Miscellaneous > The Lounge
Firearms debate (formerly Symantec Firewall blocks freedom)
flap:
quote:Saying i'm not allowed to have a gun is just as silly as saying i'm not allowed to have a baseball bat. Both can kill someone, but none of them are dangerous by themselves. Both are used for sport. If you do not want to own a gun, i respect that and I will not try to convince you (or force you by legal means) to have one. You shouldn't do it to me. I, like most people in this country, am responsible with my firearms.
--- End quote ---
You're missing the point. It isn't really a problem if people like you have a gun; presumably you only use it responsibly. The problem is that the mass availability of guns that your wild-west culture has produced allows criminals to easily get their hands on them. You may think it's "collective punishment" to stop law-abiding people from owning guns just because other people mis-use them, but there has to be a balance between individual rights and the overall good of society. The fact is that the gun culture in the US is completely out of control, and it engenders a type of violent crime that just isn't possible in other countries.
badkarma:
In my opinion the whole point of the firearms debate boils down to the following:
wether or not you can be responsible with your firearm (I'm sure most of the gun bearing posters here have no problems with that) is totally irrelevant because it matters not wether you can be/are responsible with a firearm. What matters is that if firearm possesion is so ubiquitous it is just too easy for people who lack the responsibility to attain one. For me this fact alone instantly justifies any law or regulation prohibiting firearms. The equation here is quite simple really: less people with guns = less gun related accidents will happen. Anyone who thinks this is irrelevant should just take a look at high school shooting incidents in the US and other countries with stricter gun laws. Shootouts such as the one which took place in Columbine are unheard of where I live (there has been one gun related high-school incident here in the Netherlands in the past that I can think of).
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that the fact that you can easily own a gun is the cause for such incidents, because that is the human factor (people suck). But since we cannot eliminate the human factor we can only try to purge other factors.
Oh... and you actually *can* get a gun in the Netherlands but only for sport, and the rules gun posession are bound to would make most americans awe in disbelief (amongst other things you need to succesfully pass a psychological test and you must store the gun in a vault in your home(!) or risk paying a hefty fine).
my
Master of Reality:
.....nyways... i have another point.... i wonder if they block the olympics website, there is around 20 events that involve shooting. Its one of the safest sports in the world. I have never heard of an injury in competition shooting. I have heard of several injuries in other sports such as rugby, football, hockey, etc, etc.
Laukev7:
quote: ....nyways... i have another point.... i wonder if they block the olympics website, there is around 20 events that involve shooting. Its one of the safest sports in the world. I have never heard of an injury in competition shooting. I have heard of several injuries in other sports such as rugby, football, hockey, etc, etc.
--- End quote ---
Uh, that's because they shoot targets, not at each other. At any rate, censoring is bad, whatever the cause is.
insomnia:
quote:Originally posted by Stryker:
Saying i'm not allowed to have a gun is just as silly as saying i'm not allowed to have a baseball bat. Both can kill someone, but none of them are dangerous by themselves. Both are used for sport.
--- End quote ---
I don't think those american contract-killers in Iraq are using baseball bats...
(Maybe that could resolve America's money problem..., you could also start using pro-teams as elite soldiers.)
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