Guns are tools. Guns aren't the issue. It's the people that feel the need to pull the trigger that are the issue. You can take away all the guns in the world and people will still kill people. People have been killing other peoples since peoples where actually peoples. Our tools for doing so have just gotten better. So instead of blaming the tools, find a way to actually solve the issue of people wanting to kill other people.
In an ideal world this would be so. I'm a liberal. I ABSOLUTELY believe that people should have the right to self-determination and the government shouldn't poke their nose in things that is none of its business. IN THEORY.
However, having seen just how utterly stupid people are and how badly guns are handled, I see no reason whatsoever to allow guns in the civilian populace. At least not without, at the very least, regular testing every 6 months to see if the person even knows how to handle the gun safely and can fire it with even remote accuracy. You know like Police officers (at least here in Sweden) are forced to do. Fail the test and your guns get impounded until you pass.
My problem isn't with liberties or whatever, it's the fact that people prove, multiple times per day, that guns in civilian hands are an utter disaster. It brings very little positive and a mountain of problems to the table.
Yep.
You put it alot better than I can with my rambly... ramblings.
But that's typically how I think of it. You can call guns "tools" (though I always think... tools for WHAT, exactly? Are they going to help me get a stuck drawer open, or fix my car, or....?) or you can call them weapons or... whatever. It doesnt bloody matter; I dont know why people tend to worry about those words in defense of the damn things. But that doesnt change the simple fact that most people, as in, nearly all of them, should NEVER be allowed to have one. Were it up to me, all of the damn things (military and such aside) would be dumped far out into the ocean somewhere. *ALL* of them. Everyone would be dramatically safer that way. I'm sorry, but people are freaking IDIOTS. As I'd already said, I tend to view the average person as being dumber than a sack of hammers, and this is because I've had so many experiences that prove this to be correct. These people should not have these things. EVER.
And no, this wont stop criminals, of course. But it will stop or slow down pointless accidents, random shootings done by someone who STOLE a gun from some damn idiot that didn't know how to secure it *properly* (and, frankly, I suspect very, VERY strongly that nearly every gun owner in the country falls into that category), random shootings done by someone who was able to BUY a gun because of how easy it is to get them, sudden killings done by people that ARENT criminals but that pulled out their stupid gun ANYWAY and fired it out of anger, or things of that nature. People in defense of guns tend to just use "well it wont stop CRIMINALS to get rid of them, now would it?" and not even remotely consider the 10s of squillions of dimwitted/stupid/nasty acts carried out by those that ARENT criminals. Or the fact that making guns so easy to get makes it that much easier for someone to START being an armed criminal. Or also accidents that happen because someone THINKS they're careful enough, good enough, skilled enough with their moronic guns to "protect" themselves or others.... and then they very abruptly find out that, oops, they arent (again, this one would be applied to nearly all gun owners).
Differently spun: I'd rather put more responsibility in the hands of the individual, even if that carries risks. You'd rather be safe than sorry.
That, actually, is the big problem. Because by doing that? You're NOT making things safe rather than sorry. You are, in fact, creating a DRAMATIC chance of things going sorry rather than safe. Giving guns to people that are too damn stupid to use them (again, nearly everyone) is a BAD idea. Give something that deadly and dangerous to a complete moron, and you've just created a walking bomb that could go off at the slightest provocation. It's not that they'll (always) use it in anger or something; it's that STUPIDITY could get themselves, or someone else, or multiple people, hurt, permanently maimed, or killed. And it's just just stupidity that can cause it, but a lack of anything resembling REAL skill and training. All the intelligence in the world with the damn things means nothing if you just accidentally shot your wife instead of the intruder because you didn't actually have a damn clue how to REALLY use the thing.
And... by thinking that way... you're also putting too much confidence in yourself (general statement, not directed at you specifically; I mean that this happens whenever someone arms themselves in most cases). If you have training, PROPER training? Then the confidence is well placed. If you DONT? Then I'm sorry, but no. It isnt. It's the same damn delusion that everyone has; that if THEY have it, of COURSE it'll be safe in THEIR mighty hands. Bad things dont happen to THEM. Of course THEY can be the action hero everyone needs in a time of crisis. Of COURSE nothing will go wrong. Of COURSE that sudden hardened, experienced criminal wont just whip the damn thing out of your often slow-to-react hands (sorry, but most people really are slower than dirt) and blast you in the face with it. Of COURSE not! That people think this way so readily is one of the biggest problems there is with this.
