Guns

bennysammysofie

You're safe coming to the Maryland/DC area, we can't open carry.

Please don't take this advice. It's not the people who open carry that u gotta worry about. Look at Baltimores murder rate.

BeachIron

Yes, you are correct but I wanted to at least add some context to the history lesson.

I have no problem with sport shooting, range shooting or hunting. They are not my cup of tea but I have at it. My problem is not a fear of guns. My father was a Vietnam vet and then a LT. Col in the Air Force with a stint as a cop (including undercover NARC) in between. I grew up around guns. My problem are the folks that appear to see having a gun as a response to any kind of incident or slight. This mentality is what leads to everyone being armed because a armed society is not a polite society, it is a paranoid society.

Thank you for telling us you are paranoid and not comfortable with your rights.

How am I paranoid? How am I not comfortable with my rights? Stop sniping (pun intended) and make an argument.

Your paranoia leads you to believe irrationally that people with arms are paranoid and therefore, implied as dangerous. The entire basis of your argument lacks logic, background, anything. It's not substantive, you are just afraid of people going beyond hunting and shooting paper. You are uncomfortable with your rights to protect yourself. Which is fine of course, albeit a touch sad in my opinion. Hey though, it works for you, of course until it doesn't.

No paranoia here. Just look at these forums and others. Look at the mentality of many seeing a gun as an answer to any disagreement. I don't see the need for a gun. I am fortunate to live in a safe area and I have the situational awareness to avoid possible dangerous situations and I take other safer precautions. If having a gun makes you sleep better, have at it. I just suggest that all responsible gun owners try to teach others that pulling a gun is the worst case scenario rather than the first step.

you must get your straw wholesale... because you sure are building lots of strawmen on this thread.

It's the same people on the wrong side of every argument, diet, guns, or otherwise. Logic and critical thinking are not common skills.

dbmata

No paranoia here. Just look at these forums and others. Look at the mentality of many seeing a gun as an answer to any disagreement. I don't see the need for a gun. I am fortunate to live in a safe area and I have the situational awareness to avoid possible dangerous situations and I take other safer precautions. If having a gun makes you sleep better, have at it. I just suggest that all responsible gun owners try to teach others that pulling a gun is the worst case scenario rather than the first step.

Only hoplophobes assign their own irrational fear of bad acting (which is how they know they would act) on others. Is that what you are doing?

The idea that people own arms just to sleep better at night is amusing too. Do most arms come with night lights, or a script for sleep aids? We all get it, you feel that only fear would make you purchase a firearm, so you then believe that since that would be your reason that must be the reasons for others. Luckily, that's not the reality.

How safe are your precautions? Are they better than the Petit's?

Dragonwolf

I am not scared enough to feel that I require a gun.

Right!? Why would I ever need a gun, other than a hunting riffle if I hunted, I just don't get the point of owning guns(other than hunting riffles). It must be the Canadian in me

Generally, the response from many permitholders is that they're not scared, either.

Some are. I can't deny that.

But there are many who simply look around, see that there are potential threats, and simply wish to have a means of dealing with them on the off-chance one of those threats presents itself.

It's the same reason I have a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit with Quik Clot and a tourniquet in my car. I'm not EXPECTING to get into or pass by a major accident, but I know they happen. So I like to think that if my or someone elses' car catches fire, I've got the extinguisher. If there's an accident where someone's bleeding severely, I've got equipment to help deal with it.

So are the odds of me facing a deadly threat great? Not really. I tend to avoid high-threat environments. But I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say that, if we knew we were going to be attacked at a given time and place, we'd avoid it.

i try to stay out of politics on here, but i will say the following for those that do not understand why Americans feel strongly about gun rights.

the American Revolution started when King George III sent his troops to Lexington and Concord to confiscate the arms of the citizenry (militia). he sent his armed surrogates (soldiers of the British army) to disarm the colonists so that he could impose his political will on them through force. that's why the founding fathers enshrined the right of the citizenry to keep and bear arms in the Bill of Rights. it's not about hunting. it's not about sport. it's not even about self-defense against criminals... it's about an armed citizenry being the only thing that stands between foreign or domestic tyranny and freedom. that's why gun control laws are ultimately viewed by the majority of Americans as an assault on their freedoms and that's why so many of those outside of the USA do not and cannot understand our mindset.

