An Open Letter to Lovers of the Gun

RalagaNarHallas
just out of curiosity what lands do you hail from? so we can more easily bring up the tyrannical actions of your own government as i cant think of one nation on this planet has clean hands after all the history man kind has documented and forgotten.

Don't hold your breath, it's usually a pop in, attack the USA, then pop back out to the next thread to do the same. It happens frequently here on ATS concerning these type of subjects.

Now we got the Mall shootings today. They don't even have all the facts as of yet, but the usual anti-constitutional paid liars and stooges in empty suits and skirts are already on the stupid box, one way sewer pipe into all of our homes, foaming out their mouths about how we need more gun control. ~$heopleNation

Guns are fun if you know how to use them right.

Am I right?

...and who is this person again? This all knowing savant who knows who loves their kids and who doesn't? Who is he again?

Not that I really care, because his opinion matters to me just about as much as mine does to him...

Answer me this, OP (or even the letter writer). How will my giving up my weapons make some child in a school any safer? In fact, I'll suggest that my giving up my weapons will make those children less safe. Because with my weapons where they are there is zero chance of them ever being used to harm a child.

Whereas, where are they going to end up if I give them up?

Answer me that, if you can...

It's not that I love my gun so much, it is that I love my God given constitutionally protected right to have one. The only way to exorcise this right is to own one. Fortunately, this right is only needed when they wish to take it away. 400 million guns. 8000 shootings including justified self defense and drug related deaths. Remove these and you cut this rate in half. This comes out to about 1 in 100,000 deaths to gun ratio. You stand a better chance of being killed by your Dr.

Power comss from the end of a gun. Mao said this, and aas quoted by an APPOINTED official now holding office. I believe this power should ultimately lie with the people, not an appointed government.

respectfully
reluctantpawn

LOL, the OP opened the door and threw in a bee hive, then left.

Having followed the entire gun control debate for a bit, there is a take on it:

The problem with the entire gun control debate is that both sides are correct in their assessment and ultimately do not want to listen to the other side. And neither side wants to admit that just maybe they might be wrong.

The cities with the toughest gun control laws, have the highest amount of crimes with firearms, and more specifically being handguns. Handguns, according to the FBI are used in more crimes than any other firearms related crime or accident. So while yes in the more recent of the mass shootings, there is the presence of military hardware, it is quite far and few, compared to the hundreds if not thousands of handgun related crimes used in the country.

The question should be what is causing people to just go off the deep end and commit these horrible crimes, and what is the bottom line, though there is some speculation that some of such is coming from the more modern drugs of the day to solve every day common problems. And it may be the sign of a far worse condition that has yet to rear its ugly head.

What the author of the letter fails to take into account happens to be the following:

I do not want a fire arm, not cause I am scare of them, rather I understand and know how to use one. I have had both professional and private training in safety and use of such. But I do not want one cause I think it is cool or the in thing to have, but want one or the ability to have one or get one as I find it at my discretion. And one of those points, though it would be a means of last resort, would be to use in the event that all other options are no longer possible and that I feel that such is required, to either protect my home, family or country, from those invading such or even if necessary to remove a political body, when all other means have failed.

reply to post by FyreByrd


What I don't understand is you got rid of your guns because of your kids but then say you would rather get on your hands and knees and be killed instead of standing up and fighting for your kids?

I

"The government, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." Abraham Lincoln" this is one of the reasons the second amendment is still around and relevent. i mean hey he was a sitting president and basicly gave us permssion! issue solved right? constitution says we can have guns,former president(in relitively good standing as far as the liberals are concerned) tells us if the government screws up go put head to pike......just make sure you win when you try

reply to post by FyreByrd


Progressives ask yourself one question what are the chances Americans would give up the 2nd ?


No amount of crying,bellyaching,demanding,debating,propaganda is going to change this simple fact so for the sake of your sanity just give it up. Why not save a tree or protest for clean energy........Oh I got it why not protest against the wars........That's right your guy is in power so you had better shut up on that one.




Flapping in the wind like a paper bag.

thisguyrighthere
I always loved teh "if there's a gun in your home" statistic.

If there's a car in your driveway you increase your chances of getting in an accident.

If you eat a lot of rice you increase your chances of choking to death on rice.

If you have a furnace you increase your chances of dying in a furnace explosion.

If you have children you increase the chances that your child will die.

As a side note: Children Decrease Happiness

Thank you for writing this. You took the words out of my mouth. The trouble with these so-called "progressives" is they base their arguments on emotions and fabrications, also known as lies. You can't even have an intelligent, cogent discussion with them because facts only get in their way and are of no use to them. It's quite sad that much of our public discourse on this and other topics falls to this "logic" of theirs.

Sounds to me like we are getting an ever increasing number of psychopaths. Why don't you ban psychopaths and at the same time allow me to defend myself against said psychopaths? Sounds like this is a perfect time to arm yourself, if anything.

How about this, why don't YOU hand in your guns. I'll hold on to mine, thanks.

openyourmind1262
"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." [...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]

-- (Lucius Annaeus) Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD),

A quote I agree with. What I don't agree with is the 'simplistic' that 'trumps' the complexity of the problem of school shootings.

Another quote for you by Abraham Maslow: "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail"

These people (often children or young adults) saw their only solution in a gun. I don't know what, if any other, solutions they tried before turning to mindless violence. Drugs play a part, parenting plays a part, societial conditioning plays a part, individual temperment plays a part - and easy access, for whatever reason, to firearms plays a part.

To blame it on the killer exclusively is a denial of responsibility of the highest magnatude.

