Just Curious. Really - USA Gun Ownership

[Fred588]

One reason you don't see many speak up is the vehemence with which they are likely to be attacked if they do.

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.

[newtothis2]

My aim wasn't to turn the topic into a gun control debate either. I totally repect all others opinions on the subject but at this point in time I don't agree with most of them.

Duncan you are right on, to expect the criminal elements in our society to just "turn in their firearms" is utopian at best. And to keep the playing field level, so to speak, law abiding citizens MUST have the means to defend themselves without couting on the govt to hold their little pink hands.

Like I said earlier in the thread, I don't own any at the moment, but I know the day is coming when I will. I will educate myself and those around me, I'll help them relinquish their "fears" around guns and learn a healthy respect for what they are for and NOT for.

So count me as "on the way" to ownership, just not quite there yet. Great topic by the way, thanks.

[DangerGirl]

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.

That's great! I'm glad that such places exist, and I pray that you never find yourself in a situation where a gun would come in handy. Unfortuately, not all of us live in such paradises, and I am quite happy that, by clinging to my guns and my precious Second Amendment, I have also been able to cling to my life, my health, my money, my car, and my non-status as a rape statistic. Having also gone hand-to-hand against an assailant, I can tell you that I much prefer a more impersonal resolution to such a situation.

[YerK]

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.

That's great! I'm glad that such places exist, and I pray that you never find yourself in a situation where a gun would come in handy. Unfortuately, not all of us live in such paradises, and I am quite happy that, by clinging to my guns and my precious Second Amendment, I have also been able to cling to my life, my health, my money, my car, and my non-status as a rape statistic. Having also gone hand-to-hand against an assailant, I can tell you that I much prefer a more impersonal resolution to such a situation.

Happily, I have never been shot at. I have, however, had guns drawn and pointed at me 3 times now. (Cheerfully, I can tell you all I've yet to piss myself when this happened, but I am told by combat veterans that may change very quickly if ever the people who are pointing the guns begin firing)

[Nessie]

Actually, I know a lot of people who don't have guns but they are not here!

Nobody who is related to me by blood and who I see regularly enough to be sure about has ever mentioned owning one. So that's the entire Nessie Clan who simply don't have guns. I can't vouch for relatives who I never met or barely know but I would say, the total haul of Nessie-folk who have never purchased a gun number, for sure, at least 6.

I don't know that many of my neighbors well and don't socialize that much either, but as for friends, very few of them have mentioned having guns. Make that about another dozen non-gun owners in my life.

The people who I know for a fact DO own a gun of some kind are only a handful. I guess those two boys and their dad had a couple, 'cause we shot cans with them. (Haven't seen those guys in ages now.)

My next-door neighbor for a few years told me that he had a handgun. I never saw it although he'd have a few beers and threaten to use it on anybody who broke into his home. What I saw him actually get was a guard dog. He might have been better off with the gun. He didn't train the dog and that was a problem. If you don't train a gun, it just sits wherever you leave it anyway. Guns don't need to be kept on leashes. And they don't break their leashes because they are wild and too big. They do not injure your neighbors unless you physically pull their triggers (guns actually have no teeth at all nor do they possess even a remnant of a brain) and guns do not run away, forcing you to pick them up at the Gun Pound.

But this guy did get busted for meth. On the other hand, maybe the dog was safer for the neighborhood anyway. You can pull the trigger of a gun when you're loaded and kill your neighbor, but an untrained dog won't listen to you when you say, "SIC 'EM!"

He quit being my neighbor after going to jail, and the guy who bought that house has a rifle because he deer-hunts, but I've never seen him appear to be even the slightest bit stoned, drunk or high, and he has no dog at all nor does he drink beer and then talk macho. So I guess that's all right with me.

I know a gun collector. I don't think that it is wrong to collect interesting and unusual guns for fun or novelty purposes at all. I just wish that guy was just a bit less visibly and constantly stressed-out.

Nessie

[Lomax]

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

Of course you can kill people with a knife - or an iron bar, or a brick. If you're feeling inventive, you can probably do it with a shoelace. However - these objects also have other functions. I happen to have a particularly lethal potential murder weapon in my kitchen; and I am in possession of shoelaces. A hamdgun, however, is designed and built ofr one purpose and one purpose only - to kill.

Note that I said handguns. I can undertand why farming and hunting types need shotguns and (single shot) rifles; and they're still perfectly legal in this country (though VERY strongly policed). But you don't go after deer with a pistol - or an AK47. So we ban them. No exceptions. Even our Olympic pistol-shooting team has to train abroad.

Has this eliminated gun-crime completely? Of course not. Nothing ever will.

But (and these are 2009 figures I've just surfed for)

Murder rate in USA - 5.00 per 100,000 population.
Murder rate in UK - 1.28 per 100,000 population.

I cannot believe that the difference is wholly unconnected to the amount of firearms in circulation.

[YerK]

Um. Okay. I knew 47 wasn't all that young, but I didn't know I was beyond my sell-by date for getting killed by the military. (I think I can live with this)

[Duncan Edwards]

Has this eliminated gun-crime completely? Of course not. Nothing ever will.

But (and these are 2009 figures I've just surfed for)

Murder rate in USA - 5.00 per 100,000 population.
Murder rate in UK - 1.28 per 100,000 population.

I cannot believe that the difference is wholly unconnected to the amount of firearms in circulation.

Lomax, friend, I'd be a fool to make much of an argument with anything you said.

But you miss the point - Could it or will it ever happen that guns are banned in the US to the extent that they are in Britain or even close?

Never.

[Lomax]

Lomax, friend, I'd be a fool to make much of an argument with anything you said.

But you miss the point - Could it or will it ever happen that guns are banned in the US to the extent that they are in Britain or even close?

When an American calls me friend, should I duck?

But no, my dear chap; I have no great hopes in that regard. I am a realist. I appreciate that your guns will have to be taken from your cold dead hand. I merely fear that your hand might become cold and dead sooner than you might wish.

[Mynock]

But you don't go after deer with a pistol - or an AK47.

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