obviously i know your stances, and i believe we’d be safer WITH guns in this country because banning them would create a black market and the criminals would still get guns, endangering us, rendering us armless.
but let’s say hypothetically we banned guns in this country and they completely disappeared. would we be safer? why or why not?
i’m just trying to see both views here. i understand that there are upwards of 3,000,000 defensive gun uses per year, but some say that if guns were banned, we wouldn’t need to defend ourselves 3,000,000 per year in the first place. what do you think?
In perfect imaginary World - yes. If all guns disappear… (unfortunately it will never happen).
I grew up in Europe, where guns were allowed for military only. All violence we got never had guns involved, so mostly ended with wounds, not death.
Gun is a very easy “death” tool. Bad guy doesn’t need to think, he just pulls the trigger… With “no guns” it won’t be so easy. He has to learn some skills to do bad things…
Everything is about equality. No guns, no need to defense with guns. But people are worse than animals (aspect of evolution), so even there won’t be guns, we will still have violence. Probably with less death rate, so I will consider this as safer.
Star Trek still had Phasers…
London surpassed New York for murders last year. Guns are banned, and now they are trying to ban most knives.
250,000 die every year from drunk driving(usually ruled as manslaughter).
9/11 was carried out with box cutters.
Timothy McVeigh used a rented truck, diesel fuel and fertilizer to blow up a building, that contained a daycare.
More people are killed by baseball bats and bare hands every year, than rifles.
Millions of Jews died, because they couldn’t fight back.
Last, but certainly not least, the first murder in history, was committed with a rock.
I’m a big guy, and there aren’t many woman that I couldn’t overpower, and have my way with. I can’t overpower a chest full of bullet holes.
So, no, we would not be safer if guns were gone. Those who would do harm to others, will find a way. Guns gives us the ability to level the playing ground for our defense.
I think we would be more vulnerable than ever…
Not just within, but from the outside of our shorelines as well.
The fact that our enemies have to consider that if they invaded our nation they would not just be fighting the American military which in it self is the best of the best, but also they would be fighting the American gun owners.
Silly question, sort of like “what if fire didn’t burn?” Fundamental aspects of life in this universe make weapons inevitable; the rest is details.
Randall makes a good point. With other countries knowing full well there are millions of Americans who not only own firearms, but are intimately familiar with their use, they really can’t invade mainland America, not conventionally anyways.
Our military is top notch, but the amount of heat our “civilians” can bring is no joke either.
Guns didn’t create violence and warfare, Warfare and violence created guns.
We will always find a way to destroy each other. It’s always been a heart thing
TRUTH.
Japan did not invade the U.S. west coast after Pearl Harbor, because Admiral Isokuru Yamamoto, who was educated in the U.S., did not recommend it. His reasoning?-“There would be a gun behind every blade of grass.” Japan did not invade the U.S. because of our ARMED POPULACE.
@Henry_A That is a true version, documented.
We need our guns because even if we manage to stop shooting each other, there’s always THIS!
[Tim Bedoer - Vague But True: Animal Conspiracy - YouTube]
Stay vigilant, my friends.
Of course not. Guns are the great “equalizer”. When the law abiding give up our guns we’re right back to living as man did prior to their invention where the very young, very old, physically weaker are always at the mercy of those who are stronger or who have greater numbers.
Human nature isn’t going to change without firearms.
You’re probably right. It would likely be close to 5 million and we’d be down to trying to defend ourselves with clubs and bladed weapons.
“God made men, and Sam Colt made’em equal.”
Matthew Quigley
I think the others have pretty well said it Liam, but you ask a fair question.
No, we would not be safer even if we could as @Jerzees mentioned wave a wand and make them all disappear.
Why? Well as several have pointed out here humans have been killing each other since Cain killed Abel, and robbing, beating, etc that entire time also. That it is engrained in some humans to do evil would not disappear with the disappearance of guns.
@45IPAC sites a perfect example of that, where you essentially have no guns available to the majority populous of London, yet their murder rate is still extremely high. They are now in the process of attempting “knife control” (not a joke, research it).
There will always be violence committed by humans against other humans and many will resort to tools even if it’s just a hammer (which is responsible for more murders last year than all rifles put together).
And without guns to equalize the playing field as @WildRose stated, we are not only NOT safer, we’re actually in MORE danger and LESS safe without guns.
Good question/discussion.
No guns ≠ no violence. No guns = More disparity of force for the weaker or elderly.
I will stand by my opinion.
I fully understand and respect other’s words, and what I see different opinions are generated by the fact how we grew up.
I lived over 30 years without guns and the only deadly weapons we used were knifes, bludgeon, chains. We had fights, we had violence, we had robberies and of course we had deaths.
However amounts of these incidences were way lower. I may say it was because less guns, but also it might be because of different justice system… hard to say.
My point is that being young kid / man without access to guns (for all citizens) I felt safer. Then being a father without access to guns (for all citizens) I felt safer.
US gave me the right and opportunity to bear a firearm. This is the right, not obligation but I got a firearm to equal the level of defense vs. violence. Do I feel safer?.. I’m not sure. I feel safer having the gun on me, but I do not feel safer overall. My younger son cannot have a firearm on him yet, so I have to think about his security almost 16 hr every weekday when he drives to Chicago… every father on this forum knows what that feeling is… I know there are other things that can harm my kid, but guns are the easiest firearm to be killed or harmed accidentally, being bystander, not even being involved… and that scary me (means I do not feel safe).
Times were definitely different which is what I attribute the reduced rate of violent crime back then (the attitudes of people even criminals in regards to the value of life).
Ironically 40yrs ago we actually had fewer restrictions and more access to fire arms. I could order an AR15 from the Sears catalog without any type of background check or proof of age. Long guns were carried openly in the back of trucks parked in school parking lots…me and my buddies would go hunting on the weekend with shotguns at the age of 14 (just had to have taken hunters safety course and have the card) without adult supervision just a drop off to whatever field we were hunting… Along with cleaning the rabbits, quail and pheasants I was responsible for cleaning the weapons and putting them up (again all without adult supervision after being taught).
And we’re now talking about “feeling” vs “actual” although I do think overall crime was lower in the 70’s/80’s than now (can’t look it up right now).
But I actually agree with you, I feel less safe today than I did when I was a youth…but for me it has nothing to do with the availability of guns and more to do with current societal morals/values. But that’s just me.
Respectfully, this is wrong statistically speaking. Automobile accidents, medical malpractice, neck, even cancer end vastly more lives than guns every year, and are almost wholly out of our control. Safety is a perceived notion. We go to hospitals, to get treated, not really thing about malpractice. Most of us drive an automobile there. And although we can try to not put carcinogens in our bodies, some people are genetically predisposed to a higher risk of cancer. We can take precautions that add to our safety, but, we cannot ultimately guarantee it. Carrying a gun, doesn’t make us safer. It makes us better prepared, when our safety has become compromised.