Facts is facts...

[hushdawg]

I'm really sick of the anti-gun rants.

Look, here are the facts... 11,500 people are killed each year by firearms in the USA. That sounds like a big number but when you realize that the population of the USA is over 350,000,000 that number becomes a very small percentage.

By comparison alcohol kills a lot more. There are over 75,000 people killed by

Comments

[xphilega]

Hmm. Interesting comparison.

I think the reason so many more people latch onto guns vs. alcohol is because of the intended purpose.

Alcohol (which, for the record, I gave up after marrying Y... not because of him, but because it just makes life simpler and I was never really a drinker in the first place) can be used in many ways: to relax, to socialize, to show hospitality. It is perfectly possible to have a healthy relationship with alcohol and partake in it. I know many, many, many people who have a glass of wine with dinner a few nights a week with no negative consequences.

Guns, on the other hand, were designed to kill.

Not arguing, just explaining why I (who, yes, gets upset at how easy it is to get a semiautomatic weapon.. particularly when juxtaposed with how hard it can be to get quality mental health care!) find it easier to want stricter gun control than to want stricter alcohol control.

:)

[hushdawg]

Guns are weapons. Weapons are made for two purposes: Offense and Defense.

There are over 85 million registered gun owners in the USA right now. More than 1/4 of the population is armed.

The mere fact that we do not have 85 million gun related deaths in my lifetime is evidence that gun ownership is not inherently violent or deadly.

I think the biggest problem that we have is what you touched on; the societal stigma.

[xphilega]

I agree with you. But it still... disturbs me... that 1/4 of the population is armed. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does. I feel like that fear pressures me to arm myself and I don't like it at all.

I just hate to have a tool that has no other purpose than killing or doing bodily harm to others. I may change my mind when I have a child one day (inchallah!). But... I just hate it. :(

[hushdawg]

I can't understand your fear but I respect your position. I know that there is no argument I could make that would eliminate that condition that you have placed on the idea of gun ownership.

[matanai]

I don't think people who are anti-gun realize there is still crime in cities without guns. Crazy, hostile people are still going to murder people, be it with guns, knives, swords, bats, pipes, anything they can get their hands on.

crazy gon' b crazy

[hushdawg]

True; mankind was killing one another rather well for thousands of years before guns were invented.

How odd that no one has the same reaction toward a bow and arrow as they do toward a handgun or rifle when it's essentially the same thing.

[wunderbar]

I'm tired of ALL the rants! :D
Actually, if you're pro-gun control you feel like the anti-gun control people are shoving it down your throat and it appears the inverse is true, as well. What's interesting is that I feel like discussing the issue with a Muslim is a lot easier and smoother than with a non-Muslim. I know that even if I'm wrong, a fellow Muslim will still, inshallah, respect me and not start in on name-calling. Alhamdullilah. That's the only reason I've commented to you about it. Because I haven't really been able to discuss it with someone who has a difference in opinion than mine. I hope I haven't bothered you any.

[hushdawg]

Not at all. I am glad you are engaging in this topic.

I do feel that a lot of the pro-gun arguments are a bit obtuse but I also feel that a lot of the gun control arguments are naive.

Many of the advocates of gun control live in major cities with good police coverage and feel confident that police can protect them.

The reality is that a majority of US citizens do NOT live in such cities and where I grew up it can take up to an hour before police can arrive to respond to a 911 call.

Aside from that; if the citizens are unarmed; how easy would it be for a tyrannical government to force a police state upon them? That is the core reason for the 2nd Amendment. Not merely for citizens to protect themselves against criminals, but to protect themselves against the government.

The British made private gun ownership illegal in an attempt to quell rebellion.
The Nazis did the same before the sweeping draconic moves of fascism and totalitarian rule.

An unarmed populace is defenseless should the government become corrupt and destructive.

[cindyg]

As I said to a friend, I can get the concept of people wanting to own a gun to protect themselves; that people should have the choice to be armed or not. But I have difficulty wrapping my mind around assault weapons in the hands of a plain John/Jane Citizen.

No matter the size of the weapon, it has the potential to be lethal; if someone's going to wreak foolishness and mayhem, they will. I still can't see why assault weapons should be allowed to run loose among the general population.

BTW, I trust you and yours have come out of the recent inundation in safety and good health.

[hushdawg]

Thank God our apartment is on the 4th floor; getting home after work on Monday was a trek through about 2KM of raging rain and flooding streets until I could reach jeeps that were still plying the roads. Once I got home I was unable to get back out until yesterday morning.

How about you guys?

On the guns... please define "assault weapon" as you understand it. There is no official definition and it seems to be fluid.

Fully automatic weapons area already illegal in the USA for private ownership in most states.

[cindyg]

We came out fairly well, living as we do in the side of Makati that rarely experiences epic floods. Though I saw a picture where the pedestrian underpasses of Ayala Avenue promptly turned into water tunnels for the worst of the rainy weather.

There is no official definition of "assault weapon"? OK,then. As I use the term, an assault weapon is an AK-47 rifle, an Uzi hand gun...something with lots of power, primarily used in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to CNN, the weapons used in the theatre shootup were obtained legally. So if what I've described above falls under "fully automatic", there's going to be quite a discussion in that state for a good while.

[hushdawg]

The AR-15 rifle that the theater gunman used is a semi-automatic. That means you have to pull the trigger each time you want the weapon to fire. It jammed on him because he'd used after-market modifications to attach a barely compatible 100 round magazine. Then he drew a handgun (also semi-auto) and continued shooting.

There is a lot of evidence leaning toward mental conditioning of the shooter due to the glazed / hypnotic look he had for 48 hours after the incident. Interestingly this happened a week before anti-gun legislation was supposed to be voted on.

[xphilega]

Are you at flame kebab in brier creek?