It's about being able to protect yourself (and your neighbors
when they're being attacked) and being able to keep our
nation's leaders scared of trying to ever set up an extremely
oppressive government.

Some parts of America are safer than other parts. I have a
friend who never locks his Mercedes (and he never keeps
anything of value in it either) here in Lawrenceville, Georgia. When I attended Georgia Tech (downtown
Atlanta, Georgia) I always locked my bicycle everywhere
on campus.

We don't rely on the police to get to our homes in time
to stop criminals who are trying to break in. We just
assume they won't be able to get here fast enough to
stop the jerk(s) outside busting out our windows and
coming in.

are they just queueing up to get in your windows though? how many break-ins have you personally survived in your life?

0 break ins... my grandma got robbed once though. But I am in a good part when I go downtown its easy to get yourself into a bad situation just walking around.

I do not understand you. I just curious to learn about the USA system. Are you trying to be nasty?

nobody is being nasty.

sorry then. My english is my 5th language.

On the other hand, I do wonder the power of holding a weapon. I guess you feel strong and incharge.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America


discussion over =p

~~~
d3d on Feb 03 '08 at 4:02am
are they just queueing up to get in your windows though? how many break-ins have you personally survived in your life?
~~~

i was "nearly" mugged once... however i rolled my shoulders in such a way as to reveal the butt end of a Colt Commander .45 automatic to the very sketchy looking people that had matched my "crossing the street move" to still be coming right at me.

strangely they "fucked the fuck off outta my way" and back to the other side of the street =p

yeah? i got carjacked with a syringe full of blood once and i escaped unharmed and unarmed.

if they had attacked me i'd have killed all the mother fuckers then "planted" a knife if necessary to cover my ass..


double tap to the head w/ .45 would have left quite little of their heads intact.. and ruled open caskets straight out...

Maddingo is right, though I will probably never own a gun. It's too late to ban guns too many people have them. Too many people have illegal ones, while it's not the every day shootouts portrayed in movies. But there is enough people out there with guns.

I personally haven't been in a place when it was being
broken into and I'm over 30, but I'm ready if it ever
happens or if my neighbors are being attacked.

So far I've lived in fairly safe neighborhoods except
the years at Georgia Tech and all the doors lock
behind you in the dormitories. I didn't own a gun
while staying at Tech. One of my roommates was
robbed in the middle of the day while returning
to the campus after getting money from an ATM.
I'm not sure if a gun would have helped or hurt
that situation. My roommate really wasn't up
for talking about it and I didn't press any.

I can only remember once during my years at
elementary school that someone broke into our
house and stole things in the house. The other
robbery was of my dad's motorcycle from our garage.

d3d on Feb 03 '08 at 4:02am
are they just queueing up to get in your windows though? how many break-ins have you personally survived in your life?

That's a very good point. I mean, the chances of you being shot by an intruder would also be reduced by banning guns. You're more likely to get knifed here, and that's because people get into stupid fights in bars.

There is something I find deeply disturbing about people carrying out weapons designed to kill people. But then, I just don't get war either, at a totally basic level.

Maybe I'm just a hippy.

that's a reasonable response i suppose. brutally kill everyone the second you feel threatened.

And helo, okay, you got robbed, but would you rather get robbed and go 'shit, well, there goes that thing' or catch the guy, shoot him and have a charge of manslaughter laid against you?

yeah Todow ... it is unwise as well as "too late"

gun deaths are up in the UK as is violent crime in general since the violent scum bag criminals know 'law abiding citizens' may not be armed.

the Founding fathers where quite clear on this issue the armed citizenry of the United States is also to serve as a safeguard against tyranny

~~~
d3d on Feb 03 '08 at 4:29am
that's a reasonable response i suppose. brutally kill everyone the second you feel threatened.
~~~

btw i said if they had "attacked" me... if it was 4 on me big thuggy gang bangy guys.. yeah i'd have killed them if necessary..

Ok not that I am supporting guns or anything, where you have anti gun laws do you allow hunting rifles (another thing that I don't support)? Because while that isn't as effective as shooting some one with a 9 mm it still puts you at more of an advantage than a knife.

Oh and I was saying he was right in reference to the comment about the 2nd amendment, while I would like it to be changed it's way to late for that.

"too late" is a bullshit term. everything survives by adapting.

does no one remember Red Dawn?!



wolverines!

Because we did such a good job banning alcohol in the twenties. I'm open for stricter gun control, but if we get rid of them the people who want them will still get them. We have such a bad illegal gun problem now removing guns would only increase this.

there are estimates of up to 235million guns in private hands in the United States of America.

many even previously law abiding persons would not "voluntarily" surrender these weapons ..(I would not either).

personally i don't really give a fuck about the "too late" argument anyways as i think that it is one of the more brilliant inclusions to the Constitution of the United States of America.

there is no reason why the people of America should give up this fundamental right and leave all the weapons (legal) in the hands of the gov and of course MILLIONS in the hands of criminals.

regardless also if Australians could stop having opinions as to what we Americans should strike from our constitution that would be GREAT =p as we don't tell y'all to stop molesting kangaroos

on that i'm going to bed.

ecky ducky, read my comment again. I didn't say I
ever came face to face with a robber, and I don't know
enough of the details of my roommate's situation where
he was robbed to determine if a gun would have helped
him or not.

