Why oppose guns?

Oih.. your asking for a very long months reply thread.. (for a not very frequently visited forum)

I don't believe in repression (cept maybe child porn) and I am a U.S. citizen.. therefore I don't believe in banning guns nor drugs and 101 other things out there.. (these types of views our a rarity here)

However, there is one thing that scares me and maybe I believe in repressing.. nukes.. don't care about plastic/grenades whatever.. but nukes are scary weapons if they where available to al-kida or to some country's out there or even the U.S. gun market.. the world might be a scarier place..

You could easily take those 3 recent school shooting/adult suicides as reference.. imagine instead of hand guns nukes.. oih..

Who or What do you think is going to protect the families of the people who oppose guns? I mean, if having a gun isn't something they feel necessary to protect their own family, I doubt they think it is necessary for your family. I imagine they simply don't feel owning a gun worth the risk, considering most people will never actually be in a circumstance where they need a gun. And there are other ways of protecting yourself ... a good security system, self-defense classes, guard dogs, mace, stun-guns, and other such things.

You don't need a real gun for target shooting. You don't even need a gun for hunting. Most of our meat comes from pigs, cows, and chickens anyways ... animals which most people don't actually hunt for. That may not be your point, but it is actually a point you can't just overlook. And frankly "wanting" to be able to shoot targets or animals because you enjoy it isn't much of reason for allowing guns imo. I know a bunch of 12 year old boys who would love to be able to blow things up, but that doesn't mean we should make dangerous explosives available, does it?

I don't think many people who oppose guns think guns will just magically all go away if there is a ban on them. I think they are simply looking to lessen a problem. Just because there are people who use drugs illegally, or drive drunk illegally, does not mean that justifies making all drugs legal or allowing people to drive drunk. If people were allowed to drive drunk, there would be a lot more deaths due to drunk driving, don't you think? So by making it illegal, people are hoping to reduce the number of drunk driving accidents. The same thought applies to banning guns.

If your choice to own a gun was something that could not affect me, then you should be allowed to. But the gun issue extends further than the one who owns it. And that is the problem. Maybe I don't want you to have a gun because I don't want you to shoot me when you lose your temper, or maybe I don't want you to mistake me for a robber and kill me when I visit you unexpectedly, or maybe I don't want my kid playing at your house where your son mistakes it for a toy and accidentally kills my kid, etc, etc.

I imagine a lot of people who oppose guns are people who have been directly affected by them.

Opposing, not using, not buying, banning, whatever guns is in the best interest of average people of the US, but arms industry wont _ever_ let that happen! It's like alcohol and tobacco, they even regulated by the same authority - ATF. It's bad for people, no matter law abiding they are or not, it's bad for kids, but _industry_ is profitting from it, just like tobacco and alcohol. And generally government wont do anything about it, cause tax payments are flowing and along the way it keeps filling state officials pockets. It's the system.
In case of tobacco government made huge progress over the past couple of decades. But tobacco companies went overseas, to Russia for example, with huge profits there, cigarette business is booming with more than half of male and about 40 percent female population smoking.
But arms industry are not that feasible in a global economy, so they keep up flooding domestic market with guns, keep promoting the idea that guns are harmless if owned by law abiding citizens, people have right, etc, etc... all this *beep* Truth is, they need to keep business going. And they have damn good lobbyists inside congress for it.
You cant leave some choices to people. I'm sorry, but people are too dumb, they start smoking because it's cool, because it's maybe some stress reliever, whatever, but they are humans, they cant easily get rid of this habit, when it grabs them tight. Oddly enough guns are almost the same as drugs, once you felt it in you hand, shot some rounds, got perception that it'll make you cool and respected... have you noticed that it's all emotions?
Or even worse, you're a bastard, grew up in a bad neighborhood, or have no brains whatsoever. Then you're even more addicted to gun, since you existence relies on it. You're a criminal. But the question is, _how_ did you get a gun? Someone made it, someone sold it. Arms industry is the real culprit here and until they are untamed with their greed people in the US are gonna be shot to death, for no matter what stupid reasons, because of criminal intent or self-defense.

"First off: If someone were to break into my house in the middle of the night, what should I do to protect my family? The cops would take at least 10 minutes to get to my house. There are other places in the US that are more desolate than that. How do you recommend I protect them?"

I'd like to point out you don't say "first off," and then don't produce at LEAST a "secondly."
I'd also like to point out that if you're that afraid of someone breaking down your door to attack you and your family, I suggest you change your lifestyle, or at the very least, move out of that neighborhood.

Next comes the question, are you ready to kill someone and face the consequences? Plenty of people go to jail because they thought they were "protecting their family." Of course, a lot of people shoot their spouse or their kid for the same reason.
By the way, I'm not anti-gun, not by a long shot (no pun intended), I'm anti-ignorance, and generally speaking there's a lot of ignorant gun owners out there... as can be judged by the number of six year old kids that show up at school with their parents' gun, or shoot their brother with their parents' gun, or... well, you get the idea. Anyone that disagrees with that should have their gun taken away.

And, to answer the question you pose in the subject line, without a doubt, the main reason people oppose guns is because someone told them to, and since the vast majority of people are incapable of actually forming an opinion or thought based on their own experience, research, or knowledge, they do as they're told.

I understand both people's sides on guns. I remember a case down in Oklahoma where a woman blew away her son with a shotgun while cleaning it and sued the gun company and won. There are stupid people like this that shouldn't have guns. But I own guns and I'm responsible. Its not like you have to be in a bad neighborhood to have someone break into your house and kill you. The last place I lived with really no serious crimes. A family was executed in their home a few streets away from mine. The entire family even the baby. A gun might have made the difference. So I do understand everyone's issues on both sides.






Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.