[Frenchie]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

There are a lot more gun owners than there are murderers. Which just goes to show that there are peaceful uses for guns.

I wouldn't call not using a gun a 'peaceful' use for it. I don't think there is anything peaceful about a gun, but I guess that's just me.

Yes, but if you ban guns, you still have that "culture of violence" problem. Which means that they'll either find ways to get their hands on guns, or find ways to murder people without guns. Plenty of non-peaceful uses for knives, after all. Would gun control laws reduce criminality? Hard to say. Would it even reduce gun availability for the criminal element? In the short term, probably not. There are just too many of the damn things already in circulation.

You can compare overall crimerates in France and in the US, gun-related or not, rates are higher in the US. But yes, you're right, too many are already in circulation and buy-back strategies by the government have mostly been duds where people get extra cash for weapons that are already in disrepair.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Your third point regarding the American second amendment was made under the supposition that the people were responsible and educated enough to use arms for the right reasons, or at least the vast majority would use them only when necessary. I think history has shown that there are too many individuals without the brain or moral capacity to do so.

The second amendment would be effective if only paired with a responsible, legal and ethical culture that viewed guns as a tool for extreme cases rather than option one, and as a protective tool rather than an offensive. As is the case today where violence and do-whatever-it-takes attitudes take hold of people who take the second amendment as the right to bear arms without the additional clause of responsible bearing of arms, you'll always have people who think they have the right to use their arms as they see fit.

So until the culture of violence is removed from the minds of the people and they are taught just how gigantic the capacity to take the lives of others are, no amount of strict or lax control will ever stop violent crime.

I didn't think of it as stopping crime altogether, but you can rein it in. I understand your argument and I agree with it for the most part.