Originally posted by TedHodgson
All animals have the ability to kill, However we have speech and speech is more powerfull than any cowardly weapon anyday 
Tell that Ghandi.
While I appreciate where you are comming from, I can't help but seeing it as a bit of a naive idealism. Great in theory, but in practice, the firearm
has been a cat out of the bag for almost 1000 years now. There are about 200 million privately owned guns in the US, not all of thse are owned by
responsible and mature individuals. The only way to protect yourself, your family, and yes, your property against the very real and violent criminals
who use them is to have one yourself. Believe it or not, there is a distinction between owning a fire arm and using it. If someone breaks into my
house with a gun and intends to use it for violence, I can choose to be a deterent or a victim.
The other really basic concept is that I have the right to make that choice, period.
Private ownership, or bearing arms, frankly, is the the only check and balance left to the soverign people of this nation. The butchery and slaughter
of regimes like the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, for example, would not have been possible with 200 million privately owned firearms.
Words only work when reciprocated or heard, there are people in this world who would shoot you down for no more than the change in your pocket.
Weaponry is not evil, intentions are, and you have the right if not the natural law obligation to defend your own life.
