56
9 votes
Apr 10, 2015

The handling of guns is no joke; if it is misused it can be fatal not only to the victim but also to the user itself. It can have a massive psychological effect. Guns have no positive effect; all that it causes is chaos and death. People can argue that guns are useful if they are used for self defence however statistics beg to differ.

Roughly 16,272 murders were committed in the United States during 2008. Of these, about 10,886 or 67% were committed with firearms. This is a huge statistic; more than half murders that have been committed were due to firearms. However this can be stopped if there is a ban on the utilization of firearms. We can cut down the amount deaths. It has been proven from time and time again those countries with strict gun laws have low rates of violent crimes.

People who own guns for protection often kill their own friends and family by accident. Oscar Pistorius is a Paralympics runner from South Africa. It was the middle of the night when it happened. Oscar Pistorius was alone at home with his girlfriend. Pistorius thought an intruder had entered his house and not having legs to run he felt vulnerable. He took out his 9mm handgun and shot the intruder. He immediately got up and put on his fake legs to check out who the intruder was. When he saw the intruder, it turned out to actually be his girlfriend. He had accidentally killed her all because of a gun. This is another reason why the ownership of guns should be banned. An innocent woman was killed for no reason, it was an accident. An innocent woman would have been able to live if Pistorius didn’t own a gun. Not only did he kill someone he loved but just imagine the psychological effect on him.

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83
linked reply
6 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

First I would like to say that there is absolutely ZERO correlation between gun laws and gun deaths. There are many nations in Latin America and Africa that have much stricter guns laws but they have a much higher percentage of gun deaths also, Brazil and Mexico to name 2. On the flip side there are nations such as Switzerland who have a militia that keeps their rifles in their homes and their gun deaths are miniscule. Any conclusions made about gun deaths from gun laws is strictly false.

Defensive gun use is much higher and more important than you give it credit for. Just look at this article on Wikipedia 'en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defensive_gun_use_incidents' The low estimates are around 50,000 gun defenses every year, which far exceeds gun related deaths. The high estimates are over 1 million.

The example of Pistorius is a great example of a stupid gun owner putting a black mark on the US gun system that has served us very well. When you say that he accidentally killed her, all because of a gun, that is no correlation. The gun didn't whisper to him in his sleep, Pistorius knowingly fired in to an unknown and unsafe area and has nothing to blame for his actions but himself.

Edited for spelling

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-3
3 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

"There is absolutely ZERO correlation between gun laws and gun deaths" - I disagree. As far as I know every accident involving kids occurred because their parents had access to guns. With stricter gun laws those parents would probably not have guns ergo their kids would probably not have an accident.

Brazil and Mexico - these are the countries with very high to extreme high crime rate. In my opinion they are irrelevant. Look at European countries where gun laws are stricter than in the US (e.g. UK) - much less accidents involving kids, much less school shootings etc. Only small groups of people have access to guns. And most of those people are properly educated how to handle a gun.

Link is invalid: "Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name".

"Pistorius knowingly fired in to an unknown and unsafe area and has nothing to blame for his actions but himself" - Yes, he is the only one to blame, but without a gun he could not shoot.

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100
3 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_gun_use

I messed up the other URL somehow

You can't disagree with something that is true, there is no correlation. You can't throw out Brazil and Mexico, two of the world's most populous countries because you don't like how it affects the statistics, they show very well how there is no correlation, especially with their much stricter gun laws.

Obviously a kid needs to have access to a gun in order to have an accident with it, but having a much higher percentage of responsible gun owners and educated children to reduce the number of accidents is much more desirable than removing all of the protections that guns offer us. This goes equally true for Pistorius. Don't blame the tool for the irresponsible actions of the user, especially when that tool is the greatest peacekeeper/crime-preventer in our society.

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Load more (3) in reply to Thomas S White's post ("There is absolutely ZERO correlation between gun laws and gun deaths" - I disagree. As far as I know every accident involving kids occurred because their parents had access to guns. With stricter gun...)
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100
main reply
7 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

I find it an interesting statement that "He had accidentally killed her all because of a gun." True, the gun was used and a firearm doesn't give much leeway for errors as a stun gun or baseball bat, the victim will be at least severely injured even if your aim is off. I dispute that the girlfriend was killed because of the gun. She was killed because of an incapacity to exercise judgement brought on by his fear and lack of responsible gun handling protocol. The 9mm handgun is only an object, regardless of what it is used for by an individual. He clearly shirked the responsibility that comes with the right in failing to identify his target before firing. Had he simply called out and waited for a response, with trigger finger indexed off the trigger and muzzle pointed away in a safe direction until he POSITIVELY identified a threat, then they may have had an awkward moment, but no one would have been harmed. In my opinion, it is always the actions of the human involved that we should attach the incident to, not the inanimate object.

