Firearms Options

[Irysa]

Question fest. What is your stance on owning firearms? Should people have a right to defend themselves in this way, or does having a gun in your house simply encourage the shooting of people/schoolkids? Should certain guns be banned, should all of them be banned? Should there be less regulations? What are the pros and cons, etc.

Living in the UK where there are relatively few firearms and gun related incidents ( Knife incidents and whatnot are rife however... ), perhaps I do not fully understand the right to bear arms. Nor do I think the introduction of them here for private ownership will produce anything constructive. Do Americans really feel the need to have a gun for safety, or is it more of a tradition now?

Questions, questions. Let me know your thoughts, please.

[Dr Strum]

First, the "Right to Bear Arms" part of the constitution has nothing to do with owning firearms, it is the right to form militias for protection. It was placed there because at the time a military and police force were never intended to be created. Then when most people saw how crappy their militias were, they left it up to the government to create the army, and later police forces.

Now, rarely do people actually buy firearms for protection. Even if that's their claim, it's one of these things:

• Hunting
• Power
• Comfort
• Killing

There are some other reasons, for example, armed security guards and sometimes even police have to purchase their own pistols. These are rare of course.
Now, I understand hunting. Partly because my family enjoys hunting. However pistols and automatic rifles will not help you in anyway when hunting, so anyone with weapons like those that claims they're for "hunting purposes" is a fucking liar.
Power: Hold a weapon, of any kind, sword, rifle, whatever, and tell me you don't feel the sudden urge to use it, or a sudden rush of adrenaline. Weapons do make people feel powerful, and a lot of people like it.
For comfort, often people who say they bought it for safety really bought it for comfort. The feeling of being able to destroy your would-be destroyers is morbidly comforting. It does add a bit of confidence to some.
Then the last reason, killing. This shouldn't require any explanation, but guns have no purpose other than killing, whether animals or humans. And some people DO buy them with the intent of killing other people.
The last three reasons are why I'm technically against firearms. Hunting is great and all, but as it stands now, it's winding up the justification for the latter three reasons of firearm ownership.