Should Americans be allowed to own handguns?

Question

It wasn't too long ago that most Americans had common sense but nowdays if you buy an axe at a hardware store you see a warning label that you may get hurt. When you buy a power tool it seems the first ten pages are about safety in the use of the tool. Twenty years ago owning a firearm was all about common sense. On the east coast of the USA people may tend to be concerned saying what do you need a gun for and on the west coast it was no big deal with open areas to shoot and it didn't seem all that visible. Presently it seems punk kids wanted to be treated as adults or just plain stupid get guns and think they can justify careless use of guns. I think there have always been people who were never meant to own guns because some people don't seem to understand how to own guns without getting in trouble.

I am a gunowner BTW. I have 3 concealed permits from 3 states and took a defense class which I think would help everyone to know how and when to protect yourself. I believe in high capacity magazines

Answer 1

yes we may need to defend our homeland one day in our backyard

Answer 2

Yes, they should be allowed to own any type of firearm.

Don't punish the sensible, law abiding, mentally stable people, for the dumb ***, immature, law breaking delinquent actions of some people.

Blame the parents who didn't do their job raising these kids. They just drop them in front of the T.V., computer or Xbox and can't figure out what went wrong.

I used to see parents and their kids spending time together, now they hardly know each other.

I'll bet most parents can't even name their kids three best friends, or their kids favourite outfit to wear, or a special musical group they like. How about something simpler, what was their last homework assignment and what grade did they get?

You'll find a lot of these people who commit these shooting crimes, felt that they weren't connected to anyone or anything. If you have no connections, you really can't be expected to care or empathise for anyone.

Making more laws will do nothing, but caring and connecting with your kids and family will do a world of good.

Answer 3

Starts with the Magna Carte, then ideas follow through in John Locke's "Two Treaties of Government" and Edmund Burke's commentary on English Law. The Founding Document of this Great Nation recognized that there is a God-given right to life, thus self-preservation is a human right that transends all government restraints. The Second Amendment is the recognition that the government can't subvert that right.

Answer 4

Places with a high per capita of gun owners in the general population are surprisingly safer and have less crime. If more people had guns then they could defend themselves, the logic being criminals wouldn't be the only ones armed and are less likely to jump someone if they think he's packing

Of course proper education is a must. If guns were more dispersed tragedies like Virginia Tech wouldn't have happened or at least to such an extent. could you imagine how many people could have lived if only one person was armed and defended them. They were just picked off one by one like animals.

Never had a chance.

Answer 5

I would rather have a gun, to use for someone trying to kill me, than an axe. I know how use the gun.
It is the parents responsibility to teach the kids about the guns. I had three guns 5 kids, and not 1 of the kids would touch it. They knew the dangers of it. But there again, I didn't let my kids play with the violent video games that show killing cops, students, and people is fun, and you get points for it.
Dumbest thing, people can do to occupy a child's mind.

Answer 6

There are too many guns in circulation to really have any chance of disarming the US. It's impractical. The best course to attempt to disarm us would probably be to restrict ammo but even that would have a limited effect.
I see your point and I tend to agree with it. We are evolving into a culture that rejects all personnel responsibility so guns are probably a bad idea for us. There is not much we can do about it though.
If every law enforcement employ in the country was tasked to simply confiscate guns to the exclusion of all other duties there still wouldn't be enough to do the job and half would be unwilling.

Answer 7

Of course Americans should be allowed to own handguns! You should be able to walk into a store and buy one, no questions asked!

And people should know how to use them. I've fired off guns myself at someone's house in the boonies, and I have the common sense to always act as if a gun is loaded (never assume it isn't) and to not walk in front of others shooting guns.

Answer 8

It should be the right of an American citizen to carry a hand gun, but not machine guns, bazookas or grenades. Personally, I was a Conscientious Objector when in the Army, but I believe in the right to carry weapon for self defense, whoever thinks that will be of any help.

Answer 9

Your axe example is wonderful. People have never been able to all responsibly use axes either. Otherwise, we wouldn't have the Frost poem "Out, out" or the quintessential

Lizzie Borden took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks
when she saw what she had done
she gave her father forty-one.

Warning labels are to protect a company from legal liability, not the consumer from injury. In truth, unless we hire someone to watch over each individual all day, we cannot prevent people from stupidly harming themselves (or others).

An axe safety label should read "Dude, this thing is sharp and it will cut through your body if you swing it at yourself. If you swing it at a hard object, it will bounce off and cut you on the backswing because you are soft and squishy and cuttable. So keep your temper, keep your body away from the blade, and don't try to chop cement. If you cut off your leg, its your own darned fault"

Of course, this is rather verbose, so they write instead "Caution! Object has sharp edges. Care should be taken to prevent personal injury."

The government has agreed with you about restrictions for firearm ownership among certain classes for decades. The Gun Control Act of 1968 first restricted ownership and was clarified in 1986.

From Wikipedia's entry on the Firearm Owners' Protection Act, the follwing persons may NOT own a gun:[1]
* Anyone who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding 1 year, excluding those crimes punishable by imprisonment related to the regulation of business practices.
* Anyone who is a fugitive from justice.
* Anyone who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.
* Anyone who has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution.
* Any alien illegally or unlawfully in the United States or an alien admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa.
* Anyone who has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions.
* Anyone who, having been a citizen of the United States, has renounced his or her citizenship.
* Anyone that is subject to a court order that restrains the person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such intimate partner.
* Anyone who has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
* A person who is under indictment or information for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year cannot lawfully receive a firearm. Such person may continue to lawfully possess firearms obtained prior to the indictment or information.

The purchase of handguns by persons under 21 has been illegal since 1968.

Answer 10

We absolutely should be able to own handguns. If we take them out of law abiding citizens hands we'll have no way of defending ourselves. After all, murder is already illegal and it doesn't keep people from doing it so how can making guns illegal help. The bad guys will have them anyway.

Answer 11

If we have people that can't be trusted with right of self protection then we need to get them out of this country