How does anyone convince Americans that handguns are bad?

Question

They dont seem to be able to grasp the notion that no guns (for citizens, not coppers) makes for a better world?

I'd like some non-American views this time around.

Yes, I've heard that old argument a dozen times. More reason as to why we don't need guns.

Thank you Mad Dog...I was beginning to think the whole world lost thier senses.

And Tracy, you did not see the comments (ALL AMERICAN) on my former question of the same nature...comments so shameful I just flushed them down the toilet...and thus my NON American posed question. Unless you agree with the "its people and not guns that kill" attitudes.

My point is that HANDGUNS are not necessary and really should be banned. Only cops need and should have guns. You want to own a rifle (or knife or club or hand) then at least one stands a chance for survival.

Sorry John McD buts you cannot compare Switzerland to America.

I gather you are trying to make a point that if Jews had guns Hitler could never have killed them? And ditto for Turkey?

It's so easy to spot an American. ;~)

Peacefulwaterwolf so if we all had guns there would be peace on earth....I don't need to hurt Americans, you do a good enough job of that yourselves. PS I'm printing your answer out and framing it.

JUAN, surely you cannot compare the middle east to your America? But I think you are onto something because the way the American government is if I lived there I would want to own a gun too.

Good think I don't, but I don't want American guns infiltrating our country and arming young punk gangsters who go downtown and because someone looks at them the wrong way they think they can shoot at each other across populated streets.

For that we can thank Americans and their need...no right..to own HANDGUNS.

Can people please read when I say HANDGUNS. Do RIFLES not do enough injury? You want to protect your home a rifle is good enough no? Last time I looked those indians were long beaten back.

No mojo, you guys make a BIG issue about anything and everything when all I was talking about was GUNS, and handguns...those little things you can hide nicely in your pocket before you blow your best friend's head off in school or walk into a bank or store yada yada...yeah I guess that would be your second amendment there as you put it...your freedom...which all depends on the mighty gun.

Answer 1

Some of the first nations to outlaw guns were: Turkey, prior to the genocide of the Armenians; Germany, prior to the genocide of the Jews; and Russia, prior to the oppression of all of Eastern Europe.

***I cannot guarantee things would have been different otherwise, but it is at the very least PROOF that eliminating legal private ownership of guns does NOT prevent violence. The constitution recognizes this fact and empowers the average American to protect him or her self.

You will never get outlaws and government militaries to give up their guns, and the law-abiding citizens who follow any confiscation laws aren't the ones you should be afraid of in the first place. Look at Switzerland, almost everyone in the country owns a gun and yet violent crime is extremely low.

***Sure, you can't compare Switzerland to the U.S. But you gotta realize that by that logic you can't compare the U.S. to a nation that DOESN'T have a history of legal gun ownership and/or access to guns. So which country has no guns and no violence so that we can model ourselves after them?

The more important issues are access to education and opportunity.


***By the way: If you want to convince Americans that guns are bad, you're not going to get far by only considering solutions from non-Americans. As a whole, I do not think most Americans trust their government very much (especially these days), and you have no idea how wicked the resistance would be, with 80 million legally registered gun owners.

Answer 2

Well guns are not evil it is the intent of the person behind them. You might take the guns from people like they did in Hitler's day. But you cannot stop a drug dealer or bank robber from getting a gun on the black-market. What would you do if a person break into your house with a gun that they got on the black-market and you as a citizen could not have one? Why do you want Americans not to have guns? There is a movie about a group of people who wanted to take over America so they took over a high school. The kids had no way of stopping them or protecting themselves. Guns are in our history. Have Guns mean that we can petition the government and go hunting for food. American special the rednecks and hillbillies live by their guns. Why do you want to change our history? Why would you seek non-American to answer a question that is aim at us? Why are you so bend on hurt America?

Answer 3

I might have agreed with you before being overseas. Have seen the results of that type of gun control first hand. Where the general population was at the mercy of 1. The Federal Police 2. The Federal army. and 3. The rebel forces: Constantly being robbed, raped and killed by them with no recourse and no protection.

Answer 4

Having no guns is great until you run into someone who thinks you need to be doing what they want and is willing to hurt you to make it happen.

So, here's how to make Americans see handguns are bad:

Eliminate all threats of criminal activity. All of it, especially physical violence.

Make government 100% transparent to and not a threat to any citizen. No bad cops, no cops at all, no legislators or presidents that disagree with anyone at all.

Eliminate all sources of external threats. No potential invasion from anywhere, this includes Mexico and Canada.

Alternatively, and oddly much simpler way to get Americans to drop handguns is to require every able bodied (and able-minded) American to own, possess, and train with a rifle. Then allow any and every law-abiding American to freely carry a rifle, carbine, or shotgun everywhere. Handguns, by comparison, would lose support rather quickly...

Answer 5

As a Canadian, I'm always shocked to see the "someone else might have a gun so the world will be a safer place if all of the rest of us have a guns" logic.
I suspect that the murder rates and accidental killing rates will have to go even higher for common sense to prevail finally.
What if another country had nuclear weapons? Should all of the other countries get nukes too? For self-defence only of course. Hang on a sec, why did USA and Russia agree to nuclear disarmament? Because it doesn't make sense for everyone to arm themselves to the hilt, that's why.
(is peacefulwaterwolf actually saying that the school full of kids in the movie she saw should have been armed? great idea! "don't forget your assignment and your Glock honey - have a good day!")

Answer 6

Not all of us think they are good. Generalizing about "what Americans think" comes across as arrogant and paternalistic.

** I thought your post was arrogant and paternalistic, then I read your addenda and now know it to be so. It would be like Americans presuming all Britons enjoy drinking cheap alcopop to excess and spending the weekends violently puking in the gutters outside tacky nightclubs while singing "You'll Never Walk Alone," because it appears so many of them DO enjoy that as a past time. But we don't make the mistake of presuming all of them do.

Answer 7

Your wasting your time, most Americans think like the guy above me... Its people bad, not the weapons... They cannot make a link that guns makes thing easier, and a lot badder when it comes to solving some delicate problems...
They are living in a culture when guns are as normal as buying clothings... So they have a way to go before thinking gun control may be good for them... I guess it will take 10 virginia tech to make them believe weapons are bad... The problems is by the time it will happen, it will already be too late... Their society is too permissive, and too much freedom is like not enough... They are going to hang themselves with this issue! Can't help them...

Answer 8

Without guns we'd be paying tax on our tea to some idiot "across the pond". And as far as I am concerned, those above the boarder need to shut up as they'd be speaking German if we'd not had guns. Get a life and get off guns. It's our constitution that guarantees us the RIGHT to bear arms. Opinions are just that...opinions.

Answer 9

Sorry. Until the second amendment is repealed (Not going to happen) citizens owning weapons is legal. Deal with it.

Answer 10

I know. You guys don't believe in any of our freedoms really and to hell with the second amendment and our fore fathers, right?