Extreme gun enthusiasm however is potentially dangerous, like the man who is aiming to stockpile 1000 rounds for each of his 25 firearms.
That sort of depends on what weapons you have, your budget, and how often you go shooting. I have an acquaintance who has a federal automatic weapons license who not uncommonly goes through several hundreds of rounds of ammo for one of his 'toys' in a single shooting session, and when the day is good and the company "well-regulated", a thousand rounds isn't out of the question.
So for him to "stockpile" 5k rounds for such a weapon isn't unreasonable.
Similarly, with .22 rounds, I've gone through more than half a brick on more than a few occasions, and on some splendid weekends have cracked a second brick -- thus, for my .22-cal weapons, storing up 5k isn't unreasonable (now, when I was manic/compulsive a few years back and literally couldn't pass up a sale on .22 ammo, I piled up a lot more than that, but now I'm paying the price: a lot of duds).
But if I were to stock up a thousand for, say, my Enfield, that would be more than a little crazy -- save in the case of wild civil disorder, like being holed up in a cabin fighting off followers of Dobson or some such, i can't see how I would possibly burn off that amount of rounds before they started having problems.
Yeah I have to somewhat disagree with this. It’s not easy to draw and fire accurately under pressure, and if someone ambushes you and demands your wallet – and then you go for your gun, they’re gonna shoot you.
If everyone is armed, they’re not even going to bother with the demand, they’re just gonna shoot you in the back and then rob you.
Back right after conceal and carry was passed here in Texas, two idiots got into a gunfight in a Wal-Mart parking lot over a parking space. Luckily no one was hurt, but it kind of illustrates the fact that in situations where there are altercations and easy acess to firearms, idiots will use them.
Now I’m not an advocate of banning guns, I grew up with guns – I got my first rifle when I was 8. But claiming that guns are gonna protect you from crime is not a good argument in my opinion.
But guns do in fact protect people from crime -- and criminals, even armed criminals, have a tendency to flee from armed citizens.
As for drawing and firing under pressure, that's where being "well-regulated" comes in, and is why requiring training to get a concealed license/permit is arguably constitutional.
BTW, that anecdote is a weak approach to argument: that's two people out of how many who have their concealed licenses there? I'll just note that in Texas, concealed-carry license holders are nearly 6 times less likely to be arrested for a violent crime than someone in the general population, and over half those arrested for anything at all are exonerated.
I've also heard that crime statistics have DROPPED in US States where conceal-and-carry laws have been introduced.
. . . .
Something is terribly wrong in the US for this to be happening. Your people are horrified by the death of 4000 soldiers in Iraq, yet 120,000 Americans have been killed since the Iraq invasion - on American soil. Maybe gun control isn't the answer, but what is??
In truth -- as noted by John Lott and other researchers -- the change in crime is not merely a drop: violent crime drops when law-abiding citizens can get a concealed-carry license "on demand" (after meeting the training/knowledge requirements), but crimes not involving persons go up. There's an overall drop, but it's not as dramatic as it's occasionally portrayed. The real difference is that people are less likely to be harmed -- but the back side is that their property is a bit more likely to get harmed.
I keep wondering where crimes against minorities fit into that....
If you subtract suicides and criminal-v-criminal shootings, the figures are amazingly low. I don't know what to do about the suicides; I've lost a number of friends to that, and none were by firearm -- they were determined, and successful. But as for criminals killing criminals, I figure it's part of the cost of the life they chose.
Google appears to get it. I think it's a hoot that so may of the lefties eschew firearms ownership. They'll be that much easier to eliminate at some point.
The armed shall inherit the earth -- that's been often true in history, when things collapse. Often that also means that the rural types inherit it, as those in the cities who are unarmed lose out, and those who are kill each other off....
Absolutely. And if you want a gun license you need to be trained. You need a license to drive a car, you should need a license for a gun at a bare minimum with training and a test to prove you know how to handle one.
I've gotten long past arguing about guns on the internet as they are not going anywhere anytime soon. On the other hand, pro-gun people do need to simply admit that their stance means they are fine with
31,000 deaths per year from guns which is about equal to
vehicle deaths per year of 34,000.
So frankly I'm more interested in finding ways of reducing that 31,000 in half, and what means we can use to get there. Education, licensing, fines, taxes, etc.
1. Driving is not a constitutionally-protected natural right. Further, driving requires moving a vehicle on someone else's property -- even in a pure libertarian society, someone would own the roads, and that someone would get to make rules, and that would entail licenses.
2. True. I've pointed out here before that it's possible to order from Sears everything necessary to make good firearms.
3. I support the laws which add non-reduceable time to any sentence for a crime where the perpetrator employed a firearm, from merely letting it be seen to actually firing it, through the different degrees of harm. They've been shown to be effective. In fact, they're more effective than all the other gun-control laws ever passed combined, because criminals don't want to face time they can't avoid due to good behavior or anything else, and the extra time for having made use of a firearm can't be reduced in any way at all, under such laws.
I also support teaching the NRA's award-winning
Eddie Eagle program in every school in the country. With it's "Do not touch!" mantra, and "Tell an adult!" admonition, it's been crediting with saving a good number of children's lives.
Of course I'm a bit radical here; I'd also require every person to pass basic firearms courses before graduating middle school and then high school, focusing on the basic elements of safety. People who are trained in safety as kids are far less likely to abuse the things later on.
