Just made my first personal 'protection' purchase!

You just go ahead and stay in Europe.

Here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we don't need to sleep behind barred windows, because the bad guys have a nugget of fear planted in their hearts when they don't know which house on the street is armed and which isn't.

If they were all armed, the fear would become absolute, and they'd never think about entering a residence.

I absolutely dislike gun control discussions because they tend to become highly emotional, though I've yet to figure out quite why Americans are this passionate about their right to bear arms. However I do feel the need to respond to Ken's post.

Ken that's patently unfair and incorrect to state that "Here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we don't need to sleep behind barred windows..." when millions of Americans in some of your larger cities do just that. If you wish to argue with someone from another country, at least try to be fair and honest about your own country's issues with personal safety and crime.

I am a Canadian who now lives in the United States. I adore and honor this country as much as I did the one of my birth but I will not pretend either country doesn't have it's own particular social problems. In the States that does include gun control issues as regards the sad statistics that per capita you do have a much higher homicide and suicide rate in your own homes related to the easier availability of guns (in particular hand guns).

One cannot argue the 2x higher rate for homicide and the 4x rate for suicide by gun that occur in American homes as compared to Canadian homes (per 100K). There is of course many factors that make up statistics and of course they can be manipulated to some degree but simple numbers do reflect that guns in the home create a higher risk factor to your own family (most especially if teens reside in the home).

I don't dispute your right to bare arms, it's in your constitution and I would protect and defend that as much as the Canadian one I grew up under. I don't know if your problems here stem more from storage issues then actual ownership or perhaps a lack of training prior to purchase.

Whatever the issues are I think as reasonable adults that wish to own a deadly weapon and protect their constitutional rights to do so, you can't just blow off these problems or get unreasonably defensive. I don't believe any country has the right answer regarding guns in the home but I do get offended when some Americans seem to believe they have the ultimate answer. This only closes ones mind to options and knowledge to be gained from another culture's experience.


~~Joanna~~

Lets keep it civil in here folks :) BP.net is a family oriented forum and some comments are unwarrented at the dinner table :P. To be honest I think we should not even be talking about this issue here. Do not get me wrong. I like guns and agree with most of what was said in this topic. I just think it is not something we should discuss here considering we have a 12 year old on board :teddy: There are plenty of forums where one can go and discuss the issue of gun ownership and I do not think the original post was intended to start a discussion over this. Just my two cents :D

Dang Iceman25 you clipped my wings, just when it started to get wound up good in here..lol

I will digress with this last statement, "I believe in gun control,,,,, a sharp eye, and steady hand!

I also give thanks to them that have given the ultimate sacrafice to allow me to have these rights (Founding fathers and veterins of the American Revalution), and to them that have done the same to allow me to keep them. ( any Veterin of Any war that we have ever faught)

And I digress
Cheers
Ray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pumba

Dang Iceman25 you clipped my wings, just when it started to get wound up good in here..lol

I will digress with this last statement, "I believe in gun control,,,,, a sharp eye, and steady hand!

I also give thanks to them that have given the ultimate sacrafice to allow me to have these rights (Founding fathers and veterins of the American Revalution), and to them that have done the same to allow me to keep them. ( any Veterin of Any war that we have ever faught)

And I digress
Cheers
Ray

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Sorry Ray :D

Ah, guns...
Personally, I want to look into getting my pistol permit. Just because, I don't want to have the cops come into my house someday for a stupid reason (even something beneficial, like me calling for an emergency) and find an illegal pistol. I've watched Cops too many times to allow that to happen. I might seem paranoid, but I don't want anything illegal in our home. Too many bad things happened to friends of mine! If ya wanna smoke wacky weed, there's three hundred acres out back for ya to roam. :) I know how some law enforcers are; I ain't risking m future. And if I am investing big moola into a pistol, it is only going to be after I get permitted.
Right now, my only personal gun is my Ruger .22 semi-auto rifle. It holds 10 bullets and fires them in succession; hence the semi-automatic term. :) I have it mainly for target practice; nothing is more stress-killing than plunkin away at coffee cans. :) I can honestly say, being a woman who lives in a rural area, it makes me feel a bit safer having my gun and knowing how to use it at a moment's notice. I am not saying that gun-owning should be an "image" thing, but people really do think different of me after seeing me shoot. I have impressed my man's hunting uncles and cousins, who say that they have never seen a girl or woman that could shoot their rifles!
I am NOT implying that ya should be trigger-happy and not think beforehand. ANY gun operator HAS to be vigilant and use a gun as a LAST resort; otherwise, people get killed left and right and it makes all gunlovers look bad.

I should add something else. Take a rural area. I would bet that 80% or more of the houses you'd go into, have at least one gun. But it is sooo bad to have them in the city. I guess this perception comes out of the thoughts that rural people have them for hunting and "varmint" killing. And what would people in the city want a gun for? Defense is the logical thought, but the thing that scares me about urban gun ownership is, buildings are so close together that someone innocent can easily be killed. I think that city people who own guns (actually, everyone who does) have a HUGE responsibility to make sure they know how to operate that gun in all situations, and know where yer shooting and where that bullet can go!

I had no intention of starting a gun control discussion, but since someone was so inclined to raise the issue, I just want to get this in before the thread gets locked:

“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty--so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator--and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventative but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.”--Thomas Jefferson

Looks like the temperature of the water is getting a little warm....

*takes a quick dip and runs out*

IL has very strict gun laws. I have my firearm owner's id card. When I move, I have to notice and get a new card with my addresss on it. The state police do a background check on you. I haven't acutally bought any guns yet. They're expensive, I'm not 100% sure what I, and obviously, I want to be able to practice. The only non membership club locally without at least a 2 year waiting list is a trap shooting place. (And I have shot trap. I enjoyed it, and I would go more often if I had my own gun).

However, I am far more likely to pull out a sword. I have had a little bit of kum do (Korean version for kendo, in short) training and I plan on picking that back up when I get a chance.

Hay Elevatethis, All I can say is "AMEN" As I was reading that post, I was thinking to myself,,,,("Man, no one talks like this anymore, nor does anyone write like this, how elequant") then I got to the end and found it was a quote from the Great T.J.

Man oh Man, I can tell you if he came back from the grave right now, He would be jumping up and down. The odasity of states requiting permits, and regulating people's rights. Yes my friends, out founding fathers would be sorely disapointed in us right now.