Guns, for or against?

[Dora The Exploded]

Are you a gun enthusiast and think that everyone should have the rights to carry one or a gun hater who believes that guns are bad and should not be allowed?


Personally, I'm the latter. I don't like guns, and it really shouldn't be as easy to get a hold of one in the US as it is. I live in Sweden, and we have very strict gun laws and regulations.


However, I also don't think that stronger regulations would lower the number of armsrelated crimes in the US either because of the already big problem.
It would only make it harder to get guns legally, which would lower the statistcs with a percent or two on the overall crime scale.
The whole attitude around guns need to change in my opinion.


What do you think?  

[THE_FAIRY_EMPRESS]

Well I'm in England where it's all Totally different!

I live in the countryside, my family has lived in this village since the 1600's at least. It's a farming community and everyone has always had a gun. My father has a gun licence and goes out shooting (for pheasant, rabbit and occasionally deer) often. So I'm used to sporting guns being around and generally have no problem with them. In this country to own a gun you have to get a licence, you can then upgrade your licence to get another/different guns. All of this is covered by police, you have to check in with them once a year, they come to your house to check how your guns are stored etc. a good 80% of men in my region have a riffle/sporting gun, yet theres only one instance in living memory of someone using a gun against people.

Even my dad was shocked when we went to the US, Walking into a supermarket there was a whole gun counter, and he was able to handle them despite not having his UK gun licence on him. In England i think lots of people have game/sports guns, but no one has hand guns. But in America there on view in Wallmart!

I am not a gun enthusiast, i have never even touched one, but i am in favour of people having guns on a pest control or sporting level. However I am very much in favour of stricter gun laws in America. It is a long time coming, there have been so many instances of terrible gun violence in that country that obviously there needs to be some change. I watched/read a lot of the debates earlier this year and a lot of it really pissed me off. I don't think anyone should call for a total, 100% ban on all firearms, but you shouldn't be able to get hand guns and semi-automatic weapons so easily.  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Don't forget that the states are quite large, so it's possible that stricter laws won't do anything
NYS has it so that it's almost impossible to get bullets. People are fighting to undo the SAFE Act

If I were in school and a madman/child was shooting people, I'd rather have a teacher with a gun. Trained, of course
Buuuuuuuuuuut guns aren't allowed
The one teacher has a bat, though
When my dad was growing up, hunting and accidentally leaving the gun in the back of the truck was just a few casual comments about hunting
Now? Accidentally do that and people go batshit crazy
So gun control? Meh
Reteach society, stop making them so stir-crazy about it

And why pick on guns? Drunk driving kills more people, yet past a minimum age law that no one pays attention to, there's no restrictions
Really, gun control is the illusion of safety when it's the opposite
Like airport security (more or less)  

[Dora The Exploded]

Kitalpha Hart

Don't forget that the states are quite large, so it's possible that stricter laws won't do anything
NYS has it so that it's almost impossible to get bullets. People are fighting to undo the SAFE Act

If I were in school and a madman/child was shooting people, I'd rather have a teacher with a gun. Trained, of course
Buuuuuuuuuuut guns aren't allowed
The one teacher has a bat, though
When my dad was growing up, hunting and accidentally leaving the gun in the back of the truck was just a few casual comments about hunting
Now? Accidentally do that and people go batshit crazy
So gun control? Meh
Reteach society, stop making them so stir-crazy about it

And why pick on guns? Drunk driving kills more people, yet past a minimum age law that no one pays attention to, there's no restrictions
Really, gun control is the illusion of safety when it's the opposite
Like airport security (more or less)

that's the thing. I think people should stop thinking they should have a gun in case a kid starts shooting people in school, and start thinking what to do to prevent kids from actually shooting people in schools.
(It's really hard to try to explain my point in english, but I hope you get what I mean).
As I said before, making more laws won't really change the big problem, people have to start thinking differently.


And about drunk driving, that's a huge problem aswell and I'd be glad to discuss that too in another thread. smile  

[Dora The Exploded]

THE_FAIRY_EMPRESS

Well I'm in England where it's all Totally different!

I live in the countryside, my family has lived in this village since the 1600's at least. It's a farming community and everyone has always had a gun. My father has a gun licence and goes out shooting (for pheasant, rabbit and occasionally deer) often. So I'm used to sporting guns being around and generally have no problem with them. In this country to own a gun you have to get a licence, you can then upgrade your licence to get another/different guns. All of this is covered by police, you have to check in with them once a year, they come to your house to check how your guns are stored etc. a good 80% of men in my region have a riffle/sporting gun, yet theres only one instance in living memory of someone using a gun against people.

Even my dad was shocked when we went to the US, Walking into a supermarket there was a whole gun counter, and he was able to handle them despite not having his UK gun licence on him. In England i think lots of people have game/sports guns, but no one has hand guns. But in America there on view in Wallmart!

I am not a gun enthusiast, i have never even touched one, but i am in favour of people having guns on a pest control or sporting level. However I am very much in favour of stricter gun laws in America. It is a long time coming, there have been so many instances of terrible gun violence in that country that obviously there needs to be some change. I watched/read a lot of the debates earlier this year and a lot of it really pissed me off. I don't think anyone should call for a total, 100% ban on all firearms, but you shouldn't be able to get hand guns and semi-automatic weapons so easily.

That's about how it is in Sweden aswell, at least with the strict gun regulations. There are only a small group of people here who are hunters, because it's very expensive to get a gun licence.
Getting the licence itself demands a big test, and a fee of 1600 dollars per person. Then you have to buy a weaopon safe for almost 1000 dollars and the guns themselves cost at least 800 dollars (My best friend is in the process of aquiring her gun licence so she can be a hunter).

I like that it's very expensive to get a licence here. That way you know that only serious and mature people go through the trouble.  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Dora The Exploded

Kitalpha Hart

Don't forget that the states are quite large, so it's possible that stricter laws won't do anything
NYS has it so that it's almost impossible to get bullets. People are fighting to undo the SAFE Act

If I were in school and a madman/child was shooting people, I'd rather have a teacher with a gun. Trained, of course
Buuuuuuuuuuut guns aren't allowed
The one teacher has a bat, though
When my dad was growing up, hunting and accidentally leaving the gun in the back of the truck was just a few casual comments about hunting
Now? Accidentally do that and people go batshit crazy
So gun control? Meh
Reteach society, stop making them so stir-crazy about it

And why pick on guns? Drunk driving kills more people, yet past a minimum age law that no one pays attention to, there's no restrictions
Really, gun control is the illusion of safety when it's the opposite
Like airport security (more or less)

that's the thing. I think people should stop thinking they should have a gun in case a kid starts shooting people in school, and start thinking what to do to prevent kids from actually shooting people in schools.
(It's really hard to try to explain my point in english, but I hope you get what I mean).
As I said before, making more laws won't really change the big problem, people have to start thinking differently.


And about drunk driving, that's a huge problem aswell and I'd be glad to discuss that too in another thread. smile

kids shooting other kids is them not learning gun responsibility and the parents/guardians foolishly leaving the kid access to it
My k-12 school that I went to (graduated last year) has a staff-student body of about 1100. A lot of kids hunt, and talk about it in school. They're taught to use it properly by parents and family, so nbd
Kids in the city might not get that with their parents, teach it in school. They can teach some things, even without the gun
But then we get into the subject of schooling, and the American school system is shot