My boss from the days when I worked at a radio electronics
store had a store in Birmingham, Alabama and he told
me of the time some guys decided to just sit in front of his
store for no reason for a couple of hours up to closing time.
He had to lock up the store about an hour after everyone
else left so he was by himself when he left and those guys
were still there. He exited the building and just stood
in the doorway with his hands on his hips holding back
his jacket so they could see that he had his revolver
at his belt. After waiting all those hours the fellows just
decided to get up and leave. No robbery and no fires shot.
My ex-boss said he was very glad to have that gun.

the 2nd Amendment being the aforementioned brilliant inclusion

I think I want to move. So how is Australia?

Australia is nice right now.

The second amendment...dude, that was written during a civil war. I'm all for going 'okay, it was relevant then, but why should we maintain a right just because it's a right? Why not approach it with reason and determine whether it ought to be continued?' Just saying 'it's in the constitution' is a weak argument.

And helo, that's cool, I didn't say you saw the robber, I'm just saying that I think the risks outweigh the benefits.

the main reason is so we arent taken over by our own government, you take the guns away and we are easily stuck in a police state.

I think guns don't kill people, People kill People, but sometimes people's emotions are very strong so keeping a gun is still very dangerous, life's unpredictable, today you're fine, tomorrow...who knows,you might be come a mad person becuz there might be strong reasons for that and the only way to stop is to point and pull the trigger, either to your ownself or to people you are so mad with, but even if there's no guns, people can still kill people

Whoa. Is that a generalised fear in America? That your government is going to turn the world into a police state? That's fucked up.

I love the 2nd amendment . . . it keeps our nation's leaders
scared of trying to ever set up an extremely oppressive
government. An armed citizenry is much harder to put
under a ruler's thumb than those who had their weapons
taken away.

I don't think the risks outweigh the benefits. If someone
is stupid enough to engage in behavior that causes another
to think their life is in danger, then it's self-preservation
time. And if you're not prepared to preserve yourself,
then you have to rely on others to save you. And that's
a risk I'm definitely not willing to try.

I am quite honestly baffled by the argument that you need guns to keep the government "afraid" of setting up a police state. What is so wrong with America and the American constitution that the only thing making it "work" is an armed citizenry. Were "the founding fathers" really so convinced that America was doomed to fail otherwise?

I agree with Mr John.

Yep, to an outsider this all seems quite bizarre

I agree that it's too late for the US to change now, since they have had the right to bear arms from the start. If you compare the situation to the UK, where it's easy to get a gun but only the criminals have them, I can't see that our situation is necessarily preferable although I think there would be far more gun deaths in Britain if firearms were legal.

Someone had to do it.

Ah fuck.

Don't understand - has it to do with the right to arm bears?

Literally "the right to bear arms."

Australia is great. I love Australia. It is my second home

Man, I loved Ali G when he could still get away with those kinda interviews

Thanks John (me - duh). AliG was funny, shame he became "Borat" with just the one joke.

squatterjohn, no one said it's the only thing that is making America work.

I can't help but feel gratitude to those who were wise to
include the 2nd amendment in our Constitution. The
negativity towards it is perplexing. Do you think the
law breakers in a society will actually stop owning
guns because the law makes it illegal? May those of
you who live in a society that bans gun ownership
never ever end up facing a situation where you are
forced to protect yourself (or others) from those who
ignore that ban. If it ever happens, you will wish you
were prepared to fight fire with fire - and just owning
a gun is not enough, you have to prepare your mind
(attitude) and body with training so if things ever get
bad you have already practiced many times what your
reaction will be.

There are areas of America with anti-gun laws such
as New York City and Washington D.C. - which is
totally unConstitutional but the citizens in those
areas put up with it. So just because a people have
rights being protected in the law books doesn't mean
the government won't try to whittle away at them.
To keep your rights you must be diligent and tenacious.
If you lose them, it's hard to get them back. I think
it would be good to ask yourself if being content with
anti-gun laws is an unhealthy optimism or an unfounded
trust in others to keep you safe if things go really bad.

Some of us, perhaps, just have a less paranoid world view

prove the paranoia

I think
it would be good to ask yourself if being content with
anti-gun laws is an unhealthy optimism or an unfounded
trust in others to keep you safe if things go really bad.

Neither. I think it's a way of limiting mindless and quick-response violence. You wonder why the US has an extraordinarily high number of deaths from firearms. It's a matter of having external systems in place - whether it be a security alarm, or security staff at your workplace, or some other system in place to help you deal with threats without poppin' a cap in someone's ass.

Being prepared for the worst isn't paranoia. It's just
just thinking ahead. We should all do the same with
first aid kits in our cars, or have extra food and water
in case you need to leave your home due to a storm, etc. etc.

That's different though, those are all positive measures. The opposite would be having a car that shot bullets at car-jackers and a few rifles under the bed in case starving people tried to break in and steal your food after a flood.

I personally think (omgosh thats an amazing statement even if I ended the sentence right there) that its a vicious cycle that teh American people do not really want to stop.

They feel unsafe because there are guns, and yet they have guns because they feel unsafe.












However, guns are legal in Canadia (okay Canada) and they have a significantly less amount of shootings.


I don't even know what my point is anymore.

Ho Hum