Do you feel save?

Hi.. I did'nt really know where to put this tread.
I from Denmark, and i recently saw Michael Moore's documentary, Bowling for Columbine. I thought it was so scary. in Denmark no average people is allowed to have a gun. But you guys are, do you feel safe? i mean. Do'snt it bother you just a little that everyone is allowed to buy a gun...and do you/your family have one at home?.. do you feel okay with this?

peace

 

Personally, I hate guns and think that they are shit..
I dont have guns in my house and i never will...
Guns scare me and I would probably end up just hurting myself if i owned a gun

 

I don't own a gun, never have and never will. But it really doesn't scare me much. I mean, the way I see it is, if someone wants to kill you, they're going to kill you whether they have a gun or not. They'll just use a knife or some other weapon. If I had kids, it might make me nervous if they're friends parents owned guns, because I'd worry about an accident. But most people who own guns use them for hunting or they use them for protection, which basically means if you don't try to rob them they aren't going to hurt you.


The last thing America needs is more fear-ridden citizens.

-Kate

 

Astrid,


Michael Moore made a mistake in emphasizing guns and gun control.

Aggression in America is far more suble; far more pervasive throughout every aspect of American life.

Children are fresh sponges absorbing all the unspoken aggression they see in the hyper-competitive social hierarchy of the adult world around them.

School children reflect this social aggression in a thousand suble ways in every school yard across this country everyday.

To focus on guns is to fail to see the more pervasive damage being constantly done to and by American children.

Do school children not reflect cruelty and social aggression in Denmark?

 

yeah.. i see that. But stil..l i dont remember the exact number at all, but it was l there was a huge difference, between America and all other coutries.. would'nt you feel more content about it being illegal??..

 

The numbers he gave giving the total number of gun deaths were misleading. They were raw numbers, not percentages. Yes, America has more gun deaths, because we have more people. Our population (300 million) is ten times what most of the other countires he listed have. Poverty is also a huge issue. The gap between the rich and the poor in America is huge, and we don't have the social support system that alot of countries in Europe have. Poverty, as a whole, almost always equals more crimes. The big thing that Moore touched on in his movie that I definately agree with is that Americans are WAY too damn PARANOID about everything. You should see how Bush is currently using this to his advantage in his campaign ads carrying on about 9/11. Fear is a powerful emotion.

Would I like to see guns made illegal? No way. It doesn't effect me directly, since I don't own a gun, but think about this: If guns were made illegal (which would never happen in a million years), it is almost certain it will be done by the Democrats. If the Democrats even TRY to make guns illegal, it will completely shatter any chance of having another Democrat in office EVER AGAIN. Plus, if guns were made illegal, how do you propose the government collect them? Go to people's houses and ask everyone to turn their guns in? How many people do you think would actually do it? And since it's a gun, technically all the gun-owners could (and no doubt would, since we already have militias of that kind) form a revolt and our country would see more violence than we've seen since the American Revolution.

 

People are gonna get them whether they're legal or not, as with most things. I despise guns, however, I do think we should have a right to bear arms if we choose to.

 

A gun Is a device for ending a life of a living being or destroying parts of its body. That sais enough about guns.

 

So? If people didn't hunt wild animals, the animals would starve to death or become road kill. I would think death by a gun would be more humane than death by starvation. Most people (in the US at least) don't hunt endangered animals anymore. That's why we have hunting seasons. It's actually beneficial to nature.

As for humans, sometimes, in rare occurences, murder is justifiable. If you don't want to own a gun, then by all means don't own one. But don't think for a minute that you'll prevent others from doing so.

 

hmm... i have a couple of different rifles a glock. i've been hunting with my dad almost every year since i was about 4 or 5. the pistol i inherited. its actually pretty fun to go to a range and just shoot, or a gravel pit and kill some empty beer cans and then once a year or so bag a moose.

 

Oh great, so we are doing a favour to those animals. Why don't we
kill the poor homeless people on streets because they could starve to death?
What kind of logic is that? Jesus christ, and this is comming up on a hippie forum.

