Just Curious. Really - USA Gun Ownership

[Nessie]

If you're worried about safety, I'll tell you a little secret: It's not rocket science. Remember, it's a machine. You are in control, and since you seem to be a decent, intelligent human being with more the half an ounce of common sense, being safe with the machine should come naturally to you.

I have to watch it very carefully before I spend money, period. I guess that money has already gone. I finally invested in a decent video camera. For shooting...at me and at, hopefully, models.

Maybe we have a target range somewhere. I wouldn't know. I sure can't do it at my sinking areas. Guns aren't allowed at most of them. It has to be a wildlife refuge, not a park, and even then, they got signs up, "No gratuitous target shooting!" So you can shoot your lunch out there but they better not catch you shooting cans!

(No. I don't get it.)

No, I don't feel uncomfortable while shooting a gun. I sure feel uncomfortable during deer season, though! I tell ya, I drop sinking areas like hot rocks the second it starts. I know I'm not crazy but some of them certainly do look crazy.

They wouldn't mean it...it'd be an accident, but I'd be just as dead.

Nessie

[Mynock]

Hunting does involve a little more risk then just hitting the range. 100% surety of your target and what is beyond it is the golden rule, but you're dealing with a lot of variables that can make for unpredictable situations. Most hunting loads deform/expand upon impact with flesh and bone and expend almost, if not all their energy on the intended target, so it's not like the bullet that just killed a deer is going to keep going and take out another hunter hundreds of yards away. If you miss....well....like I said there's risk involved. My 30-06 is lethal up to a mile away, which is why I generally try to wait till Bambi is at very least standing in front of a thick stand of brush or trees before I take him out, and I usually plant myself in a spot where I'll be shooting down or at very least horizontal, NEVER uphill. I also stay away from open areas and try to "engage" as close as possible, 50 yards or less.
Your best bet is to keep doing exactly what you do--stay out of the woods when a season's open. If you absolutely feel the need to go for a hike, make sure you wear orange--a ball cap at least, cap and a full vest/jacket is better.

[DangerGirl]

The 2nd Amendment was written for two reasons:
1. To ensure that the citizens of the US have the means to resist their government if they have to.
2. To create a "back-up" military force that can supplement the real military in a dire emergency.

It's important to remember that the militias were intended not only as military forces, but as constablularies in the form of night watches at a time when there were no standing professional police forces, especially in rural areas.

We have several guns of various types in our house, and my husband and I both carry weapons on the job. We also both frequently carry concealed weapons off-duty, as well. I consider it an insurance policy; I hope I never have to use it, but I want it in case I need it. I've had occasion to draw on people twice in my defense outside of work, and, thankfully, both times they were smart enough to turn and run away. My one piece of advice on this subject is DO NOT carry or keep a gun in your house for self-defense if you have any doubt that you would pull that trigger on someone. And even if you're fully justified in shooting someone in self-defense, you have to be prepared to become intimately familiar with and financially invested in the legal system, especially in some jurisdictions. It's an enormous responsibility, and not one to be taken lightly.

The police generally do a great job at what they do, but remember that they are primarily responders. By the time they're called and they arrive on the scene, bad things have usually already happened.

[Lomax]

Columbine.
Virginia Tech.

I would have thought the conclusion was obvious.

But apparently not.

Then again, I live in a country where it's considered appalling for the police to be armed.

[newtothis2]

Columbine.
Virginia Tech.

I would have thought the conclusion was obvious.

But apparently not.

Then again, I live in a country where it's considered appalling for the police to be armed.

Not sure if you're in favor or opposition to gun control by your post here but if you're referring to stricter gun laws would have prevented these senseless tradgedies you couldn't be more wrong in my opinion. I lived less than 10 minutes from Columbine HS so maybe my views are a little biased here but if the late Dave Sanders would have been carrying a weapon he most likely could have ended that scenario in a manner much different than the way it turned out.

There are so many instances where ordinary citizens in this country protected not only themselves, but other innocent people as well due to being able to carry a firearm. As for stricter laws, they wouldn't have stopped Columbine in any way, shape or form. Those two kids got their guns from an individual who purchased them 100% legally, then turned around and sold them to the teens. That's a common sense issue, not a legal one.

My sister and her husband awoke one evening to somebody prowling around their house, her husband has a registered handgun. When he called 911 to report this person, the dispatcher kept him on the line a while, then told him it would be a while before an officer could respond. To which he replied "nevermind, I'll take care of this myself" and he hung up. Guess what, there were SEVERAL officers there within minutes of his 911 hang up.

[Lomax]

As for stricter laws, they wouldn't have stopped Columbine in any way, shape or form. Those two kids got their guns from an individual who purchased them 100% legally, then turned around and sold them to the teens.

Which proves that legal firearms are a problem. So you ban them. QED.

Yes, I know that no American will ever agree with me on this. I'm used to it.

[Robert]

As for stricter laws, they wouldn't have stopped Columbine in any way, shape or form. Those two kids got their guns from an individual who purchased them 100% legally, then turned around and sold them to the teens.

Which proves that legal firearms are a problem. So you ban them. QED.

Yes, I know that no American will ever agree with me on this. I'm used to it.

So ban them and you still have a black market firearm problem.

No, I don't agree with you.

[schlamm]

Ok.....say guns are banned

Then some bright lad picks up a metal pipe and bends it over anther's head, do we then ban metal pipes too?
Let us not forget one of Britain's most notorious criminals and his dreaded knife........because Jack the Ripper used a knife for other than what it was intended for....guess we must ban knives while we are at it.

This is an attempt to make the point that one cannot blame the tool for what the user may do with it

[Duncan Edwards]

As for stricter laws, they wouldn't have stopped Columbine in any way, shape or form. Those two kids got their guns from an individual who purchased them 100% legally, then turned around and sold them to the teens.

Which proves that legal firearms are a problem. So you ban them. QED.

Yes, I know that no American will ever agree with me on this. I'm used to it.

And all the bad guys would give them up? I think not.

That's the problem. Why disarm the honest citizens?

Lomax, I understand what you are saying but most people in other nations don't get the entire picture.

American was won, defended by, fed, and civilized by people with their own guns. By the time some decided that it might be a good idea not to have them around it was too late to do anything about it. If you called out the National Guard to go into every home and business in the country and confiscate all the firearms you couldn't do it in a hundred years. They are part of our culture and our history so much that private gun ownership is written into our nation's constitution. There will never, ever, be a ban on personal guns in the United States. Never. And even if somehow that were to happen they would still be there simply because it is virtually impossible to pick all the things up. The largest armed force on earth is not the Chinese army but the National Rifle Association (3,000,000 strong).

People can come up with any solution they want but the last possible one is banning armed citizens.

Anyhow my goal with this topic was not to begin yet another debate on gun control but I was just genuinely curious if there were any members who didn't own at least one gun. Thus far it's been much as I expected.

[Aiko]

Anyhow my goal with this topic was not to begin yet another debate on gun control but I was just genuinely curious if there were any members who didn't own at least one gun. Thus far it's been much as I expected.

I would have expected a few more people to say that they don't own guns. A poll might help to get a more precise picture.

Even though I'm not a US citizen I have been following this thread with great interest. I find it fascinating how Americans cling to their guns and their precious 2nd amendment for reasons I can't quite comprehend. Maybe one has to live there to truly understand it. I'm also glad I live in a country, where I can walk the streets, hike into the forest or go whereever else I would ever want to go without the slightest worry about possibly being shot at. I have not even once in my entire life considered to get a gun for self-defense purposes, simply because I could not possibly feel any safer than I do without one.