I grew up around guns and been shooting guns since i was six years old and people will never take them from me.

 

Guns can be good and bad depending on who is carrying it. Then again, I know people who been seriously hurt by or killed by someone with a simple tool like a screw driver. Well of course the victims didn't have a gun. But then again, most people will think twice about attempting to pick fights, rob, harm or other things to people if they know that there is a good chance they are packing. Most people, even some criminals, are not willing to roll that dice. Then again, some people, even good people sometimes loose control of their emotions. And some people do over react like shooting first and asking questions later type stuff. But as mentioned earlier, with ever gun owned, there should be training in how to use it and should be intelligence in the beholder and they should undertsnd it should be last resort to use deadly force not first. Sometimes, pointing a gun in a potential criminal way is enough to prevent being robbed, or killed. Many don't want to find out the hard way whether or not the gun is loaded.
The way I truely feel is that every man or citizen that is clean background should be able to apply, attend gun safety courses, and obtain a gun if they chose to do so. Because whether or not guns are illegal, criminals will still find ways to get them like it or not. Just like thta semi automatic ban was just lifted in some places, cool. But many criminals already had them already and will continue getting them from the illegal source either way as long as the steps to obtain a gun is followed. Unforunately though, sometimes money talks too much and some people don't even bother with that stuff as long as they are making money and that's what causing some the probelems (another topic.).
I don't own a gun or anything, but in my job force of course I must know how to shoot a semi automatic assault weapon (I'm surgical with it.) and then they are other dangerous weapons that I fired and might have to fire to save my butt one day that I pray that will never get on the streets, but some have already.

It all goes back to that saying. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
A gun and a man can sit in a room all day and no one dies but add another man to that duo that will kill, someone may not make it out. Even if all guns were banned this day, crime probably really won't go anywhere beyond the initial drop. People will find ways to kill people just like in jail. No guns really there to have access to, but they make do with everyday materials and turn them into deadly weapons anyways. A person can kill someone else with a toothbrush it needed to be.

Eventually I will get a personal gun (probably something similar to the one I'm very good with.), as soon as I have a nice safe spot to put it. I hope it will be only for decoration, but you never know.

 

Ok, I get you're analogy-religion kills (or deadens) peoples intellect. It certainly can, if one thinks that being religious means checking one's brain at the church door. However, no serious religionist believes that.
Here is a short list of "brain dead" religionists:
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
Sir Fancis Bacon (1561-1627)
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Robert Boyle (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907)
Max Planck (1858-1947)
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

I don't mind being associated with those folks- if only through a common belief in a supreme being.

Here's something for you to chew on. Atheism couldn't exist without theism. (Just as anaerobic makes no sense without aerobic)
So many atheist I run into, spend so much time thinking about why an all-powerful, all-knowing, personal God doesn't exist. Some seem obsessed with with the thought. They are often passionately opposed to the activities of religious people. People who, according to them, are deluded. Frankly, I spend no time thinking about, or trying to debunk, the fantasies of deluded people. I mean, reality does a pretty good job of that.

BTW, I choose to be a theist. I certainly understand one can make a rational argument for a universe without meaning, but I remain unpersuaded.
One of my favorite sayings:

 

In NY, theres no way you are allowed to carry a firearm in your vehicle unless the driver has a pistol permit, in which in that case, the firearm has to be concealed in an area out of the view of the other passengers and general public.


To me that doesnt mean anything, because Im an officer of the federal government, and some rules just dont apply to me lol

 

I carry every day. I usually just toss it in my consol, or next the the seatbelf buckle. I carry because recently there have been 4 homocides within 3 miles of my business and I frequently answer alarm calls at 3 am in an industrial area. I hope to hell I never have to use it. I do have a permit which was way too easy to get, the state has 60 days to do the background check, if they do not do that in the given time they must issue a permit, it is a complete joke.

 

I live in AZ and AK and carry concealed in both states (legeally of coarse). Concealed wepon permit states, I don't know what I'd do if I lived anywhere that didn't have them???

 

My Florida concealed is honored in Arkansas, but not in Arizona (which I don't understand).

 

I don't own a gun...never felt a need to. However, I would be against any person or group of people who would try to take the right to bare arms away entirely. I say entirely because I think certain firearms were never intended for public use. I won't start a debate about which ones. But like anything else in this country, we can't be satisfied with moderation or contentment. I'm not throwing stones...I live in a glass house, too.[sm=guilty.gif]

We have this stupid moronic "one-upmanship" mentality. We do a lot of things right, but the things we do wrong hurt us more. It's like having a whole bunch of attaboys, but then we get an ah-sh*t and we're dog dirt again. I'll name three of the things, in my opinion, that have tarnished this great United States in the last 100 years...greed, selfishness and a frame of mind that we shouldn't be held accountable. It makes me sick. [sm=smiley11.gif] I know... these are not new things, they've been a thorn in the world's side since the Garden (please not here). However, the US and our right to have rights have escalated things. OK, I'll get off my soapbox.

Back to the topic...as Blackwolf and many others have stated..."Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

Done...feel free to [sm=icon_beat.gif].

Kevin

 

Thank God I live in a country where handguns are illegal.The police sometimes carry handguns ,but there are very strict rules regarding their use.No matter what some countries Constitution say,there is no reason for anyone to carry or own a device that has no purpose other than to kill people. We all know d---heads we would not allow to get anywhere near a handgun let alone own one.
John.

 

Yuridog thank god i don't live in ur Country!