And besides, not every gun is for hunting.

I don't mind you having a gun, I just don't want to be the one killed
by you in a "justifiable" murder.

 

this is a very interesting topic esp as in New Zealand we are having this very debate at the moment, you see if you're a farmer out in the middle of nowhere

the police are unlikly to get there in time so if they're armed and you're not theres going to be trouble. Well thats how majority of farmers feel and do have guns and one has gone to court after shooting a man who was on his property stealing he has been found not guilty. I believe in that situation although its not ideal in any to have guns that like a lawer speaking for farmers said on tv you cannot contest it in court from your grave so I think in that situation guns are ok as long as they're trained in there use

 

Sometimes you need guns for protection, but that's just the problem.
You are protecting yourself from other guns. If there were no guns at all in the world, then you wouldn't have to protect yourself with guns. If you are the one that
wants to get rid of it first, someone might take advantage of it. It is sort of a
"everyone or nobody" situation. And of course, "everyone" is impossible in todays world, since there are some people saying "so?" as an answer to "killing a living being".

 

This is what most people like to call a False Analogy. You cannot compare overpopulated animals with homeless humans in this case because:

1) There is no national movement to feed the overpopulated deer, therefore the reason for keeping deer alive in an overpopulated area when there are people willing to hunt them is fruitless. There is, however, nationwide and local efforts to feed homeless people.

2) Some homeless people have the potential to reform themselves and become productive to society. Deer and other animals, however, cannot benifit us beyond serving as a food source, and the law (like it or not) also recognizes the fact that we humans are at the top of the food chain. Now, the law does protect certain animals on the endangered species list, because if these animals die out then it could have a negative, rippling effect on entire ecosystems. Killing overpopulated animals will not have a negative effect on a whole ecosystem.

Now, I can see how someone would be against eating meat because it is usually made in slaughterhouses where the animals are tortured/neglected etc., and I can see how someone could be against hunting themselves (meaning that you, personally would never do it), but I'm really having a hard time figuring out how you feel it is preferrable that these animals starve to death. (Unless of course, you support governmental programs to feed overpopulated animals like we have for homeless people, but I highly doubt most tax-payers would support that. Also, if you did start your own private organization to feed the wild animals, you would have a number of housing contractors and city developers strongly opposed to you for luring animals into human-populated areas where they are more likely to become roadkill.)

Yes, and if you look back at my posts, I already addressed this point.

Once again: I do not own a gun.

I wrongly assumed that you would know that when I said "justifiable" I meant justified according to the law. Every state has Self-defense laws, which permit a person from killing another person under certain circumstances. For example, in Texas if a person breaks into your house, grabs your TV and is heading out the door, you are legally allowed to shoot him. If he dies because of it, you will not be convicted of murder (assuming you're telling the truth, of course). It is in our constitution even, that everyone has the right to own property. By stealing, you are violating that person's right.

On a more extreme example...If I personally saw a man raping my mother, I would not hand him a flower and ask him to stop. I would probably attempt to kill him somehow. I do feel that this is justified, and more than likely, so would the law.

All that being said, your statement that you do not wish to be killed by me is pointless, because unless you did something extremely harmful or violating to me, I would have no reason to kill you. Please stop trying to make me out as the evil killer you'd like me to be.

BTW, for future reference, I am not a "hippie". I come on this site because I like some of the people here and I generally enjoy the types of conversations found here.

-Kate

 

...well that is just the thing. A program to feed hungry animals is better than killing
them. I mean think about it, it is one thing finding a bleeding animal that you can't do anything about and then killing it to end the pain, but come one, human beings in general have the power to feed all those animals, and make their lives better.
You don't know for sure that every animal you kill is going to die of hunger. If you are not going to help them in any way, the least you can do is leave them to chance.
If you kill them it doesn't matter any more if they had or didn't have chance out there because they are dead.
It is especially wrong because we are the ones that destroyed the balance in nature.
Imagine this scenario: Aliens come from another planet, and land on earth and
start to make settlements. They push people into a small area where they are overpopulated, and begin to starve. There are all kinds of deseases, hunger and social problems. And aliens don't have a law to help us because most of them never even saw us exept on pictures, but they do have the food and
technology to make our lives a living paradise. It's just that there is a lot of paperwork for one of them to come personaly and bring us food, so nobody feels like it. Then some of them come to our cities and start killing us so that there are less of us and that we may live better. I guess one should then feel honored to die for his people, and his family would be proud.