We need many tools in our tool kit to deal with frustration and conflict and until we do violence in and out of schools will continue.

Fylgje
If you have guns in your home to hunt and protect your family, keep them properly locked in a gun safe.

Someone ought to write a: 'Lovers of the knife; Because after all, more people have been murdered by knife than gun, so knives are evil and need to be banned. no one should keep a knife in their home. NO ONE!! And get rid of blunt objects too!!!!!


I'm sorry. This 'anti-gun' stuff is rediculous. If you don't like guns, FINE, then don't own one. That's your right and prerogative. But please, don't tell us responsible gun lovers that we can't own one because thugs and mentally ill people use them for evil.

Actually, according to the FBI statistics on murder refered to in an earlier post many more murders are carried out by guns then knives in the US anyway. Those are facts not fantasy.

Donkey_Dean
reply to post by puzzlesphere

 

Peace in this world only exists because the threat of instant death is a power motivator. Mexico outlawed all guns in an attempt to decrease gun violence. The result they got was the complete opposite. At the end of the day all power political or otherwise comes from the end of a barrel and Mexico by creating a defenseless populous handed the cartels the keys to the kingdom.

In 50 years they say half of our military will be robotic and you want us to disarm? I think not! Only a fool would go through life so trusting! I know this sounds paranoid, but every dictatorship in history has come to pass because a populous elevated their law makers above the law and that's exactly what's happening in America today! I'll give you my guns when hell freezes.

edit on 24-1-2014 by Donkey_Dean because: (no reason given)

Forgive me for following you into truly off topic territory, but I just have to ask you "Where do those guns come from?"

rickymouse
I have to teach my granddaughter to responsibly shoot a gun. I won't teach my two grandsons, they are playing violent video games all the time and I can't trust them with a gun...so I will never teach them. You cannot put a gun in the hand of a young person who has been desensitized like that. If they snap even for a little while, they could be a problem. The way to address this problem is to get rid of the video games where kids interact with killing and fighting. Real martial arts teach self control, this is not taught in most violent games.

And I'm going to not weep, but the opposite, [yes I'll laugh] if your granddaughter snaps and shoots someone.

I'm 27, been playing "violent" video games since I'm around 5, I own a gun and a concealed carry permit. Never had to shoot anyone, never pulled it on anyone, never told anyone.

Totally responsible.

I.E.

One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

Fictional entertainment has nothing to do with real life psychopaths.

And your granddaughter is going to stay away from video games for ever, even when she dates a boy that plays them?

And I suppose she'll never see a movie where people are being completely irresponsible with guns to cause "dramatic" emotional spikes?

You're the one who shouldn't be trusted with a gun, because you're irrational and crazy talking.

TrailerRated

In my eyes, having a gun in my home decreases the odds of someone in my home of dying by a gun - or any other weapon. If I didn't have guns, and the rest of the United States citizens didn't have guns, I believe the odds would then be increased because that would be an open door for criminals to come in and take what they please.

You are free to feel that way. However your feeling is not based on the facts. The statistic clearly state that homes with firearms are more likely to suffer gun violence directed at a member then households without firearms.

Guns at Home Increase Dangers, Not Safety
Based on a review of the available scientific data, Dr. Lippmann and co-authors conclude that the dangers of having a gun at home far outweigh the safety benefits. Research shows that access to guns greatly increases the risk of death and firearm-related violence. A gun in the home is twelve times more likely to result in the death of a household member or visitor than an intruder.

www.news-medical.net...

Living in a home where there are guns increases the risk of homicide by 40 to 170% and the risk of suicide by 90 to 460%.1
Guns kept in the home are more likely to be involved in a fatal or nonfatal unintentional shooting, criminal assault or suicide attempt than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.2
Having a gun in the home is associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home, regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of guns in the home.3
Rather than conferring protection, guns in the home are associated with an increase in the risk of homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance.4

Please note the links to data in the above quote and additional information at:

smartgunlaws.org...

reply to post by Bilk22


The words I used reflect normal definitions of the words. I'm puzzled at how anyone could read what has been read into my words from what I actually wrote.

macman
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

Oh, sorry. Brute force? No, guess not. At least not from YOU specifically.

Coercion? Yep.

Your ideals are what is driving the Govt in its current actions against the citizens.
Take a look around. There are several states, that are operating under the progressive mindset, where gun owners are being targeted.

So while you have not applied force here, force is being applied by people like you.

There is a big difference between FORCE and POWER. Force requires violence, power requires commitment.

FyreByrd

Fylgje
If you have guns in your home to hunt and protect your family, keep them properly locked in a gun safe.

Someone ought to write a: 'Lovers of the knife; Because after all, more people have been murdered by knife than gun, so knives are evil and need to be banned. no one should keep a knife in their home. NO ONE!! And get rid of blunt objects too!!!!!


I'm sorry. This 'anti-gun' stuff is rediculous. If you don't like guns, FINE, then don't own one. That's your right and prerogative. But please, don't tell us responsible gun lovers that we can't own one because thugs and mentally ill people use them for evil.

Actually, according to the FBI statistics on murder refered to in an earlier post many more murders are carried out by guns then knives in the US anyway. Those are facts not fantasy.

And if you did away with all the guns, you'd have many more murders carried out with knives, or poisons, or even explosives.

Simple fact of the matter is, if everyone in the united states was KNOWN to have a gun, there would be a lot less crime. Criminals don't like to bother people who are likely to shoot them if they do.

Look up Kennesaw, Georgia. The crime rate dropped dramatically once they passed a law that made it mandatory you own at least one gun.