Why do you need to carry a GUN

[peky]

88% of Americans own a gun, statistically speaking,...seems to be the will of the free people to own a gun my friend

[Incarnadine]

88% of Americans own a gun, statistically speaking,...seems to be the will of the free people to own a gun my friend

I was in a sporting goods store the other day as it was closing.  One of the 2 shopkeepers mentioned that just today, he himself had personally ran 40-ish federal background checks for that day.  Most of those, he said, were for first-time buyers.  That wasn't counting what his co-worker had run.  This was in NY, where legislators are considering some extremely stringent population-disarming laws.

What's interesting is that in my small suburb in upstate NY, there are somewhere between 50-100 registered Republicans; the rest are mostly Democrat.  It is doubtful that many of my fellow inner-city residents have NRA memberships.

[Incarnadine]

Then the 2nd Amendment has been successful!  The animal of tyranny has been unable to rear its head because the bigger animal of an armed population has kept it in check.

Someone has said that the beauty of the 2nd Amendment isn't needed until they try to take it away. 

It doesn't always happen that a tyrant arises, but a disarmed population cannot stop that tyrant if he does.  The same with crime - just because a citizen isn't armed doesn't mean he will become a victim, but if he is armed, he can be protected from becoming a victim. 

[cynthialee]

many years ago I stoped a guy who was trying to mug me by pulling a gun on him

no amount of anti firearm rhetoric will change my views that guns are a nessesary evil

also, I hunt, so we have guns, they are all black powder as I am a buckskinner nerd, but they are sure to do the job if I need them

[LilDevilOfPrada]

Welll hey 1 day someone will learn banning personal guns can prevent those school guner murders I hear so much about... Oh well have your guns I doesnt affect me

[cynthialee]

A person can do far more damage with a lighter than a gun. Shall we bann the bic lighter and matches while we are at it? You know so no more people get locked into churches and torched...(yes that happened and it was one of the most horendus mass murders of its day)

[Shantel]

They had trained security who were armed in Columbine when those shootings occured. Sadly, that did not help at all.

I doubt that, where the hell were they then? I recall seeing the news videos of the swat team showing up and disembarking from their police van and crouching outside like a bunch of heavily armed pussies while the two punks in the cafeteria continued to shoot their classmates in the head. If there had been anyone there with any kahones, they would have run inside toward the shooting and popped both those little bastards with a double tap to the head. I've run headlong into the face of withering fire in Asia long ago to survive a VC ambush, which when well executed produces a 90% kill ratio within the first four seconds. Every second that is dithered away will produce casualties exponentially. Unfortunately most police are paid to do what they do, meaning they are mercenaries and for them it's always a matter of their own survival over that of those who are being victimized by killers! It wouldn't hurt to have an armed and highly dedicated person on security duty in schools. And it would make a lot of sense for Congress to revise the laws that protect known mental cases who are now currently safe from forced psychiatric evaluations for the sake of the rest of the population. But we know there is too much common sense in that kind of thinking and besides "A crisis is too good a thing to waste!"

[Shantel]

Welll hey 1 day someone will learn banning personal guns can prevent those school guner murders I hear so much about... Oh well have your guns I doesnt affect me

According to BATFE there are upwards of 300,000,000 guns out in the U.S. you're going to ban them. So what will that accomplish? How will you suggest that they all be found? When that happens will anyone other than the murderers and miscreants have a firearm of their own? Just how will banning anything work? The government banned illegal drugs, and at one time booze, how did that work out?

[LilDevilOfPrada]

According to BATFE there are upwards of 300,000,000 guns out in the U.S. you're going to ban them. So what will that accomplish? How will you suggest that they all be found? When that happens will anyone other than the murderers and miscreants have a firearm of their own? Just how will banning anything work? The government banned illegal drugs, and at one time booze, how did that work out?

I was simply giving my opinion no need to derail the thread over it.

[cynthialee]

I was simply giving my opinion no need to derail the thread over it.

I do not see a derail. I see a dead on response to your post.

So when someone starts shooting people who do we call? Guys with guns.

