1) Guns are a form of protection.
Shields, armour and helmets protect you. Guns shoot toxic pieces of lead into other people.
2) Guns are a form of self-defence.
They can be, sure. However, statistically speaking, more guns are used in crimes than are used in self-defence.
A study of gun use in the 1990s, by David Hemenway at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that criminal use of guns is far more common than self-defense use of guns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
Obviously, potential criminals are going to purchase guns if they are legal. Therefore, you make a useless trade: increased personal protection for increased need for it. The only logical outcome of that trade is more people will die.
3) I don't trust the government.
If the government wants to get you, then your Dirty Harry handgun is not going to stop them. End of story.
4) A 100 lb woman shouldn't have to struggle with a 300 lb rapist.
But you can't arm the victim without simultaneously arming the rapist. So, instead of a rape occurring, which is consequently then investigated by the people whose job it is to investigate rapes, you have a bloodbath. Maybe the rapist gets killed, maybe the victim gets killed, maybe they both get killed, or maybe innocent bystanders get killed.
There are alternative ways to deal with rapists which are final, much safer, and do not end in loss of life.
5) Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
Then it is a stupid idea to give them guns then, isn't it? Unless you are trying to make fucking sure.
Any thoughts?
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oedipusaurus_rex ago
Getting rid of guns isn't going to solve any problems, and it's going to create another industry that isn't taxed.
Do you want to know how easy it is to get illegal guns? Ask your weed dealer if they know anyone. Ask any of your veteran friends. Get a 3d printer and print one. Making all guns illegal may lower the supply of available guns, but it isn't going to get rid of them. It's just going to make them more expensive. This is particularly true because of 3d printed guns. There are plastic ar-15 lowers that are capable of firing over 500 rounds before failure. Not to mention, any file that can be loaded into a 3d printer can also be loaded into a cnc mill.
Now that that's out of the way, how about you back up your stats.
What studies are you citing, or is this one of those 70% of all statistics are made up things?