Gun Control: Pro/Con

[Sir Realism]

Are you for or against stricter gun laws?

I, having somewhat conservative views, feel that gun control should be lessened to the point that anyone that wants a gun can have one, provided that background checks are in place.

Seriously, stricter gun laws won't do anything to deter crime; in fact, it will actually encourage crime since less civilians will be able to defend themselves.

Disagreements?

yeah i don't think any more gun control laws will really do anything, so things are great the way they are, imo.

[ShadowMarth]

I think gun control should be tightened. In most other major countries that have economic control, they ban civilian gun use, and as a result, they have a shockingly smaller rate of deaths by gunshot.

[Pilot_51]

Well, either take all guns out of civillians hands and give them Tazers, or give everyone guns so all the bad guys will die before they could even be recorded as a felon, and say hi to the list of top 2 most wanted people that becomes blank after 10 minutes.
So I guess less gun laws would be good since stricter laws actually create crime, I just wouldn't feel very safe knowing I'm walking amongst crowds of people with the potential to start a gunfight war right then and there, but I guess there would need to be a major disagreement beforehand for people to even know what side they're fighting for.
Maybe if we cut back to the 10 commandments or something, everything would work itself out.

[Sir Realism]

Think about this, there are much more good people than bad people. That means, more good people with guns would mean more guns to shoot the bad people.

Also, why have there never been a shooting at an NRA convention, or at a gun store? Because guns are very strong deterrents to crime. If more people carried guns, less criminals would try to assault someone because that person or someone around him may have a gun on him. Shootings are always at schools, or offices where guns are prohibited.

[ShadowMarth]

Yes, but no guns for civilians at all would narrow it down to cops and the absolute worst criminals. There are much more cops than those select few criminals who would like to smuggle guns into the country and attempt to use them.

[Pilot_51]

So true, although it would clearly lead to a rise in accidental gun deaths.

Shadow: If it was just cops and the worst of criminals, I doubt they'd ever really run into each other, if anything it would probably be something like FBI finding out where they are and then sending a massive SWAT team in. The criminals, assuming they're the worst, in which case they have no care for human life, would probably kill hundreds if not thousands by the time they're caught, basically terrorists living in our country. Lots of guns means they would be shot at as soon as they start shooting, and they wouldn't last long. Altough one other problem I see with everyone having guns, is the use of them for smaller problems or when they're uncertain of the situation.

[ShadowMarth]

Also, giving everyone a gun is just a horrible idea. Want to give every country nukes? Then if anyone fires, everyone else can kill them, and start a thermonuclear war. And hundreds of millions would die.

Well, that's really already the case. So as you can see, that's not a great idea.

[Pilot_51]

Nukes are very indirect and kill more innocent than the enemy, guns on the other hand can be aimed to kill only who you want to kill.

[Sir Realism]

Um, raising gun control to the strictest level possible would do nothing more than keep guns out of civilian hands.

Criminal activity would hardly fall, it would in fact rise. Lets play with your hypothetical situation, if only cops and the worst of criminals had them, then the criminals would either import them from other countries and distribute them everywhere on the black market or get someone on the inside (turncoat) to sell them a huge load of armaments.

Also, removing guns from citizens violates the second amendment.

Ponder upon this if you will. If you were a black person in the ghettos of LA, would you think any differently? I mean, have you never heard of police abuse? Who do you call when the police is the source of the trouble?

The government should be the one afraid of the citizens, not the other way around.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to mention that average level criminals get their weapons by breaking the law. Therefore, what impact would adding MORE laws do? Absolutely nothing.