NeilBlanchard wrote:There are lots of accidental shooting deaths and injuries in the US; with so many guns around, there are bound to be. Most are from handguns, IIANM. It is a high price to pay for "a right"; and like all rights, it must be balanced against other rights.
Then there is the question of "defending" oneself. We have laws and police for a reason. If you want everybody to be able to defend themselves with a gun, then what are the laws and the police for? And if *everybody* had a gun, then we have anarchy, and we might as well throw away the Constitution, and all the laws, and let the police go...
If you want to defend yourself and your home -- get a large dog. They will do a better job than you will. You'll be sleepy and/or panicked, and you'll hesitate and/or the intruder will just shoot you first -- because remember you wanted *everybody* to have guns.
thats utter bs, in teh 'olden days' everyone had a gun, and isntead of anarchy they built this nation from the ground up.
xan you are missing my point in DC. they did zero to stop it from happening, they merely took away from guns from law abiding citizens and did nothing to stop criminals.
flapane: using your flawed logic, since at any point in time anyone can become a psycho, we would strip everyone of anything remotely dangerous?
banning guns a very un
andy: likely way to lower the murder rate, or make the nation safer. you also cant extrapoliate that if we banned guns, the gun murder rate = the change in overall murder rate. most of those murders will still occur with a different tool.
thats just not going to happen. i fyou think you can make a direct comparison thats great, and stats can do it, it deosnt mean they will paint an accurate picture, just a flawed comparison.
like I posted, UK has a way higher violent crime, even though our murder rate is 4x higher, they overall violent crime rate is way higher. that would include attempted murder ETC.
you are looking at a pigeon holed issue by just looking at murders when violent crime in general being lowered should be the end goal. not more bad crime but a few less murders instead
PEOPLE murder people.
guns do not get up walk out of my safe and shoot people. you all seem to think that their mere presence creates murders and crime, and thats simply not true as its an inanimate object.
it just seems like alot of you naively think that removing guns will make criminals become good members of society and I just see that as incredibly unlikely.
I should also point out, that I certainyl dont think less of you for your opinions and appreciate the back and forth to see how you make your conclusions.