New Florida gun law

[GHoSToKeR]

Maybe I shouldn't be talkin about guns, but I can say one thing. Guns are illegal on the island I live in. Even the police don't carry guns. Did you hear that? EVEN THE POLICE DONT CARRY GUNS. And I havent heard of anybody being shot here since I was born or before I was born, for that matter. So gun control must work. Period.

I think the problem is that your country has developed in to a 'gun culture', so now guns ARE needed in your country for your own protection. In this country guns are illegal and are extremely rare, so guns arent needed to protect us. I know which society I would rather live in and im lucky Im living here. Because whichever way you look at it, you have to admit that living in a society where even the police hardly carry guns is alot safer than living in a country where everyone carries a gun.

[NowhereMan]

Maybe I shouldn't be talkin about guns, but I can say one thing. Guns are illegal on the island I live in. Even the police don't carry guns. Did you hear that? EVEN THE POLICE DONT CARRY GUNS. And I havent heard of anybody being shot here since I was born or before I was born, for that matter. So gun control must work. Period.

I think the problem is that your country has developed in to a 'gun culture', so now guns ARE needed in your country for your own protection. In this country guns are illegal and are extremely rare, so guns arent needed to protect us. I know which society I would rather live in and im lucky Im living here. Because whichever way you look at it, you have to admit that living in a society where even the police hardly carry guns is alot safer than living in a country where everyone carries a gun.

so in your secluded lil safe world you want to say My guns are bad to exist becuase YOU dont need them,controll works?? BULLSHIT to that
it works for the criminals,
and just how many people on this island?

im happy for you but just tells me YOU have no clue what is out HERE in the world waiting on you

someone posted this pick
seems apropriate when thinking about anti gun folks,

[GHoSToKeR]

Hey dude, that's not what I was saying at all.. I haven't been awake for very long so my heads a little groggy.. I probably didn't make much sense.

What i'm trying to say is that gun control works over here because we decided to take that route and stick to it. So now hardly any criminals carry guns and hardly any police carry guns. This proves that, for us, gun control has worked. (Im talking about the whole of the UK, not just the island I live on).

I understand that gun control in the US wouldnt work because that would mean completely changing around your society. Your country has developed in to a nation that has guns and tolerates them, so to turn back on that now would do more harm than good. So I agree that in your country you should be allowed a gun to protect yourself. However I dont agree that people in the UK should be allowed guns to protect themselves because guns are rare.

Im not saying that my country is better than yours or any of that bullshit. Im just saying that gun control works here, but I understand that it might not work in the US because you have already allowed guns to become a part of your society. Im also saying that personally, I would prefer to work and live in a country that didnt have guns as a part of their society as opposed to one that did. By this I mean I would rather live somewhere where I personally didn't need a gun, whereas you might prefer to live somewhere where you did need a gun, or were at least be allowed one.

I didnt mean to offend you, dude.. I hope this has cleared it up.

[Dick Justice]

Hey now, I NEED my gun. Cause Lord knows, I'm fending off criminals left and right, 24-7, and my house is broken into at least seven times a day!!

[hipEstoner]

hell yhea,, i live in florida 5 months out of the year on an island in the gulf coast

[sawleaf]

Saying this law is going to increase deaths and violence is just ridiculous. Remember what everyone was saying when the Assault Weapons Ban was lifted? All the anti-gun people were acting like it was the end of the world and that there were going to be firefights all over the streets because everyone could get "assault weapons".

[JSTA]

People will abuse this new law, there's just no denying that. Like I said before, I'm in no way against having a gun in your house to defend yourself, but that's just not me. Just think, people are going to be getting off because now they're just "defending" themself.

[pisshead]

guns are dozens of times more likely to be used for protection than to harm someone. people who want guns to be illegal are just asking to be a slave. the government or police aren't going to save you. responsible gun owners far out number criminals.

http://www.gunowners.org/skeptic.htm

How much of your current opinion regarding guns is based on fact rather than feeling? And are the facts as you know them actually true, or are they merely "spin" being promoted by those holding anti-gun positions? Is there a reason why you rarely hear about the "good" uses of guns? In this comprehensive guide, information is presented that might make you re-examine what you've always "known" about guns in society.

http://www.gunowners.org/fs0404.htm

1. Highlights

* Guns are used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every yearâ??or about 6,850 times a day.1 This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.2

* Even anti-gun Clinton researchers concede that guns are used 1.5 million times annually for self-defense. According to the Clinton Justice Department, there are as many as 1.5 million cases of self-defense with a firearm every year. The National Institute of Justice published this figure in 1997 as part of "Guns in America"â??a study which was authored by noted anti-gun criminologists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig.3

* Concealed carry laws have reduced murder and crime rates in the states that have enacted them. According to a comprehensive study which reviewed crime statistics in every county in the United States from 1977 to 1992, states which passed concealed carry laws reduced their rate of murder by 8.5%, rape by 5%, aggravated assault by 7% and robbery by 3%.4

