The American gun Laws.....can it remain as it is?

As an American and a gun owner, it has been my experience that people address the wrong issues after one of these senseless tragedies. As for buying "high velocity automatic weapons," that is illegal, and it would be impossible for your average law abiding citizen to walk into a gun shop and purchase an automatic weapon. I own 2 hand guns and a civilian version of the SCAR, which is a popular rifle used in the special forces community. My SCAR, being that it is a civilian version, is semi-automatic, one round per trigger pull. If I pull the trigger and hold it down, only one round fires and I have to release the trigger to fire again. Why do I have these weapons? Why do I attend tactical schools and learn how to use them proficiently? The simple answer to that is that I believe that I have the responsibility to protect my family and self, and any third party that may need protection. Now, when I'm out and about I have my concealed carry permit, and I carry my Sig Sauer P226, if at any time, myself or someone that is around needed to be protected, then I have a tool that can provide force protection. With these active shooter situations like at Sandy Hook, and the movie theater in Aurora, CO, Almost every time one of these individuals is met with force, they take their own lives. That speaks to their mental faculties. A sane person trying to cause harm, that is armed to the teeth, will not choose to kill themselves at the first sign of resistance, they would fight back. My rifle is for the protection of my house and those around me. Unfortunately where I live we have problems with home invasions. Normally, a few guys, sometimes wearing body armor, will force their way into your house, possibly killing and/or raping any women that may be there, and beating and/or killing the men. If they decide that they want to come into this house, I will defend it, but it will not be out of some primal need to kill, it comes out of protection not only of myself and my family, but other people who may have been victims of these people in the future. That's my defense on gun ownership. Now, what I believe the real problem is in my country, is the almost complete lack of good and decent care of the mentally ill, and the chronic poverty we have. People do not care for one another here any more. They have these state run mental health facilities that are honestly a joke, and instead of addressing the disease and the person, and trying to heal, they just prescribe some sort of mediation, sometimes force fed to a patient, and then one day decide they are better and let them leave with their prescriptions. Now once the people are released (not everyone is released but some are) they are expected to keep on their meds and take care of themselves. Apparently I am the only person in this country that sees the folly in that system, and I wish there was something I could do to change it.

I would like to add that I do believe gun ownership to be a privilege and it should be more strict, with required monthly training and a bevy of mental screenings. Secondly, home invasions aren't a daily occurrence, but they do happen. I realize that they way I worded that sentence made it sound like it was happening extremely often.

ren wrote:
Not long ago on a military base in the US, a guy went crazy and started shooting his former mates. He managed to kill 13 and injure 29. Considering the guy was a shrink, I find it strange he managed to kill and injure this many soldiers. On an american base. On US soil. I wonder what things would have been like had they all been unarmed. (obviously I'm not saying the military should disarm itself, simply looking at a situation where everyone was a highly trained, responsible, uniformed patriotic you-name-it gun owner)

This is a ignorant statement. Soldiers on bases do not get to tote weapons around. Military police are the only people issued weapons in a garrison setting. Everyone else checks out their weapons then checks them back in when they are done with it. So, a military base is in fact MORE like the regulated system in which people don't get to carry weapons around. An armed solider on a base is rare and highly regulated, your example of "lots of highly trained well armed patriots" is incorrect.

ren wrote: [Not long ago on a military base in the US, a guy went crazy and started shooting his former mates. He managed to kill 13 and injure 29. Considering the guy was a shrink,)

That guy had known significat battle related issues and didn't get the help he needed. The system failed him. This is not a typical situation.

He wasn't crazy when he fired on soldiers at Fort Hood. According to reports of witnesses and the officers that eventually shot him to stop his attack, he was cold and calculated. Performing combat reloads and picking his targets, I don't know how many of you are shooters, but to shoot that many people, that efficiently, isn't the act of a crazy man. Considering he also had email correspondence with Anwar al-Awlaki, who is an Islamic extremist, and lauded Hassan as a hero, that should have been the big red flag, and he should have been locked up way before the shooting ever happened.

ren wrote: I'm french. And in my country there are quite a lot of guns. But no-one except the serious criminals dare get them out because they know their lives would be over if they did. (also they tend to be quite old and I think it'd take guts to fire one) only hunters can have hunting guns, during hunting season. No conceal and carry there, owning = straight to jail. I think (I'd have to check though) most deaths as a result of firearm use are hunting accidents and suicides. But homicides are still too high.

Then come the criminals. criminals are usually well armed. and use modern guns. And I think the main reason for this is that other criminals are well armed, and the police is well armed. The gendarmerie (most french cops) are actually with the military, and they are fairly well armed. What I like about the UK is that even the police isn't armed. Only special police forces are. Criminals know they are better off not using guns. And as a result there is little violent crime. And the petty criminals remain petty.

Not long ago on a military base in the US, a guy went crazy and started shooting his former mates. He managed to kill 13 and injure 29. Considering the guy was a shrink, I find it strange he managed to kill and injure this many soldiers. On an american base. On US soil. I wonder what things would have been like had they all been unarmed. (obviously I'm not saying the military should disarm itself, simply looking at a situation where everyone was a highly trained, responsible, uniformed patriotic you-name-it gun owner)

French, huh? Whodathunk? Ren, I'm very glad for you that you live in a country that you enjoy. I'm glad that you feel safe (I wouldn't want you to feel otherwise), and I'm glad you voice your opinions (even if I don't agree).