While true, though simplified, you must also know that this right to bear arms in a regulated militia also requires members of this militia to fall under the command of the President in Article 1, section 8, clause 15 of the Constitution. Also, that the reason that militias were included in the Constitution was because of an understandable distrust of standing armies during peacetime. When the Second Amendment was finally ratified, it still contained the right to bear arms within the context of a militia. Therefore, your write to bear arms is actually in order to be of service of your state's governor and then the Federal government.

Actually, a militia is, by definition, not generally under the command of the President, except when the militia is mobilized in defense of the country (arguably from threats that are not the government itself). The Constitution makes it very clear that the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force are not militia, but military (the Armies). The militia is governed by the states under all other circumstance. Additionally, all able-bodied men ages 17 to 45, and both men and women who have served in the National Guard (not to be confused with the National Guard of the United States) are able to be called to duty in the unorganized/reserve militia (this actually largely strengthens the argument of the 2nd Amendment allowing all individuals to keep arms). Additionally, Article 1, section 8, clause 15 says nothing about the President, but grants the rights to govern the militia to the states (based on guidelines set forth by Congress), and gives the right to Congress (not the President) to mobilize the militia:

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Article 1 is almost entirely about Congress. Article 2, Section 2, though, grants the President Commander in Chief power over the Armies, and over the Militia when called into actual service (in other words - when the Militia is actively defending the country).

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

ETA: Aw, looks like someone beat me to it. Oh well.

BeTheFire

I live every moment (awake and sleep) with a gun on my side, or within arms reach. Don't fear the gun; fear our criminals.

Fullsterkur_woman

I am sad that the thread finally went in this inevitable direction. I was hoping against hope that the open-minded OP would change her mind a little bit and that would be that. She could enjoy a visit to our fair country, and we in turn could enjoy a visit to hers. Oh well.

And dbmata, I'd like to personally plead with you to lay off the hoplophobe. Your words will not have the intended effect, but rather the opposite. Gentle must be your watchword.

smantha32

Why do so many Americans have gun pictures on here? It is a bit scary.Thank god we can't in Australia just have them on us.....no not religious.. I couldn't handle the thought that anyone walking down the street has a gun on them. How do you handle it? Surely it is frightening. Turns me off going there for a holiday.

Extremely few Americans are just walking around with guns.

We do, however, have a large number of people who like to hunt.

Try visiting a place before judging it.

I believe there are quite a few Americans walking around with guns. I carry, my H does as do 2 out of 4 of my neighbors... however I'm in Texas

There are probably more of us in Texas. I'm licensed to carry but i rarely do. It's a pain to keep it hidden and if I carry it in my bag the extra weight makes my shoulder hurt after a few hours.
I usually make a judgement call as to whether there are higher odds of needing it.. which I guess doesn't make sense.. because criminals like to shoot people in innocuous public places.
I need a decent holster.


edited for bad spelling.

4homer

Im all for if people want guns/have them. Im all for people who dont want them. Chef dont judge.

RebekahR84

lripson28

THANK YOU!!

lripson28

You're safe coming to the Maryland/DC area, we can't open carry.

Right, because criminals follow laws...

KANGOOJUMPS

I own 6.

sarantonio

I own 6.

15....I win!!

CentralCaliCycling

You're safe coming to the Maryland/DC area, we can't open carry.

Right, because criminals follow laws...

This is so sarcastically true. It is not how many people have guns as much as it is how many people respect persons and property...

JenAndSome

I'm just wondering how angry the people who are against everyday citizens carrying would be if an armed person who was not in law enforcement saved their rear in a bad situation. If you aren't comfortable with guns, don't own one. Just don't assume everyone who has one is out to get you.

GTAFrank

I own 6.

That's a good start fellow Leaf fan. I have 6 on my top shelf lol Maybe time to thin the herd a little.

Serah87

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"

-- Thomas Jefferson, 1 Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334
"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good"

-- George Washington
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."

-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188

CaliforniaBarbie

you need a permit and license to open carry and some states dont even allow that.
its called gun control and i feel you are safer in a place where gun safety is taught and learned by the majority.
The right to keep and bear arms (often referred as the right to bear arms or to have arms) is the people's right to have their own arms for their defense as described in the philosophical and political writings of Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, Machiavelli, the English Whigs and others

i learned to shoot a fire arm, before i could actually hold the weight of the gun on my own, i have been shooting for about 12 years, i own a number of guns. and will feel much safer when i can legally carry my 9mm in my purse instead of only hunters grade pepper spray.

CaliforniaBarbie

.

CaliforniaBarbie

Yes yes and yes
guns dont kill people, people kill people.
if guns kill people then, cars make people drive drunk, pencils misspell words, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.