* Anti-gun journal pronounces the failure of the Brady law. One of the nationâ??s leading anti-gun medical publications, the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the Brady registration law has failed to reduce murder rates. In August 2000, JAMA reported that states implementing waiting periods and background checks did "not [experience] reductions in homicide rates or overall suicide rates."5

* Twice as many children are killed playing football in school than are murdered by guns. Thatâ??s right. Despite what media coverage might seem to indicate, there are more deaths related to high school football than guns. In a recent three year period, twice as many football players died from hits to the head, heat stroke, etc. (45), as compared with students who were murdered by firearms (22) during that same time period.6

* More guns, less crime. In the decade of the 1990s, the number of guns in this country increased by roughly 40 millionâ??even while the murder rate decreased by almost 40% percent.7 Accidental gun deaths in the home decreased by almost 40 percent as well.8

* CDC admits there is no evidence that gun control reduces crime. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has long been criticized for propagating questionable studies which gun control organizations have used in defense of their cause. But after analyzing 51 studies in 2003, the CDC concluded that the "evidence was insufficient to determine the effectiveness of any of these [firearms] laws."9

* Gun shows are NOT a primary source of illegal guns for criminals. According to two government studies, the National Institute of Justice reported in 1997 that "less than two percent [of criminals] reported obtaining [firearms] from a gun show."10 And the Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed in 2001 that less than one percent of firearm offenders acquired their weapons at gun shows.11

* Several polls show that Americans are very pro-gun. Several scientific polls indicate that the right to keep and bear arms is still reveredâ??and gun control disdainedâ??by a majority of Americans today. To mention just a few recent polls:

* In 2002, an ABC News poll found that almost three-fourths of the American public believe that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the rights of "individuals" to own guns.12

* Zogby pollsters found that by a more than 3 to 1 margin, Americans support punishing "criminals who use a gun in the commission of a crime" over legislation to "ban handguns."13

* A Research 2000 poll found that 85% of Americans would find it appropriate for a principal or teacher to use "a gun at school to defend the lives of students" to stop a school massacre.14

* A study claiming "guns are three times more likely to kill you than help you" is a total fraud. Even using the low figures from the Clinton Justice Department, firearms are used almost 50 times more often to save life than to take life.15 More importantly, however, the figure claiming one is three times more likely to be killed by oneâ??s own gun is a total lie:

* Researcher Don Kates reveals that all available data now indicates that the "home gun homicide victims [in the flawed study] were killed using guns not kept in the victim's home."16

* In other words, the victims were NOT murdered with their own guns! They were killed "by intruders who brought their own guns to the victim's household."17

* Gun-free England not such a utopia after all. According to the BBC News, handgun crime in the United Kingdom rose by 40% in the two years after it passed its draconian gun ban in 1997.18 And according to a United Nations study, British citizens are more likely to become a victim of crime than are people in the United States. The 2000 report shows that the crime rate in England is higher than the crime rates of 16 other industrialized nations, including the United States.19

that's just the first section.


there was a time when kids knew how to use guns and respected them...they didn't grow up hearing how bad and evil they were and to stay away, they were taught how to use them and when to use them...kids used to bring guns to school...i'm not talking about small podunk towns either...that's impossible nowadays because of all the kids on psychotropic drugs and those that believe the anti-gun propaganda.

[JSTA]

I'm not buying into the anti-gun propaganda. I firmly believe that the problem here in America is lack of gun knowledge and the media, conservative or liberal. I remember turning the tv on on Christmas eve, and hearing about numerous murders on the news. It's Christmas eve for christ's sake.

I brought this gun issue up because right before I heard about this law, I had just watched Bowling for Columbine for the first time. Now don't get me wrong, I'm in no way a Micheal Moore fanboy, but he brings up a good point in that movie: Why does America have so many more gun deaths per year then the other free world countries? It's just mind boggling to think about the number of gun related deaths in places like, Canada, Germany, the U.K., Japan etc. Compare those numbers to the number of gun related deaths we have. It's crazy.

[GTC21]

I watched a program on TV last night called 'lethal attraction'. It was about guns in America. The presenter was British (Ross Kemp) and he was asking the American people if they thought their gun laws were too relaxed, none of them said yes. I actually agreed with the things they were saying about why they should be allowed to carry guns. One man said "It's better to have a gun and never need it than to be in a situation where you need a gun but don't have one". Another man (from Texas) said that it's more peaceful where he lives because people own guns, there is less chance of people messing with each other because they know the consequences. I agree with this. You'd have to be crazy to break into someone's house or mug them in the street in America, especially Texas. Making gun laws more strict in America would be the dumbest thing ever. All that would do is dismarm law abiding citizens leaving them defensless against rapists/theives/murderers and leave criminals still armed and dangerous. Do you think criminals would hand their guns in to one of those amnesty things? Not likely. Guns are a huge part of America, it's part of their culture and it will never change.
And you can't really compare gun laws in America to the laws in Britain. They're two totally different places. Gun control works in Britian. Yes there are guns on the street but they're not all over the place and shootings are mostly gang/drug related. I've never even seen a real gun and I don't know anyone who has. The nearest shootings to where I live occur in the outskirts of the large city I live near, which is about 10 - 15 miles away.