Reply #21: Talking some crap, some sense....... [View All]

[Pert_UK]

As previously mentioned in a lengthy post, the UK's ban on guns was never intended to address the use of guns by criminals. It was to ensure that legally held guns were never again misused by their owners to inflict a massacre. To this end, it has been 100% successful. Criminals used guns before the ban and will continue to use them forever, but that doesn't in any way entail that the ban on guns hasn't worked, or prevented further deaths.

"British subjects have grown used to being unarmed and do not see a need to have firearms." Try saying "people" rather than "subjects" - it rather weakens your argument to imply that the UK populace is in any practical, measurable way, subservient to the monarch. NEWSFLASH - British people don't have a need for firearms. It's not just that we don't see it, we don't need handguns to defend ourselves. We can still use shotguns for hunting and pest control, and rifles for deer hunting + target shooting (I believe) in the small number of places in the UK where hunting is a viable option.

"America was founded, in part, because some British subects found it unsettling to be powerless in the face of the government, giving rise to the second amendment. " - I'm almost certain that this is untrue, but don't have the time to research it....My feeling is that people in the US got tired of paying a UK government for nothing and wanted independence. The 2nd amendment was something to do with allowing the people to arm as a collective in order to defend the newly established USA in the face of an attack by the Brits (although I might be making this up). I can hardly see that the government would write a law saying "Hey everyone - if you think that the government is being a bit rough at any point, we've included this line about having guns so you can come and shoot us".

"Bottom line is we, as a culture, must address the attitudes towards guns before we attempt to address the guns themselves. There are simply too many guns in the hands of too many people for a total ban, similar to that of the UK, to ever work here." - BINGO! 100% correct. I never said that the UK law would work in the US. Part of the UK law's success is that the UK effectively wanted to state that our society does not regard guns as an acceptable / suitable object to be in public hands. The US clearly does not have that philosophy. Guns are there to stay. I only suggest that there needs to be better control over who has guns and how they use them.