. if you get the better of me, i might well run into my house get the gun and shoot you down in my fear and temper. i'm still holding the gun when your family come out with your gun and shoot me down.
by tommydone's reasoning, his family then has to protect it self from the SWAT team that will turn up. but these are well trained marksmen that may kill your whole family. this is how wars began in prehistory. question; why would you need to defend yourselves against your own police and military. the USA is supposed to be the most enlightened country in the world. it seems it is also the most suspicious of it's neighbours and itself. we all watch American TV programmes, which is why the most of the rest of the world hate guns and what they stand for.

4) as twangtown, and my friend arkady point out, our police don't carry guns. you cannot buy a gun over the counter. the police only carry guns when they are called to an armed incident (or since 9/11) at airports. if you want to buy a gun, you have to have a damn good reason, pass mental and environmental checks, be a farmer and/or be a member of a gun club, which means you cannot take the gun from that club. and even with a licence, you have to renew it every year (i think) or so.

i am by no means saying that our system is any better or safer than the US, but violence breeds violence. once upon a time, we Europeans carried guns and swords, some countries police still carry guns, but i think (AND THIS IS JUST MY OPINION) guns breed fear, fear that the guy next to you has a gun and if you don't shoot him, he will shoot you. ergo; NOTHING GOOD CAN EVER COME OF A GUN.

this kind of proves my point, if guns were not easily available, because they are produced by the thousands for sale not just to good law abiding citizens, but also for terrorists and murderers. there is a lot of money made selling guns. the arms manufacturers are never held responsible for the carnage their weapons create. if the cretin that shot you had not been able to buy a weapon because it had not been mass produced then somehow got onto the black market, you might not have been shot, you wouldn't have needed to shoot the guy. then your family and his would not have been worrying about you in the emergency room. it could have been worse. you or he could have died. how would you feel about taking the life of another person? in the UK you might also have been up for prosecution. carrying a deadly weapon. causing actual bodily harm, etc. it may sound stupid and in some cases it is. but the law is there to protect everyone. what if you'd missed and hit an innocent bystander?

i'm sorry, but i cant get over the fact that you shot him 11 times? i thought guns only had 6 shots?

if he had known you were carrying your "glock" i wonder if he would have attacked you? i obviously dont know the circumstances of the attack, day/night, on the street at home, seeing as you were carrying a gun, maybe you should also have been wearing a bullet proof vest?

your story has not changed my mind. GUNS KILL

It seems to me that the US's problem now is not so much how to regulate gun sale and ownership, but how to deal with the 300 million weapons that are already out there, many in the hands of unidentified lunatics who have no respect for life. That is what breeds the fear that permeates American society.

Great write, Phil.

As a Canadian, living near the border (right across from Detroit, MI), and married to an American from Florida, perhaps my perspective is a little different.

I understand and accept the American right to bear arms, and understand the history behind it.

I also understand that the "militia" clause of the constitution was written at a time when the U.S. population was much, much smaller. It was written at a time when people, for the most part, respected each other and actually watched out for each other. That, sadly, is no more.

The writers of the constitution certainly had no vision of what the U.S. is today. They certainly didn't forsee the "Michigan Militia" and others, blowing up government buildings and killing so many with so little justification or rationality.

It is my belief that Americans much do some soul-searching, and forget the rhetoric. They must decide what kind of country they want to live in; one where there are over 300 million deadly weapons in circulation, where random acts of insanity can destroy communities, where any nutjob with a cause, rational or crazy, can grab a gun and make a name for themselves, or a country where peace and security are paramount virtues.

Do I have a solution? No, not really. With that many weapons out there, the genie is long out of the bottle, and won't be pushed back in.

The best I can think is that all owners of weapons should think seriously about the security of those weapons, about their accessability to others and to the actual reasons they have for owning them. The woman who owned the guns that caused the mayhem in Connecticut certainly did not forsee their final usage. She paid the price in full.

Solutions? Lockups or gunsafes. Trigger locks. Separate storage of weapons, ammunition and breach blocks, in separate safes. Make weapons safety the culture, not the politics of gun ownership.

Assault weapons, pistols, short-barrel pump shotguns are not hunting weapons, These weapons are designed to maim and kill fellow humans. We store paint and battery acid with more regulation than we store weapons and ammunition. It's time to rethink the culture of responsible gun ownership. Start with regulating the storage and security of the weapons already out there. Small steps, before any actual weapons bans, which, given the number of weapons already in circulation, will do nothing to curb the violence.

My .02, which, I suppose, is what it's worth.
Randy

Violence is beginning to be an "in" thing for the youth because of what they are seeing online. This is so up to date and I am sure everyone can relate to this. Let's all promote PEACE!