I have been around firearms since I was 12 years old, in my control, due to the fact that I have always enjoyed hunting, target shooting and believe I am valuable enough to defend my life and the lives of family and friends. I am currently 55 years old and have never had any accident that involved a fired round. I have pinched my finger a couple of times disassembling a gun to clean it. I believe in the simple four rules of gun safety, I believe they should be taught to every gun owner and, in fact, human being who is willing to know, at an early age. My grandfather was a Marine Corps Drill Instructor and taught marksmanship to many recruits, so I was well schooled in safety and marksmanship. I have saved myself from criminal action (armed criminal action mind you) no less than 5 times with a firearm. In no case has anyone actually been shot or a round fired. Criminals that would harm you while you are unarmed stop suddenly and leave the area when they are presented with a suddenly armed victim in my experience. They are cowards.

Four Simple Rules:
1. All guns are *ALWAYS* loaded. Treating firearms this way will guarantee you never have to say "I thought it was empty!".
2. Never point the muzzle at anything you don't intend to destroy or at least can't afford to lose, including yourself.
3. Keep your trigger finger well off the trigger unless you are aiming it at a target you *INTEND* to destroy. It's called indexing and everyone should learn this from the start with any type of firearm.
4. Always triple check any target and it's background before you pull the trigger, bullets will *NOT* come back after you do no matter how much you might want them to.

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100
3 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

Good info Grizmo!

I believe safety and practice is key. I come from a long line of law enforcement, one kind or the other, and was raised with guns and how to handle them by the age of seven. Every family household had loaded weapons but we were taught gun safety first and never once had an incident, I know that's because we grew up with care and respect for their use. Besides that, they're really fun to practice target shooting!

We introduced my son to guns when he was 9. He went through gun safety courses and we practice often with a variety of guns, knives, and bow hunting. He loves it! I've gotten a lot of disapproval from friends when they hear about our weapons practice or see pictures of my son, Ben, shooting his AK-47, Glock 21, Springfield XD, M16, FNP-45, SCAR 17S (a semiautomatic version imported from Belgium), or the 1911 Walther PPK he got on his 11th birthday from his grandfather. I simply explain to them that learning gun safety use prevents more incidents from happening because they know how to use and care for them. Research has shown that accidents happen with kids that do not know about gun safety, than kids that do. It only makes sense.

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0
0 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

I think to own a gun you should have to have a permit just as you do a driver license for safety not as a tracking device. The permit allows you to own/buy one gun or dozens. The permit says you have gone through the safety training and to keep guns from being given or sold to people that have been ruled ineligible to own guns because of proven illegal activity using a gun or the mentally ill. If anyone is caught with a gun and can not produce a permit then they should be treated like someone with a small amount of drugs.

If there are kids in the house then they should have training and maybe even a permit of their own. Hopefully it will reduce kids hurting themselves or others when they mishandle a gun because they see it as a toy.

The protect us from evil government should be a the ballot box. If we vote in a government that bad we deserve what we get. From reading history the governments parties that say liberty and freedom for us the most tend to turn on anyone that goes against them.

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50
main reply
2 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

I should be "allowed" to own a gun as much as I am "allowed" free speech! Rights are not granted by government but are inherently ours and so far as I am concerned the repeal of which is not a debatable topic! Government does not give us freedom and is historically more responsible for taking away liberty than its is granting more of them. And that is why (and who) we need our guns to ultimately protect us from. Every day self-defense is just the more likely reason but there is also the "what if...?" factor.

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50
main reply
2 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

This is ridiculous. It is your 2nd amendment right in the constitution to own a gun to not only protect from home invaders, but from the GOVERNMENT. Look at the TSA, NSA,, NDAA, AP scandal, etc. and you'll learn about the liberties they are already taking away. If a police state were to arise, we would be defenseless without guns. If you got rid of the second amendment, only criminals would have guns as there are millions in circulation. As for the idiots who accidentally shoot family members or themselves, well that's just survival of the fittest. And as for the mass shooters, Reagan got rid of mental institutions, so now mentally ill people don't have anywhere to go, and end up going crazy. The majority of gun related deaths are from pistols anyway...

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33
main reply
3 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

Its a right given in the Constitution. The answer is always YES

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67
9 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

Any Canadian will tell you that guns don't kill people, Americans kill people, with guns.

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67
6 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

I don't know why you keep getting downvoted; we have social and cultural problems that display themselves through gun violence, but gun control itself is not the issue. Deal with the root causes and we won't have a gun violence problem anymore.

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Load more (2) in reply to Len 1's post (Its a right given in the Constitution. The answer is always YES)
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0
main reply
0 votes,
Apr 10, 2015

Your argument is full of holes . First of yes , all people are guaranteed the right to bear arms by a little forgotten document called the Constitution . While the majority of murders are committed with the MISUSE of a gun the vast majority of guns never commit a crime . So much for your use of numbers . You don't shoot an " intruder " 4 times through a closed door . That woman was murdered ! Slaughtered over a domestic argument he couldn't control . She ran to the bathroom to protect herself FROM that POS . KEEP that criminal in jail forever . The next time you catch a drive by shooter then leave it in jail instead of a fine and community service .

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