I haven't seen any posts that address one major reason why many people like myself keep guns and want others to be able to *legally* possess them - CRIMINALS. It would be nice if we didn't need weapons for home and personal defense. We need to make prison a deterrent again.

I would like to see harsh prison terms for anyone using guns in crimes. Likewise, we need to have harsh punishment for anyone who rapes, robs, mugs, carjacks or other violent crimes.

If you are going to remove or limit my ability to defend myself and my property, I want to know that anyone who has committed a violent crime has been locked up and removed from society. You do that, and I'd give up my semi-automatic pistols and rifles - well, if I they hadn't fallen out of my boat that one day on the river.

This is a general observation

Why do you feel so threatened?

I am 43, have lived on 4 continents, 4 countries, lived in the US for a decade (Chicago, Columbus and colorado). Currently live in beijing / france and UK and just have never felt that threatened.

I genuinely think I am more likely to be involved in a car accident or befall some other incident than a violent crime.

This is not a criticism. I think people view risk and its mitigation differently.

For the most part when I lived in the US I never lived in parts of town where violent crime was a specific hazard I ever felt I needed to mitigate .

Then why are we having this conversation? None of us are at significant risk of experiencing a school shooting, yet here we are.

All of my firearms are locked up in a safe. But that could change quickly if the wrong person moved into my neighborhood. But I'm fortunate in that my neighborhood is safe. I realize that many other people have to put bars on their windows and bring the kids in at night. How often do we read about home invasions?

I just think that we need to remove violent people from our society. People want to limit or remove rights afforded by the second amendment but don't want to lock up a violent criminal for 50 years.


BTW - I'm not trying to be snarky, so I apologize if my tone comes across that way.

The second amendment to the Constitution was adopted in December 1791. Any guns that were available at that time are allowed. Nothing else. Quite simple actually. That would quickly limit how many people you could kill. You might kill one person with your muzzleloader, maybe two if you had a pair of pistols.

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Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it. John D. Rockefeller Sr.

We have a universe of guns.


That's the BIG problem - you have so many guns, and almost all gun owners, and those who are pro-gun are completely IMMOVABLE from their position!

However, if you want a good place to start - watch Michael Moore's, "Bowling for Columbine", and then study, with an open mind, what goes on in ALL of the rest of the democratic countries that in total, have a total population over 1billion people. We feel a country and a society is safer with less guns - and it's true.

Until, the United States, reaches that point ( which may . . horrors . . require constitutional change), I see no real change . . . and that's unfortunate.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

If i were a doctor being asked to sign off on someone being sound of mind so that they could buy a gun I wouldn’t do it. There’s still a good chance a future event could tip them over the edge. Then what? Does the doctor become a viable legal target? What doctor would expose themselves to that risk?

Sighhhh. Tell that to the SCOTUS. I'm sure they must not have considered that.

Another way to look at it is that the citizens/militia were allowed to have arms that were comparable to what the military carried at the time.

Exactly. I cannot even begin to imagine the cost of malpractice insurance for docs you rendered these decisions.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Great point! We should also keep the voting rights and human ownership rights that existed in December 1791, because, as you know, the Constitution is not a living, breathing document!

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR