Quote:
Originally Posted by kyp275
Depending on which survey/research you look at/believe, somewhere between 25% to 35% of the US population owns a firearm, with nearly half of all households with a firearm of some kind, are they all nutty right wing militias?
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Of course not. Plenty of people own guns for recreational reasons, for their jobs (farmers, etc.), or, yes, because they feel that they need them. Thus I chose the word: "statistical." If you haven't made the argument that I attacked -- I don't think you have, but I've only skimmed the thread anyway -- then you don't have to defend it, but others who are virulently anti-gun control do. From them, I expect answers. What's the paranoia?
I think I have to make myself clear: the reason I don't want to jump into this debate is because I don't believe gun control measures are
the answer to the problem of crimes and violent crimes in the United States, or even the recent, obscene, spree of massacres. On the other hand, I
don't take them off the table. I don't believe the 2nd Amendment originally meant what the NRA thinks it means, and though I don't oppose the evolution of the meaning (many other, more important clauses supporting our various rights experience the same phenomenon), I do not consider it some absolute rule. To me, the right to own guns is rather a privilege to own guns, as conditional as the "right" to drive. So if I am to make an argument for policy aimed against the problem of crime, which is why people want gun control in the first place, I would consider various gun control provisions as part of a comprehensive measure.
Just randomly thinking out here, but important measures other than gun control would be prison reform, overhaul of the legal criminal system based on the notion of rehabilitation over revenge, better funding and expansion of social support institutions, especially for the mentally ill, cultural and social projects aiming to "communalize" the American citizenry, etc. Even legalization of marijuana, if only to cut a major source of funding out of organized crime.
But that's not what this thread is about, so I'm not going to defend a single piece of a puzzle in isolation.