The great gun-control debate

So, I'm interested to hear all your opinions on gun policy at a national level; whether you be Canadian, American, or whatever.

I peronally believe that people should have the right to own guns. Putting an outright ban on them, as many people support, would IMO only arm the criminals and leave the general public defenseless. Too often I've seen failed policies (in law, and especially schools) that rely on de-clawing everybody with the false notion that you can actually control the entire general public.

In practice, however, what I've witnessed is the good, honest, law-abiding folk who follow the rules, and the bad folk to live to victimize, flouting the rules and establishing a possition of dominance over the now-defenseless honest people.

After all, would an outright ban on guns not seem a bit similar to the outright ban on drugs? What you would have is, basically, a "war on guns"; and we all know how well America's wars on this and that social issues go. The last century has shown us that when you try to outright ban something, you just establish a massive black market; arming the bad guys, creating a new billion dollar industry for criminals, creating more enforcement headaches for the police.

Getting down to specifics:

I think rifles are the basic; what every sane, law-abiding citizen should be entitled to.

Shotguns... I'm not so sure about. Do we really need to hand out weapons that utterly destroy the opposition? I think a bullet will suffice, no need to disintegrate the burglar's head.
However, I have no firm possition on shotguns, I haven't given it a lot of thought.

Handguns... there's another interesting one. In our last election here in Canada, the Liberal government proposed a total ban on handguns should they be elected. The Conservatives won though, so that never went through.
As I see it, handguns really serve no other purpose but to kill people. You don't hunt with a handgun, and a rifle can suffice for defence. Handguns are, of course, much smaller and easier to conceal on one's person. I'm actually inclined to support a ban on handguns.
As I said, a black market would of course come up and criminals would get their handguns, but it would still be a lot more difficult to get their hands one. The reason I support this but not an outright gun ban, is because you can't stop criminals from getting guns, so the public does need some means of defending themselves. But, you can reduce the availability of handguns, and while plenty (but much less) criminals would get their hands on handguns, we'd still have a means of defending ourselves in the home with the rifles/shotguns.
Anybody feel free to counter me on this one, especially, because I'm absolutely open to changing my opinion on this one. This is just where I'm leaning.

Automatic assault weapons I believe should be completely banned. There's just no legitimate use for them, and giving people AK-47's is just insane IMO.


Now as for a society where handguns, shotguns, all that stuff is allowed, I support allowing the general public to carry handguns on their person. As I see it, criminals are going to be a lot less ballsy about mugging someone or robbing a store in public, when anybody around them could whip out their gun and blow them away. I've seen so many surveilance tapes of robbers hitting convenience stores full of people and just running off with the loot. If the other people in the store all had guns, he wouldn't stand a chance. It would be a way for the general public, who tend to adhere to a civilized society, to keep the victimizers in line.

Frankly I grow tired of this society of victim's we're raising. It's about time we start teaching our kids that good people need to be strong in the face of those who victimize the weak, not try to create a magical pretend society where everybody is neutered and defenseless; because then it's only the good and honest who are left defenseless.


So, all opinions are welcome. Lets try to be friendly, respectful, and have a civil discussion... and above all there is to be no shooting each other ;) .

Oops, made a typo. Could a mod please change the first poll option to "all guns, of any type, should be banned"?

i cant really take a side on this
im very against guns and would never own one if i didnt feel i needed to
but the saying "If you outlaw guns only the outlaws will have them" comes to mind
and it makes sense, also its our constitutional right to bear arms, so i dont really know

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 420_24/7

i cant really take a side on this
im very against guns and would never own one if i didnt feel i needed to
but the saying "If you outlaw guns only the outlaws will have them" comes to mind
and it makes sense, also its our constitutional right to bear arms, so i dont really know

---

I actually forgot about this saying, I only heard it once years ago. But it's a great saying, I love it!:D

can you honestly say that rifles are ok but shotguns not so much on the grounds that you don't need to "disintegrate the burglar's head".....you obviously don't know anything about guns...a 50cal. will take a mans head off at well over a mile away(research that before you say it's not true) "As I see it, handguns really serve no other purpose but to kill people. You don't hunt with a handgun"....we have deer seasons for pistols here in the us.......

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gandalf_The_Grey

Oops, made a typo. Could a mod please change the first poll option to "all guns, of any type, should be banned"?

---

No problem...........

Have a good one!:jointsmile:

Some day we might need these guns for real purposes. Self-defense and possibly some day when we must rise up against the powers that be, or be oppressed. Whenever that will happen, and it will, we might need guns. The rest of you can disarm yourselves and leave the weapons to the government. Because, of course, they should be able to have guns, and we shouldn't. We're obviously too stupid to have them. LOL. That's all I have to say. Anyone who wants to argue what I say will be arguing to nothing, as I will not reply. I have said all I have to say.

Outlawing guns will not save people's lives. Gun laws only keep guns away from law abiding citizens.

i don't see any reason to ever own a gun
if u say "for self protection" you wouldn't need the gun if others didn't have guns
f people want to hunt they should do it with other weapons having a gun is a completely unfair advantage, kinda defeats the purpose of hunting too

the only reason i think that we should be allowed to have guns is so we have the ability to overthrow the government if necessary.

The gov. walks around with unlimited weapons. Where are we when they turn on us? Left with out equal defense, thats where. The foundation of democracy has been reduced to the term "Civil Disobedience", Why do we accept defeat?