Reply #347: Personally, I believe that gun regulation... [View All]

[Cerval]

...is essential. I do not believe that a hunter needs an assault rifle to hunt deer with. Nor do I believe that bears wear body armor so, there is probably no need for the average joe-hunter to have armor-piercing bullets. I do not believe that hand-guns have any other purpose than killing people. I believe that there were more than 15,000 gun-related deaths in this country last year.

In spite of all of this, I have owned firearms. I had a .22 pistol that I used to carry on my trips to the desert. I kept the pistol loaded with snake-shot because, well, there are many rattle-snakes out in the desert. I owned a Glock 19 9mm for a few years. I used this for target practice. I enjoyed the challenge of target shooting and the Glock was an easy, accurate, and forgiving piece to fire. I owned a .227 hunting rifle and a Winchester 12 gauge as well. I have since sold all the guns that I have owned.

On the side of the 2nd Amendment, however, I believe that the Founding Fathers wanted people to have guns, not because they were worried about a foreign invasion, but, because they were afraid of the amount of power that government still wielded. I believe that Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, et al., were intelligent enough to foresee that governmental power might be abused at some time in the future and provided for the "common defense" accordingly. Our forefathers wanted to make sure that power remained with the people and that the government would act in a regulatory capacity. For crying out loud, our forefathers were freakin' radicals who had just thrown off the rule of the largest empire in the world at that time. They were afraid of government... even a government that they had built!

These guys wanted to make sure that the common citizen had a say in how they were ruled and, of course, back then they expected that there would always be a Militia rather than a professional army. The Continental Army was, in essence, a huge Militia of common people.

In summary, I believe that many guns should be regulated, especially assault weapons. I mean really, who is going to invade the U.S.? Canada? Mexico? But, handguns represent a gray area, still, why can't you wait two weeks to get your gun? Any gun?

Again, this is just my opinion.