Quote: JerryChicken "This is where the whole gun ownership thing starts to crumble like a sandcastle in heavy rain, American citizens have the basic constitutional right to bear arms but my understanding is that that right was granted 200+ years ago when large areas of that country only had the vaguest of law enforcement and it was literally down to the individual citizen to enforce state and federal law, as they saw fit - its possible to argue that the same situation does not exist now and that citizens should be prepared to hand over law and order entirely to their police forces in which case guns would have to be much more strictly controlled, its possible to try and argue that, but not practical because no individual wants to be the first one to give up their weapons. '"
And the argument from the NRA will be that criminals won't give up the illegal weapons that they have. So law abiding citizens would give up their guns and the only people to keep their guns will be criminals.
Quote: JerryChicken "As well as the Utah artist I also correspond from time to time with a writer who lives in California, she was a pilot in the air force and is still a reservist and is what could fairly be described as a gun-a-holic but like your friend is full of advice to others via a gun ownership blog of the responsibilities of keeping guns - and there are a lot of people like them who do take it all very seriously, swapping advice on maintaining their weapons, on choosing them in the first place, and on what are the best ways to practice using them, there is no criticism of the constitution with these people and the amendment to bear arms will never be repealed, America will become a communist state before they give up their second amendment and their attitude towards state and federal control has not changed much in the 200+ years since the constitution was drawn.'"
"Out of my cold, dead hands" is pretty much the only way that the majority of people would let go of their guns.
IMO they are retarded to be so in love with their guns. I can understand a parent saying they would give their lives to defend their children. I don't understand for a second how the issue of gun ownership is given an almost equal standing.
Quote: JerryChicken "Of course when a high school shooting occurs they all shuffle around shaking their heads and muttering stuff about it being the person that did the shooting and not the gun, but still the argument about the right to own guns is absolute and trying to compare the situation in this country with theirs is like comparing chalk with cheese and is as pointless and unproductive as that would be.'"
On another thread I said that after Newtown my friend was pretty much, "I don't care what Obama does now. They can do what they want."
But this feeling lasts only weeks. After that feeling is gone it's back to pretty much the default position of never giving an inch. And by the time the politicians got round to putting forward their suggestions to combat gun crime it ends up as nothing more than a waste of paper. A set of soundbites that make it sound like they are doing something but both sides know nothing has changed.
