The right to bear arms

[Heartless Angel]

I did acknowledge that a lot of the incidents didn't involve guns, however even if half of them had nothing to do with gun control that still makes a rather high body count. Perhaps the number of massacres are directly related to the relationship between guns and crime? I'm not really trying to say that there is a definite correlation - but the more people that own guns the more people who can easily cause an incident like this.

So a statistic, obviously inflated by the fact that not all incidents involved guns, to establish what is at best an interesting correlation? Statistics also show that shoe size has a strong correlation with mathematics, reading, and logical reasoning abilities. This is primarily because most adults do these things better than toddlers. Correlation is worth nothing without evidence of causality.

And snobbish-ness against Wikipedia is only really relevant in the academic world where it is generally frowned upon due to the past unreliability of the website. Nowadays Wikipedia is almost always an accurate source. And anyway I don't really care if you have a problem with it since I never actually asked you to pick at my points - but merely to consider them.

Accurate in many cases, but often quite forgetful when it comes to the important details. Wikipedia articles are usually loaded with bias, that's why it's laughed at in the academic arena. Wiki articles aren't reliably objective and fair, so it's generally not a good thing to use for anything other than obtaining the most basic knowledge of a topic for personal curiosity.

Joke if you like, but everyday people who fee that they have no alternative turn to a life of crime in order to maintain a lifestyle or to ensure their survival. Drug addicts often steal in order to support their habit (since a lot of the time support systems are overloaded and unable to assist them), and these crimes can become increasingly violent from stealing money from your grandmother's stash above the wardrobe to getting a gun and holding up a corner shop.

And what 'forced' them to commit the crimes of purchasing and using illegal drugs that they are then 'forced' to become worse criminals to continue buying to satisfy the addiction a law abiding citizen wouldn't have to begin with? They were criminals from the start. When people disregard one law, there's not much reason to believe they care about the rest of them (except of course when they work in their favor)

Anyway, crime rate varies everywhere and I can't be bothered to look up the statistics - I am fairly certain that the crime rate of Scotland is overall lower than that of the USA.

BUT, I think you missed my point. With guns being so rare (as in an ownership rate of less than 5 guns per 100 people) they could be seen as a valuable commodity to a criminal who may not own one and want to steal one.

You also have a lower quantity of illegal immigrants from Mexico, is it then reasonable to assume that illegal Mexicans are the cause of all gun crimes? Of course not. Again what you have is an interesting correlation, not an argument. Guns being available in stores is not where the firearms used to commit serious crimes come from. Guns are purchased illegally by criminals, so they they don't have to be registered, and are more difficult to track. Very few serious crimes are committed with legal firearms. The ones that are, are usually, as you already hinted at, drug addicts, who are already criminals. Stupid criminals. Stupid criminals who usually get caught.

People steal firearms here too. Only the lowest tier of the stupidest criminals would commit a crime using a legal, registered firearm. They either buy an unregistered one illegally, or use somebody else's gun, so they can't be easily tracked.

No I don't - a fact I am proud of, however I do have a general idea. Yes I do, I will admit that I'm not very good at it, but at a certain range it sort of becomes irrelevant. I wouldn't risk that, and if he were holding her as a human shield I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't risk it - however I do have a natural talent for archery so that may be something. I have never fired a gun, thank goodness.

I didn't actually expect myself to be in a situation which required any sort of action with a gun. It was a hypothetical question. If it were a simple situation where I had access to a gun and was about to witness a serious crime I'd hope to be able to do something.

See the funny thing is that you think I could take offence to having never had access to a gun and being completely untrained. I'm proud of it.

I'm not sure why somebody would ever be proud to be lacking in a potentially useful experience. Or even one that isn't useful. Lack of knowledge is never a preferable thing. As for risking shooting a human shield, it's not much of a risk when you're skilled enough to safely hit the target. If there was a clear shot, I'd shoot a criminal with a hostage as a shield without a second thought.

Interestingly enough, bows are also weapons, originally designed for the sole purpose of ending lives. Why then, is only the gun inherently evil?A bow is an equally fatal weapon in the wrong hands. If guns dropped off the face of the earth and somebody wanted to kill somebody at a distance, what would stop them from using a bow? Do we need to outlaw them too? Should we not have access to knives? I mean if a criminal had one and you didn't, you'd be at a disadvantage. People get mugged at knife point sometimes. You can kill somebody with just about anything if you made an honest effort. The thing is, criminals whose intention it is to cause injury and/or death, are going to find a way to do it no matter what you do to keep weapons out of their reach.

I think I'm too sane much of a 'socialist' to be able to ever look at guns in a positive manner. Being trained how to use a tool for injury/murder is actually a terrible thing to suggest ever doing. Firearms aren't tools, they are weapons - they have always been weapons invented to kill a fellow human being - that's how they were conceived in China - that's how they are seen by the rest of the non-gun-toting world.

For the record, there are uses for a firearm outside of killing people and robbing banks. Several sports involve the precision shooting of nonliving targets with a firearm. Many are quite entertaining. Not to mention that whole hunting thing in which people are not the intended targets. Not everybody who owns a gun, or would want to wants it for the purpose of committing mass murders.