THE Gun Thread

[Secular Elf]

You are missing that 80% of Americans are in favor of the 2nd Ammendment - as defined - as the right to own guns. The fact that they don' t own firearns is irrelevant.

A majority of US citizens also believe in a god. Should ALL be required to believe as the majority???

And I don' t see any answer to my question of do you apply this minority fairness doctrine to all or just the issues you agree with??

The fact that some supporters of the right to own guns don’t own guns themselves is extremely relevant - you opened that door when you specified ‘the majority of gun owners’, not the majority of voters.

According to various studies, about 1/3 of American adults own at least one firearm. A majority of gun owners is therefore anything above 16%. If you’re a champion of majority rule, don’t you think it’s rather silly for 16.1% of the electorate to dictate terms to 83.1%?

Your point about God is just idiotic. There is a significant difference between a belief in God and the actual possession of a firearm.

I didn’t answer your question about minority fairness because my position has nothing to do with minority fairness. If anything, I’m advocating letting the majority run roughshod over the perceived rights of this particular minority (gun owners).

But I’m not even advocating removing guns. I’ve outlined some ideas that could help ensure that only trained, safety-conscious, stable, law abiding people get to own guns. I’d even go a bit farther and add a grandfather clause that current gun owners could keep their guns without going through the steps outlined earlier (someone who has owned firearms for years without serious violations is likely to be responsible enough to continue to do so).

Boru

I think that Boru's point is a reasonable position. In my personal history I have had limited exposure to firearms. My father owned a .22 rifle he used for hunting small game and kept in the house for protection. When I was 11 he allowed me to shoot it on one of our excursions in the woods. I think the 2nd Amendment, even if it is considered archaic, has some limited use for reasons of personal protection and hunting. Mass shootings are indeed a problem and I think there should be gun control, if the current laws on the books would simply be enforced and even updated. But good luck with that so long as Conservatives exist that have any amount of influence in our government. I don't own any guns myself but I would like to, but I find pricing to be out of my reach, as I have a limited income as a disabled individual.