Why do Americans want to keep their guns?

Question

How many school and college shootings will it take? You've got a murder rate way higher than most of the world, 4 to 5 times the UK per capita rate.

And before someone starts going on about Dunblane, that was a paedophile who had some form of psychotic break, and a bit different to some hormone sodden teenager who can legally get his hands on a gun. We haven't had a gun rampage sunce we changed the laws. Fewer guns means less gun crimes. Duh. Most British people don't even know what a 'home invasion' is. How hard would that crime be without a gun?

Your firearms death rate is 36 times ours, and your general homicide rate 4.5 times (it varies a little from year to year). It's 9 times higher than the Swiss.

So guns don't kill people? You're right, people with guns kill people.

missknowitall our rape rate is less than half the US norm.

About the only valid reason I can see for owning a gun from your answers is fear of your govt. I'd just like to say that the UK police force is usually unarmed, and we use the media to keep our gov under control. Barring terrorists we've not had any kind of internal conflict for hundreds of years.

Answer 1

Because arms dealer and manufacturers are Americans and it is a great business. Nobody care and American Rifle is always in "office"

Answer 2

Good question but a lot of negative answers. Nobody could come up with an answer that was not about some law or some national rifle saying and by the way Mr national rifle saying you are a dumb f#$%#. The reason for having guns in the United States is for recreation hunting, clay pigeons and just shooting at targets. Guns are bad when they get in the wrong hands and they would not be any more harmful if they were in Britian. Death is caused by bad people and not all people with guns are bad you must understand that. By banning guns in the United States you would be punishing people that are good citizens for a few bad ones. In your country they use bombs much more problem than guns how will they control that. While we have our guns it is like national security would you want to come to this country and try to take over? I think not your army would be snipped by a bunch of red neck deer hunters so you see there is a positive side to a question that relates to a very small problem.

Answer 3

I could easily counter with "how many instances of national genocide (Nazi's, Bosnia, Rwanda, Dafur) does it take" for you to realize that government is not always your friend and will not always be there to protect you.

Owning firearms is one of the ways that African Americans survived the mob actions and lynchings of the "Jim Crow" era. Bet you didn't know that. And some early gun control was an attempt to disarm those African Americans so the racist mobs could have at them.

As long as guns are owned by citizens, yes there will be the occasional wrongful shooting, as well as some that are justified, but there won't be lines of disarmed scapegoats being packed into cattle cars headed for the camps.

Without the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, all of your other freedoms are dependent upon the whims of government. And when government doesn't take care of you, only you can take care of yourself.

Answer 4

Mandatory gun ownership for all citizens (applied in the US in some areas) has proven to be even more effective than banning guns when it comes to stopping violent crime and murder.

The issue isnt legitmate guns, it is the lack of control on illegal weapons and illegally sold weapons. Forcing legal owners to jump through hoops or lose their guns isnt going to help that for awhile. We would then have to wait while the criminals were armed and the people werent, relying on the police to protect us from everything and having no protection from oppressive leaders and their workers (ie. politicians and police officers).

Answer 5

It is their constitutional right. I wish the UK was the same. All right, some might say that there would be accidental shootings, etc. but sometimes it is necessary to accept a negative for the greater good of society. A good example of this is our vitrtual acceptance of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents - I mean, nobody suggests banning cars.

Answer 6

If arms bearing were allowed on campus at Virginia Tech, where everybody could have protected themselves from the criminal, then instead of 32 deaths, it might have been a small handful instead. Still not good but we do live in an imperfect world. The murderer could have gotton the weapons illegally anyways, although in this case he did get them legally: the system was flawed to let him sneak through.

We need to put ourselves in the shoes of those threatened/murdered at the time. It must have been so helpless. It's real LIFE we're talking about.

Answer 7

if you own a gun you are a citizen. if you don't own a gun you are a subject.

i Think The first one is best. in The USA th government knows if they go to far like they are doing here in the UK the American citizen will put the government in its place or REPLACE It

if you out law guns only out laws will have them. pleas try to remember when you take away guns people still kill each other with bow and arrow. if you take knives they use sharp sticks, take the sticks and they use .rocks ropes, broken bottles ,hands or whatever. its not the gun. its the person

Answer 8

Because in a free & democratic nation, individuals have the right to defend themselves.

The atrocities you speak of are societal problems, & will not be fixed by punishing law-abiding citizens from owning/operating firearms in a safe manner.
Stripping the citizens of any country from owning personal protection is a very slippery slope, as it allows any government to further erode civil liberties & rights without fear of reprisal.
Case in point, Germany & Holland, pre WW II.

Answer 9

Our right to bear arms stated in our Bill of Rights.

The fact that every home in Switzerland has a gun and yet they have almost no gun crime?

How hard is it to invade a home with a different assault weapon? Not all deaths are due to guns.

Answer 10

For a very sensible reason!
In this country a big violent man can get his own way very easily!
In America that man would think twice before causing trouble!
Why?
Because even the smallest person who carries a gun can stop him. Dead!

Answer 11

OK - with all that above perhaps I can add this perspective

1- we do not trust our Police and courts to protect us in the dead of night
2 - there is some sense of personal responsibility for ones safety

The UK also has a much more homogeneous society than the US so there is less conflict.