[Shawn Sunshine]

I am not anti gun, but I am anti nuke or chemical weapons, any kind of weapon of mass destruction.

[LilDevilOfPrada]

All I am saying is owning a gun brings safty because everyone else in america owns one so you need one but look at the UK not even the police just carry around guns because if there are no guns you dont need the whole fire with fire mentaily.

I am not judging the american culture on guns I am simply saying if no guns existed this world would be better off because you wouldnt need to fend of a gun with another one when none were around.

If you want to argue with me on this then do so on pm.

[Incarnadine]

All I am saying is owning a gun brings safty because everyone else in america owns one so you need one but look at the UK not even the police just carry around guns because if there are no guns you dont need the whole fire with fire mentaily.

I am not judging the american culture on guns I am simply saying if no guns existed this world would be better off because you wouldnt need to fend of a gun with another one when none were around.

If you want to argue with me on this then do so on pm.

I won't argue with you on the gun ownership issue, but I'll add this question to consider. 

Before guns were invented, were there violent crimes?  Does violent crime, murder, etc., exist because guns exist?  Or will violent people seeking to commit a crime simply use any tool at their disposal for the simple fact that they are violent people seeking to commit a crime?

[LilDevilOfPrada]

I won't argue with you on the gun ownership issue, but I'll add this question to consider. 

Before guns were invented, were there violent crimes?  Does violent crime, murder, etc., exist because guns exist?  Or will violent people seeking to commit a crime simply use any tool at their disposal for the simple fact that they are violent people seeking to commit a crime?

Guns just make them easier thats fact.

[Constance]

Actually, yes there was a sheriff on campus at Columbine high school before the shooting started. He was on the opposite side of the campus.

And Virginia Tech has its own police force.

And Fort Hood is a freaking military base.

But to address the question "Why do you need to carry a GUN," the answer is that it would be a very bad idea. I am confident that if psych evals were necessary to be a gun owner, I would not pass and would be denied ownership. I was a gun owner, I can assure you I would not be making this post right because I would have been dead due to a self-inflicted gunshot.

[cynthialee]

I guess it all depends on your local culture.

My neighbor owns some impressive guns. But it doesn't cross my mind much. When I see him outside with one of his guns I get excited and happy. It means he is out hunting and if he is a sure shot, I will have wild game on my dinner table. (he hunts our families land and shares the bounty)
Now when I lived in Los Angeles any time I saw a gun I was imediatly on my gaurd.

[Jamie D]

Self defense is a natural right.  I want to be on equal terms with those who would violate my person, my family, my property, or my community.

[Dee]

I don't know where to start with this thread.

Where there are guns, there is more homicide:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/

To be clear though, I'm not necessarily pro banning guns.  I also feel that altering gun control laws- whether they be greater or more lax restrictions- won't [WHOA what a typo that was] prevent disasters such as Newtown, et al.  A psychopath is a psychopath, and they'll acquire their assault weaponry however necessary.  What I'm not comfortable with, though, is the thought that a totally-armed public is a safe public.  Most of us (hopefully/thankfully) are never in the situation where we need to pull a weapon for self defense.  Do we really think that, in our adrenaline rush, we're capable of neutralizing the point of danger?  Personally, if I were held at gunpoint, no...I wouldn't want a gun to level the playing field.  Introducing another gun will only add to the tension, and increase the chance of deadlier crossfire.

So when someone starts shooting people who do we call? Guys with guns.

Guys with guns, better trained to control their emotions through simulations (as Annah explained), who are taught to use their weapons as a last resort.

[cynthialee]

Having been in the military I have the training, and the last thing I would want is to be unarmed with someone else pointing a gun at me. I have a definate aversion to the idea of using deadly force, but you can bet your life if I have a gun and I am facing a shooter I am manuevering for position and returning fire. To fail to do so would be a failure of morals.

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

Why do you some [Americans] need to carry a GUN ?

Because it's hard for some to shake off the old somewhat imaginary Hollywood larger than life movie image of the 'Wild West'-And the need for their Hollywood fantasies to become their reality 

I could be wrong...But I doubt it...

I should also add, the somewhat 'romanticised' wild west image has impacted other countries too...

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