Reply #35: I keep forgetting you are Canadian [View All]

[slackmaster]

Your comparison seems absurd to me because owning a gun is a civil right in this country and owning toxic waste is not.

You believe that one person owning a gun poses a danger (however slight that may be) to everyone else. Granted. Every right enumerated in the Bill of Rights carries a cost:

- Freedom of speech includes the right to speech that offends some people.

- Freedom from unreasonable search means that sometimes police will be unable to do anything about people they know are engaging in criminal activity.

- The right to a speedy trial by jury means that a few criminals will be set free in error.

- The Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination means that sometimes the only available witness to a crime cannot be compelled to testify, again resulting in criminals going free.

- The right to keep and bear arms means that some idiots will keep and bear arms.

My country is in a constant struggle to counteract the bad effects of allowing its citizens great freedoms. We don't throw out the jury trial system because of an occasional O.J. Simpson debacle. O.J. is probably a bigger threat to your safety than any of my guns are. (And O.J. Simpson is not disqualified from owning a gun.)