2nd Amendment Supporters

This probably applies mostly to those living in the United States, but I am curious as to how many others here are big believers in gun ownership, like myself. I am not attacking those of you who do not believe in gunownership!!! Everyone has their own opinion and that is their entitlement, but the US Supreme court has ruled that gun ownership for Americans is a consitutional right and I want to know who else, besides myself agrees with this.

I was raised around guns and taught to use them in a responsible manner, by my father who was in the Army and Marines...way back in the day. He used an arsenal to protect his family, long before my birth, back during the civil rights era. The local KKK groups thought he was crazy and stayed the hell away from him (this was in the 1950s).

I am not really a hunter, but I do sometimes carry a .45...mainly when I go into Detroit to visit friends or family, or when I travel to other states. Who else has their concealed weapons permit?

 

Of course, I hear that Detroit looks like Satan's asshole. True?

I don't believe in gun ownership and would limit it for use by law enforcement and (maybe) hunters. Having millions of guns circulating through American society feels like a roadblock to civilization. Pardon the pun, but this topic was shot to death in another thread.

 

I don't like guns but I've got one. I'm more of a fisherman than a hunter and I'm also an animal-lover.

 

I believe in gun ownership and the right to self-defense. Both are human rights if you ask me. I currently own several firearms. The wife and I are members of a local firing range/gun club and we both are applying for membership with the NRA. My guns will only be taken from our cold dead hands.

 

Individuals should have a right to own firearms.

 

If you really think about it, the best way to look at the 2nd Amendment would be to call it a necessary evil.

Am I wrong?:smt102

 

Yes. It's simply Evil. Never necessary.

 

In regards to FEHG. I respect your opinions on guns and the 2nd Amendment. I disagree with your perspective, but maybe my life experiences have been different from yours. Many people have lost family and friends to gun violence, so they see firearms as a dangerous and destructive item, which they can be.

Once during the late 1950s my dad was going to stage a protest at some local businesses in a small southern town. The protest had been approved by the local police who provided him and some family and friends an escort...right until they got to the top of a hill overlooking the town...then the police escort mysteriously dissappeared and there were several thousand angry whites blocking the street, apparently ready to grab him and his entourage (which included several children). My dad told one of the kids in the back to hand him his M1 Carbine. The child chambered a round in the gun and handed it to him. My dad was unaware that the kid did that so when he jumped out of the car and went to chamber a round, the one that was already in the chamber was ejected...this created the impression that he had fired a round!! Well that angry white mob ran for their lives...just scattered. That could have been a very tragic day, but no lives were lost.

Later during the 1970s a blackman tried to my father with a knife...this quickly ended when my dad pulled a gun. No shots were fired, but the robber also ran for his life.

The reason that I mention these incidents is that they are examples of what happens every year in the United States...the defensive use of firearms. Their have been estimates that firearms are used as many as 100,000 times each year, but in most cases no shot is fired and the incidents tend to go unrepported. The NRA runs a column called the armed citizen where they post the incidents where firearms were actually fired defensively and police reports are created...these are basically clips from local newspapers.

Even when the firearms are not drawn they sometimes provide a sense of security to their owners. Case in point... about 18 years ago, my father his wife and my half brother and a nephew and I, were coming back from Canada and we were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan..we were gasing up around 2am at a small desolate gas station. As I was getting out of our RV, a group of white redneck types drove by yelling "were going to kill you fucking niggers". I remember that my first thought was "I sure hope they do not come over here...because my dad will kill them". I was afraid for them!! We had maybe 12 shotguns and rifles in that RV!!! (at that time Americans could take long guns into Canada with no problem).

So for me a firearm, as an inanimate object, is not a good or evil thing. It can be used for good or evil purposes depending on the intentions of the welder. Growing up in Detroit I definetely have seen guns used for some very evil purposes, but I blame the criminals who used them. I myself am not a criminal and I do not go around looking for trouble, but I must admit that when I am driving thru a bad neighborhood or a deserted area...I feel much, much safer with my .45 or my .40 at my side.

 

Yes, Gunman. I appreciate your considered response. Of course, the issue is never as simple as yes or no. Especially not in a country like the USA. I was just offering a simplified version of my opinion.

I don't live in the USA, and my country has quite strict gun control laws. I think, generally, it's something that should never be started, but once it is in train, then you have to manage the outcomes not the cause, as much. For the USA, it's about cultural change also. Guns aren't necessary but the fact that you all think they are is part of the problem.

 

I don't know. If the aborigines had been sufficiently armed perhaps things would be different in your country.

 

Ummm. Actually, my point was that no-one should have guns. So, following that logically through, ideally the British would have had no fire power either.

 

If it wasn't guns, it would be something else.

Humans have made weapons of some sort or another for hundreds of thousands millions of years.....

It's not the weapons that are inherently evil, it's the people who use those weapons for evil purposes that are the issue.

 

Good, then no one would ever harm each other ever again.

 

Threads like this make me so happy to be Australian.

 

How do you think Australia became the nation it is today? Under the power of a gun against unarmed people. Now that the shooting is over, you can relax and enjoy.

 

Can Australians own handguns?

 

Indeed. I did exactly that last night.

I'm happy regardless. And if I was any other nationality, I would be happy to be that aso.

The difference is that fire power gives an ability to kill larger numbers of people faster. And you don't require any particular skills to easily kill someone.

I don't think that "people have always killed each other" is a justifiable reason to allow gun ownership. We're advancing as a species. At some point we need to know what's best for ourselves and not just give in.

Anyway - this is an ongoing issue that we never resolve.

 

No. There is no gun ownership in this country. I believe if you own a farm and can prove a need, then you can get a license for a rifle or something. Also - gun clubs exist and you can have a gun for that, with certain restrictions.

It is mostly as a result of this incident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(Australia)

We did have some type of gun ownership before that, but the government bought back guns after this and heavily restricted gun ownership. I have never met someone who wasn't totally supportive of it.

 

You mean no reasonable access to firearms for law-abiding citizens. Only for the state and for criminals.

 

THANK YOU!!! rayer:rayer:rayer:rayer:rayer: