Do you think it is normal having firearms?

[Grey Acumen]

Andir said:

Cryoakira said:

 

However, they happen to be, generaly, far more lethal than others basic weapons. Before you're able to stop someone with an uzi, he can do a LOT more casualties than someone with a knive or a baseball bat. That is, unless you run faster than a bullet... (i'm not). Firearms create "death opportunity", and that's "normal", since they don't have any other purpose.

Do you think that grenade or rocket launcher or C4 should be sold at Wallmart for self defense ? Probably not, because you think it's far too destructive and dangerous, even disproportionate. I do think the same about firearms.

You have to look at it from this persective as well. Simply outlawing the guns will not remove them from the economy. If you make it illegal, only the law abiding citizens will not aquire them. At that point, you would then have criminals intent on using such weapons with them in hand. There is no possible way to remove and destroy all the guns across the entire world. It's a task as daunting as implementing a perfect DRM. There will always be these devices in the world, and people will find ways to aquire or manufacture them. I'm sure if you had a utopian society where everyone felt safe, they might let the guns fall in disrepair and not purchase replacements, but there are far too many crimes and wars in the world to ever see that in mine or your lifetimes.

QFE

I'm also going to add something, I know people are going to take it the wrong way, but life is harsh and sometimes, that harshness is the only thing that keeps people civil.

There are a number of people, the highest percentage of which are usually criminals to begin with, who do not give a shit about the consequences imposed by law. If they were scared of the consequences, they wouldn't break the law to begin with.

Now I know that if you made guns easier to get, people would have an easier time obtaining guns, and thus an easier time giving into the urge to use them to commit a crime. There's another side to this though, not a pretty one, but an effective one. No matter what other consequence you might come up with, there is very little that can deter a person quite like the realization that if they were to do something stupid, like commit a crime with a gun, that every person on the street could easily shoot them, and not just stop, or disable them, but KILL them.

People tend to consider the consequences of their actions a lot more carefully when they know that the consequences can be permanent and irrevocably enforced.

Like I said, not pretty, but effective.

EDIT: Another thing I want to point out is to remind people that in America right now, ALL incidents of a gun being used on a person is treated as a crime. Whether it is by a person actually commiting a crime or a person defending himself from it.

also, research has also shown that places with the most strict regulations restricting gun ownership, like Washington DC, actually have the worst crime rates. No, I can't recall where that is from, but I'm sure someone could look it up if there were really that interested.