owning guns for protection is the ultimate irony as it only makes you and your family more unsafe,even standard police officers should not have firearms in my opinion.

And you're opinion would be wrong. "Not allowed"? Even if it was illegal, how would that stop criminals from getting guns? Like drugs, it doesn't matter if it is against the law. I'm not a NRA member or a right wing conservative or any stereotypical gun defender. If criminals will always have guns, and they will, then I am glad that I have a gun and my police officers have a gun. Thinking a gun ban will protect your family is even more ironic.

The irony is that the whole thing is a never ending cycle of violence, irregardless of weapon type. There will always be 'evil' in this world, whether its a criminal or some rogue government. Owning a weapon does not guarantee your safety and in many cases puts you in a worse situation. Taking them away from those that use them for good purposes such sport does not reduce violence. If a criminal spots a target worth enough, even if that target is armed, the criminal will attack. Its all dependent on risk vs reward. If the person with the shotgun in the home or the carry permit is a high enough reward, then that person will be attacked by a criminal. That's the way it is, horrible as it may seem.

Guns? maybe not.

People should be allowed to have long barreled weapons with limited magazines, like shotguns and rifles. Hunting is a great tradition that is fairly unique to North America at this point. There are very few places in the world where you can 1) own your own rifle or shotgun and 2) at your discretion, with the proper permit, go out and shoot something and provide for yourself or your family.

In much of the world, hunting is something only the elite of the elite get to do, as the resources are far more scarce.

That being said, there isn't much reason to let people own a hand gun. How many of the public shootings in the past 30 years have been affected by people who have their own firearms? people illegally possessing firearms in areas where other people are not allowed to carry generally speaking doesn't help much.

For personal protection is a bunch of shit. If you want protection, get pepper spray or a taser. Fire arms are NOT effective means of defense in the distance that you can consider someone threatening your personal safety. As well, you can not safely protect another person from a distance more than 10 feet with a hand gun. You are more likely to hurt the person you are trying to protect.

Maybe you don't need to ban the guns, just raise the price of bullets to $100 a piece. :P

Next time a mugger or drug addict might think twice about spending a bullet, might cut into their drug and booze funds. ;)

All kidding aside, I'm ok with guns.

Uh yes.

Woooooow...... you know, everywhere rape is illegal, but there are still rapists around so why don't we just legalize the act of rape since it's not dying down!!???

People who are not even in a legal career profession (Police officers, FBI, ppl in the military...) should not have guns in the first place!!!!!! It is not the only long-distance weapon for "self-defense." Ever heard of a tazer or something else that doesn't kill your enemy like %80 of the time. All I know is that even if guns somehow do become illegal it's impossible to take all the guns in America that citizens have in their possession(-__-) but still there are other ways to protect yourself than using a weapon to shoot someone which can possibly kill them. (Take LL Cool J's for example...)
My choice of defense would either be mace, a tazer, breaking something hard over someone's head, or swinging my metal bat across their crotch area, or legs...



Call me crazy, but I would rather have my house robbed than be responsible for taking someone's life....

No, no guns.

As guns exist, criminals are going to get their hands on them and use them. Thus I see little reason to ban guns, although I would limit concealed carry as is done here in the states.

Making guns illegal would only benefit criminals.

Some people amaze me with there ''guns are wrong''. Thats ignorance, you take guns away how will cops stop a robbery,rape,breakin, or murder. banning guns wont stop violence . murder has allways been astablished if not guns rocks, stick, knifes. ID LIKE TO SEE YOU BAN ROCKS, STICKS, OR METALS. GUNS DONT KILL PEOPLE. PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE. I have over 20 guns and i use them to keep my family safe, feed my family, and keep rodents off my property

Guns are perfectly fine. People obviously know there are punishments for using one carelessly or inappropriately. Banning guns doesn't make people more peaceful. Guns allow us common folk another method of self-defense. If they were illegal, that means only soldiers, cops and the people who acquire them illegally will have them (most likely criminals).

It also means that the outdated guns will most likely see rapidly reducing production rate/use. Because police and military personnel will be encouraged to use the most efficient equipment, older guns will be retired and their material may be recycled to make better guns. These better guns will likely be the ones that criminals acquire illegally because they will be the most common. The most crafty criminals armed with the best guns while we have nothing isn't really a comforting thought. It is stupid to think that we can rely exclusively on the government to protect us. Taking away our guns while allowing the government to have all the firepower will cause a huge power swing. If there's a guy attacking your family, you shoot first and ask questions later. You don't wait 20 minutes for the police to arrive. It would be too late.

That being said, I don't think common folk have a use for high-powered automatic weapons used by special forces and soldiers. Automatic weapons should still be prohibited for civilian use, but pump-action shotguns and the like are fine.

I see no reason why people cannot own guns and wonder why it is governments are so against them.

Every time there is severe gun violence in the world people bring up again how they need to be controlled and/or banned.

We must look at the risks and benefits to guns. They provide a level of safety and security to average citizens in exchange for danger and misuse.

It is impossible to put the genie back in the bottle however. We cannot return to an age when guns were unavailable to the masses. I can literally create a gun capable of shooting through a car door with PVC pipes and potatoes.

That said, I agree with Watermelonheav that I see no reason a civilian should own an automatic weapon. However, it is difficult if not impossible to limit types of guns citizens can own such as banning the ownership of assault rifles. Many thousands of them have already been sold and exist in private collections. Collecting them all would prove almost wholeheartedly worthless as all you would do is get rid of the ones owned by the most law abiding citizens.

So it's difficult.

I think if I had a model to go off of it would be Switzerland where every family is REQUIRED BY LAW to own an assault rifle. Yeah, you heard that right. Who wants to go rob a Swiss house now eh? I wish we had the same requirement in the US. However I recognize it's an entirely different culture and that may result in severe consequences that would cause disasterous results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

So I'm all for maintainence of the status quo. Current US gun laws are variable from state to state and I think each state has a fair balance of gun control laws. No further changes are now required. For other countries do what works best for them I suppose although Britain's elimination of guns a few years ago struck me as utterly absurd wishful thinking of politicians living in fairy land.

I own Guns, But I use them for Home Defense, and Defense of My Family and My Self, and Defense of my Property, Plus I hunt with them.

Its always Going to Be a touchy Subject, but in the US it's a Right that cannot be taken away, By Law, They May ban certain types of guns which is Very Hard to do.

But you never Know how things will turn out, But There will always be guns, There not going to just disappear That's allot of Us Jobs Lost if they start banning all guns, Plus allot of Organizations Like NRA and GOA will always be there to Defend Guns rights.

Oh well in the end it will be one big debate.