Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremy1375
Finally found some time to think about this and sit down to reply.
While guns are far simpler mechanically as well as operationally than cars, I would argue that they are just as complex when it comes to safety and awareness. In Minnesota, a three hour course is all that’s needed training wise to get a carry permit. It seems unrealistic to me to prepare any person to carry a gun and truly understand the situation they’re potentially preparing to deal with in that short of a time let alone be aware of how the situation might affect their own abilities once if they find themselves in that position. If the conservative argument is such that the best crime prevention is an armed public, why is there not rigorous training and testing required to ensure a civilian is trained well enough to actually do the deed if it comes to that?
I don't have data to back this up, but I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by saying that the number of guns being operated per day on an annual basis is several orders of magnitude smaller than the number of vehicles being operated. The 4-1 argument will likely look much different if considered based on deaths by a percentage of use.
Using the top 7 causes of death you provided, firearm homicide is the only event where another human being is actively violating another person’s right to exist without being injured and/or killed (I saw abortion in the other data set and I’m not going to touch that one.) Everything else is bad self care, negligence, or bad luck. It’s a different type of event to be actively killed by another person versus not. It’s more traumatic to survivors at the least.
I guess I just think more can be done to prevent things like school shootings and the like. If you leave your gun accessible and your child picks it up and shoots up the school, there should be some significant jail time for not properly locking your shit up and securing it. I would assume the authors of the 2nd amendment implied personal responsibility.
Not sure where you're coming from with a world without police. I'm not for that and not sure who is.
|
I agree a 3 hour course is not enough. But I doubt even a 3 day course would be enough to mentally prepare somebody for a life threatening situation should it spontaneously arise without warning. Maybe 3 months of military training might, but thats unrealistic for the general populous.
But the Bill of Rights guarantees you and me the right to keeps and bare arms. Notice its a "Right" and not "Permit" which really makes the CCP a farse anyway. Now I will say that anybody found guilty in a court of law of commiting a crime using a gun should have their rights to own or possess a firearm stripped away and severe consequences if found with a firearm later.
The conservative argument has facts and data on its side showing that when a city/town/municipality allows it citizens CCP gun ownership, crime rates drop by a good margine because criminals are less likely to go after a victim if there is a strong possibility that they are carrying. I'm sure that if your life was threatened you'd rather be armed than not.
I agree that the number of guns fired daily vs cars driven is much lower, so where was the problem with guns again? Not trying to be funny with that statement, just trying to put it into perspective. I can't think of a gun owner I know that doesn't either shoot their guns at ranges or outdoors on some type of regular basis. They get plenty of trigger time and live to tell the tale.
Sure it takes a human being with a gun to kill another human being. Same as a baseball bat, knife, hammer, crowbar, etc. So why do we keep blaming the gun? And that goes for school shootings too. Take away the gun and it would be school knifings (we have those), school bombings (we have those) school beheadings (we have those) and so on. That's where my statement about teaching the value of life comes in, its not the gun, its the individual.
Alan addressed the child and gun issue very well, so I won't touch on that.
My comment about a world without police revolves around whats happening with police getting turned into targets these days by race baiters, protestors, politicians, etc. And those same groups are doing the same thing to gun owners. Sure there are some bad cops out there, just as there are bad criminals with guns. But we can't say all cops are bad because thats just not reality, the same as saying all gun owners are dangerous. So do you want all cops gone because of a few bad apples? Same thing goes for gun owners. Either one could save your life at any given time.
Alan's point about getting guns out of criminals hands leads me back to this pic I posted earlier,....
And if you really get pass the emotion and think about it, why go after lawful gun ownership and not criminals? Seriously think about that.
Threaded Mode