sc94597 said:
I understand that few Americans would ever support such bans. Nevertheless, the continual comparison is with European bans, which are very much unpopular in the U.S. Is that then not dishonest in this dicussion as well? Certainly they wouldn't say such things. As you noted, the political climate isn't conclusive to it. But certainly if the majority of politicians had a button that could eliminate all non-priveleged guns they would do as such: republicans and democrats alike. Fortunately, such a thing doesn't exist, but there is a great deal of incrementalism that can happen, and that is far more frightening than any outright ban. An interesting tactic, used in recent years is to make the cost of guns and ammunitions expensive, with is not only unegalitarian (poor people don't have the same ability to ownership as affluent) but it is also deceptive. Most Europeans in this thread are arguing that the U.S should outright ban or make it elaborately difficult to achieve gun ownership. So I really don't see how the opposite argument is out of context. |
You can hunt with a bow, and you can hunt with a crossbow, people did it for quite some time before guns were invented, so, noone would be interfering with peoples right to hunt. Self-defense? Well...I would argue that if people were so concerned with self defense, every single gun owner would learn some form of martial art...because you will run out of bullets at some point. I'm not privy to the statistics, but I'm going to go ahead and guess most people who buy a gun with the sole purpose of self-defense, think it's a cureall, and personally I think that's a mistake. You're not always going to have your gun ready, ammo isn't limitless, you will have to reload sometime etc... Not everyone who carries is a marksman, nor are they trained to shoot under extreme circumstances (stress, adrenaline etc...)...
This site is not located in the US, if I'm not mistaken (England?), so I think it's rather fair to assume that many folks from Europe and abroad will bring comparisons to Europe as they aren't....Americans (And may never have been to America so have little understanding of it, other than what the news shows them). Outside of this site, there are a number of individuals in the US who do make the comparisons, however, I think pointing out the differences is the way to go. Why wouldn't such things work in the US, why is it different, how can we address those differences to create better policy that would help this issue. Understand what I'm saying here? I'm not saying believe what others say 100%, but, provide your critique on their message, and listen to their response. If an argument cannot withstand critique, it's not a very good argument, afterall. However, maybe, if we allow full and open debate on this, maybe we start making some headway.
Please don't think that I actually have all the answers here either, it's why I'm open to having the discussion. Because I don't. I just see what we're doing, and it's clearly not having an effect on anything but driving a wedge between Americans and pushing us further apart. That's not productive, and if anything, does harm to the country as a whole.