And as for the law. Well, law doesnt really belong in ethical and philosophical discussins because it says nothing about what is moral or not, it just says what is legal this decade or two.

If you saw someone raping your mother, you would have strong feelins of anger,
and your primal urges would tell you to kill him. BUT , as a sentient being , as a part of society you have the responisiblity to supress the urge, and just disable him somehow instead. Again, I am not talking about law here.
Our emotions dictate our logic in such cases, and out of that came the concept of "justice", and "revenge". I think that human society should strive for healing itself
instead of satisfiying negative emotions.
When a man kills someone, we should study him, learn what drives him to kill, why did he do it, how can we make it better, how can we stop others from doing it, how can we convert him to non-violent existence. Our emotions tell us that he should suffer as his victim did. Mindless punishment won't make him REALIZE what he has done.
The gole should be to make him realize it and then sit down and cry together with those who have lost the person.

Emotions are natural, and should not be supressed, but there are ways of expressing them without doing any damage to an already damaged situation.

I don't want you to be a killer of course. And what I said was kind of a metaphore.
I ment "by someone with your views" by that.

And I am not a hippie either.

 

I won't say anything about guns, I don't really know how I feel about them.

I do not feel safe, but it aint because of no guns. Its because of our own government, and the laws that give agencies like the FBI and the CIA to invade anyone they do not agree with, and arrest them and hold them without alerting anyone. This does not yet affect me, but I know I am going to have run-ins with them starting in a matter of months.

 

Then it never stops...the club, the sword, the gun, the bomb, the H bomb, etc.

I would rather that these barbarians just shoot me, so I DONT need guns to protect me from guns. Of course, I would try to avoid being shot.
And I also believe in capital punishment for multiple first degree murder convictions.

 

Guns are killing devices.
If people wouldn't use them to kill other humans, I wouldn't have a problem with them, but, alas, they do. So, I think guns are horrid, horrid inventions.

 

The 2nd Amendment, for everyone who is interested, says that people have the right to bear arms in a militia. So if they are not part of the army or some other self defense force, they should not be allowed to own a gun. I believe owning guns for personaly use should be banned.

 

WELL.Well,Well....those of you who know me would be surprised to know that I have 2 guns...

They are lawfully for my personnal use.
I am a woman who is alone out in the woods.
I have killed a rabid racoon here.
I have killed a deer who was ripped in two by a pack of dogs to put it out of its misery.
I would not shoot someone for stealing something off my land but I would make them have to run home and change their pants.
I would however not hesitate shooting some one who has made the decision to come here to my piece of peacefullness and try to violate me.

I grew up rough...I didn't have parents, I was molested by my father, I was kidnapped at the age of 12 by 2 men and held for 5 days and sold. So wah, wah, I didn't grow up using any of that as an excuse to fuck with anyone, It's not a secret that you will pay consequences for your actions. If you screw with someone who is not doing a thing to you....you are opening up yourself...you are making the choice.

I think alot of people are getting fed up with all the excuses made for criminals...
I don't bother anyone and I should have the RIGHT to expect that I can sit in my home minding my own freaking business without some ass wipe kicking in my door, stealing what I worked for,killing my husband, raping me...and if they are caught some fucked up system smacking their little hand because.."aww, they had a hard life"...

Don't want to get shot???Don't fuck with people.
Unless of course you happen to be walking down the road and someone shoots you because they were trying to impress some kind of juvenile idiot gang members.
But guess what?? The gun that idiot has isn't registered anyway.
If they take away the guns from law abiding citizens...only the goverment and the criminals will have guns....basically one and the same anyway.