I want to feel safe too, and I do. I feel safe living in a state with high gun ownership. I feel safe knowing my neighbors are probably packing a gun or two. I feel safe knowing my friends, family, neighbors won't be locked up for participating in hunting, shooting, self defense classes.

I feel safe when people have choices. I feel safe when people's rights are protected.

I once lived in a City where concealed carry (guns and knives) are illegal. I didn't feel safe at all. Muggings were/are frequent, rapes, and harassment too. I felt nervous and on guard whenever I had to walk through my own neighborhood (apartment complex) at night...even during the day sometimes. There were not a lot of options in protecting myself against anybody who might have wanted to hurt me...and there were more than a few guys who gave me trouble and followed me. It was creepy and scary and all I had was my keys to protect me while the men all flashed illegal firearms and knives (not to mention they were physically stronger). My point is laws do make things safer. The people who want to do harm will do harm, and no law will stop them. Instead, the laws stopped me from feeling safe and secure in my own home. If the laws were different there, then maybe those guys and I would have been on more equal footing and I could have enjoyed my nightly walks to work.

Andy Spalding wrote:

ren wrote:
Not long ago on a military base in the US, a guy went crazy and started shooting his former mates. He managed to kill 13 and injure 29. Considering the guy was a shrink, I find it strange he managed to kill and injure this many soldiers. On an american base. On US soil. I wonder what things would have been like had they all been unarmed. (obviously I'm not saying the military should disarm itself, simply looking at a situation where everyone was a highly trained, responsible, uniformed patriotic you-name-it gun owner)

This is a ignorant statement. Soldiers on bases do not get to tote weapons around. Military police are the only people issued weapons in a garrison setting. Everyone else checks out their weapons then checks them back in when they are done with it. So, a military base is in fact MORE like the regulated system in which people don't get to carry weapons around. An armed solider on a base is rare and highly regulated, your example of "lots of highly trained well armed patriots" is incorrect.

So in america, everyone has machine guns, except military bases? They don't even have like... base security, like every single base I've either been to or heard of? (wasn't that base the largest in the US too?) And my point remains. I wonder what that guy would have done, if instead of a gun, he had a 3 inch blade or some other UK street legal thing.

That guy had known significat battle related issues and didn't get the help he needed.

This guy was a psychiatrist, supposed to oversee the mental health of soldiers. (and btw, since someone else asks, I believe the FBI/CIA/INSERTLETTERSHERE thought his correspondance was related to his research as a doctor?)

French, huh? Whodathunk? Ren, I'm very glad for you that you live in a country that you enjoy. I'm glad that you feel safe (I wouldn't want you to feel otherwise), and I'm glad you voice your opinions (even if I don't agree).

I want to feel safe too, and I do. I feel safe living in a state with high gun ownership. I feel safe knowing my neighbors are probably packing a gun or two. I feel safe knowing my friends, family, neighbors won't be locked up for participating in hunting, shooting, self defense classes.

I feel safe when people have choices. I feel safe when people's rights are protected.

I once lived in a City where concealed carry (guns and knives) are illegal. I didn't feel safe at all. Muggings were/are frequent, rapes, and harassment too. I felt nervous and on guard whenever I had to walk through my own neighborhood (apartment complex) at night...even during the day sometimes. There were not a lot of options in protecting myself against anybody who might have wanted to hurt me...and there were more than a few guys who gave me trouble and followed me. It was creepy and scary and all I had was my keys to protect me while the men all flashed illegal firearms and knives (not to mention they were physically stronger). My point is laws do make things safer. The people who want to do harm will do harm, and no law will stop them. Instead, the laws stopped me from feeling safe and secure in my own home. If the laws were different there, then maybe those guys and I would have been on more equal footing and I could have enjoyed my nightly walks to work.

You know, You'd almost convince me that americans simply are a violent people. But I don't think so. The big gun aspect of your culture can be seen all the way up to the US foreign relations. Whether it's actual big guns, or big business, you've got big ones and shove them in people's faces. it makes you feel safe. Problem is, you are helping your enemies copulate this way. My point is, the more you use that technique, the more you need it.

"guns are drugs" ?

The only people with "machine guns" (which I assume you mean AK-47s and AR-15s, which are rifles, since there's nobody rolling around with a Browning .50 in the back of their truck) are the criminals. They buy them illegally, not from a gun store where I would go to buy a weapon, where a background check is performed and I have to wait 5 days after purchasing to pick it up. In the US, more people are killed every year by baseball bats than handguns, so it's not nearly as wild west as everyone makes it seem.

CMoody84 wrote: In the US, more people are killed every year by baseball bats than handguns, so it's not nearly as wild west as everyone makes it seem.

i dont think so. citation needed.

got curious and debunked it myself. here is the snopes article on that particular claim, which also links to FBI homicide data . CDC homicide fast stats can be found here , further debunking it.

i have known quite a few people get shot. not one have i even heard of killed by a baseball bat.