Why don't Americans fight against the firearms laws where everybody has the right to carry arms?

Question

I am a German living in Germany. I will never understand why each adult American has the right to carry firearms and to buy them. Aren't there too many crimes? Could America not avoid many crimes if they would install a law where carrying firearms would be severely restricted to persons who prove that they really need a firearm, prove that they are mentally sane?

Sorry, I do understand, when you have to defend against wild animals, or when you are hunter, you need an arm, but isn't it police's task to defend you in normal life?

And: Maybe in Switzerland many people have got arms. They have executed the military service. But the use of this arms is also strictly restricted.

Drake, so how can it happen that a mentally unsain man is able to kill more than 30 persons, how is it possible that such a person can buy one weapon a month, when, as you say, only people who obey the law are able to by weapons?

What I have to emphasize: I also fight against arm trade here in Germany.

Aaron: I am of a generation who has nothing to do with Hitler who was a disaster for the world (sorry for my bad English!) I do not want to have a repeat of Nazi-Germany!

But our history proves that many crimes can be avoided when resticting the right to carry firearms....

I only want to understand, am not living in the States. As I am informed smoking and drinking alcohol in public is forbidden there, why not carrying arms? Are cigarets and alcohol worse than arms?

Answer 1

Because what you propose is actually backward.

In a society where very few own guns, the skills to make munitions with a single trip to home depot can turn into disaster! The more people that own guns, is less opportunistic situations criminals have to take advantage of.

Here's a really awesome thread.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=52&threadid=2034813

I looked at it expecting a flame war, but most of the senseful posts are all in concurrence.

Here's my favorite post of it so far:


Originally posted by: CaptainGoodnight
I have lived in many other countries before moving to the US. I have lived places that had strict gun control and little crime and I have lived in places that had more guns then America and still had little crime.

The difference? America because of it's history and culture has had an element of violence much more so than other places I have lived.

You can take away the guns, knifes, and other pointy objects, but that capacity for violence still exists.

Blaming it on just guns is a form of intellectual surrender.



Another good bit:
I see it as a failure of logic from the "ban guns" "more laws" anti-gun lobby.

The campus had a rule: No guns on campus.
The state had a law: Don't shoot at people with your gun.
The state had another law: Don't kill people.

Fat lot of good those laws did.



Oh yeah:
A couple years back there was a shootout in a Las Vegas Casino between the Hell's Angels and another motorcycle gang. There were several shooters, in the end I dont think there were any deaths just some injuries.

Its alot harder to kill people when they can fight back.

Answer 2

If you are in a forest with a rifle, it will be considered that you are hunting in most cases. National Forests allow firearms and target practice, but there are many rules and exceptions, like not near buildings, roads, populated areas, etc. In National Parks, no firearms are allowed. National Wildlife Management areas, no firearms, BLM land usually allows firearms. ALL are also subject to state law. Find the webpage of the National Forest you are visiting and see what theuir policy is. You should at the very least have a Michigan permit to carry. Know the difference between a Park and Forest. I do overnite hiking trips or canoe trips at least a couple times a year, some in popular areas and some in remote backwoods. While 98% of the people you run into are polite nature lovers like me, there have been a few incidents that cause me to carry whenever I am away from civilization. When law enforcement may be days away, you need to be self-reliant. Also, I have had my car broken into at trailheads more times that I can remember, so my 4x has no radio or valuables in it, and I actually carry my registration and insurance papers with me on the trail.

Answer 3

From many of your supplemental statements you have many things wrong about the United States.

First of all not every adult is permitted to carry a firearm. The right to carry one is controlled by states individually. Some states are very liberal and allow all non-criminal non-mentally disturbed people to acquire a license. That license to carry can be revoked for misuse or other reasons. The decision to carry a firearm comes with a lot of responsibility so relatively few choose do to so.

It is also true that in areas where the right to carry a firearm is severely restricted, the crime rate tends to be higher. Such as Washington D.C.

We in America realize that outlawing firearms only insures that only outlaws will have them. That is not the desired situation.

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Answer 4

It's part of our constitution. The second amendment gives us the right to "bear arms". Our founding fathers recognized that the average citizen needed the ability to legally have guns because otherwise only the soldiers would have them and it makes it more likely that the soldiers could contol the country.

America was until fairly recently a pioneer country with many dangers and I still know people who hunt for meat to feed their families. In both cases guns were needed. Where I live mountain lions roam freely near my house. America is much different than Germany or most of Europe.

How does one prove that you're mentally sane? You could only prove that nobody has noticed that you're not mentally disturbed.

Guns are illegal in Japan and yet an official was just killed there with one.

Answer 5

America has a law against drugs and we have more drugs sold than any other country,we also put a ban on alcohol in the twenties and all it did was create people like Al Capone and mafia syndicates,You in Germany along with France The US England and Russia supply the world with weapons,it is one of your most profitable exports and no one points fingers,it is worse to manufacture and sell arms than it is to buy them
By the way,why did your system failed when 8 Jewish athletes were murdered in the Olympics hosted by Germany

Answer 6

Simply because Americans don't like being told what to do. Does anyone really believe that crime,murder, and all other firearm offences would not occur if firearms were restricted? It is a myth, in Germany there is still crime, murder, etc. Evil we will always have with us. the instrument of evil is purely up to the user.

Answer 7

We do have laws pertaining to who can have a gun, though they vary from state to state.

If you look at it statistically, Japan has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, yet they still have a high amount of crime.

When you look at the country Switzerland (atleast I think that's the one), they say that every household is required to have a gun, and at least one person certifiably trained with it, and we see that there is a reduced amount of crime there.

I'm not saying that guns are good or bad right now, we just need to look at all the facts and statistics so that a wise choice can be made.

Answer 8

The "right to bear arms" was not taken literally as it was supposed to be. They think the American Constitution allows everyone the right to have guns, rather than the right to literally take grizzly bear arms and hang 'em off your wall.

Seriously though, read the 2nd Amendment in the American Constitution.

Answer 9

We don't like being victims. No matter how much you think gun laws keep people from buying guns, it doesn't. We had a ban on guns for the longest time and while that ban was on, I bought two assault rifles and a fully automatic rifle. So, if you think we're just going to sit here on our bums and let others come kill us, you've got another thing coming.

Answer 10

Ask your neighbors in Switzerland. They own more guns than US. Also not every american can get a gun. Only people who obey the law.