guns, Guns, GUNS!

[Drich]

They will kill, hurt or maim at lower rates if an efficient tool is not at hand.

Deaths may go down but maiming will go up. After all the gun has nothing to so with the intent to hurt or kill, just ones ability to efficiently carry out their want or will to cause harm.

If it were the case that violence would be carried out by other means if guns weren't available, then the rates of violent death would be the same in households with or without guns (controlling for other factors such as not being a meth addict).

That is only assuming those who shy away from gun ownership have the same tendency towards conflict as someone who wants to own a gun.

Just look at the antigun lobby here on this website. Most none gun owners here do not see or can not phathom a situation where a gun is needed to get out of any of life's situations. While gun owners tend see conflict in a completely different way.

Again guns are tools much like a hammer. Hammers can be used to build or to destroy it all depends on the intention of the person who holds the hammer. People who typically buy hammers tend to be builders. Now what if there were no hammers would those very same people stop building or simply find another way to complete their task?

Of the 31000 gun deaths in the US, roughly 62% are suicides.

Perfect example, of a person using a tool to complete a goal he/she wants to complete. The people who take their lives with guns are not the 'cry for help' people who try and commit suicide. With one who takes a gun points it to their own head and pulls the trigger death is wanted, not 'help.' Do you really think that if a person seeks death that badly will be deterred by the lack of a specific tool? What did builders do before hammers? Did they not build things from wood?

The second most likely person you will kill with your gun is a close family member.

ah, no. That kind of stupid statement can only be made by someone who only looks at one specific aspect of a static and ignores everything else.
Circumstance is the only other factor in the death of a family member, outside murder.

Remove the opportunity for circumstance, and that only leaves murder. So unless I want a close family member dead it will not happen. That is how it works in the real world.

This is how evolution by natural selection increases intelligence.
I approve. Please carry on.

I believe We should help those who think suicide is the only option, and we should not let them kill themselves. (One of my employees lost a son a few months back he hanged himself/found a way to complete his task with out a hammer) but to each his own if you think they should be encouraged to die so natural selection be allowed to happen then so be it.

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Nope.

Don't knock it till you try it. It's a blast.

A chance to shoot paper targets? Maybe for the experience. I would have no reason to own one, however.

what if there were zombies?

People in societies have always been armed. It has only rarely made a difference and has never, to my knowledge, been decisive on its own.

which side of the pond are you on? Do they skip over the time period between July 4 1776
And nov 25 1783 where you are from?
The strongest nation in the world was held off by a personally armed populace.. Maybe that is why gun ownership is frowned on today over there.

We have our share of homegrown terrorists who love making threats against the government and all the people they think aren't American enough. If they fire first, and if there was firing it's virtually certain that they would fire first, how many people do you think are going to go AWOL to help them out?

we are not talking about using the American military against a group of domestic terrorists. We are talking about the president using the American military to breach the second amendment and turn on 60% of the population.. If that were to happen I would estimate 1/2 if not 2/3s of the armed forces would turn on the government.

When ever a soldier enlists they take an oath to up hold and defend the constitution
First then obey they country's leadership. When asked (especially when serving under an unpopular president) the vast majority credit the defense of this country and the protection of our rights as the primary reason they serve. Not all believe this way but most do.
Then if you were to factor in all of the grey coats who have been waiting for the south to rise again.. Obama or whom ever would have one big mess on their hands.