[Barry the Sprout]

Well, I personally am very strongly in favour of people carrying guns. As people have said, the right to defend yourself is your right! Whether you are defending yourself against one of the regular attackers on the street or one of the all too frequent teenage burglars. They think they can get something for nothing, well they should go out an get an education like a proper middle class person instead of languishing in poverty. Its a good job they want something for nothing in some respects - they haven't got anything to trade it for!

In a society where people are mostly peaceful it gives me a warm feeling to know I can kill wildlife at twenty paces, or intimidate my boss without having to work hard. And as for the people who say a gun adds more danger then I will point out a knife can just as easily kill someone. If you are really lucky you might even kill them from a distance with it, or while they are running away from your house. You can always hope. And children want to play with knives just as much as guns right? So we should ban them if we ban guns! And no one is seriously suggesting banning knives are they? Its not illegal to carry knives in public... oh wait... yes it is... sorry.

But anyway, these anti gun people then usually say things about the crime rate being lower in countries with gun resrictions. I say that the crime rate only *appears* to be lower. Over in those places people are stabbed to death in their beds as the criminals can't get guns. So the death is silent and no one hears about it! Obviously the crime rate is going to look lower in a country without firearms readily available, but that is deceptive. The firearms don't actually cause the problem, that much is plainly obvious.

So I like my guns. And if anyone tries to take them off of me they are infringing on a human right to be able to kill fellow people quickly and from a distance, and I will shoot them. Just like that guy on Ruby Ridge. A true hero in my book.

EDIT - I forgot to mention. We mostly need to protect ourselves because there are always going to be criminals. There is just a certain type of person who has a criminal leaning, no matter what situation they are living in and no matter what society condones as the norm. There is no way that these people would in any way change if society changed, they will always be criminals. That is the end of the matter as this statement is self evidently true. I should also point out that no one on this board would be like that. Even if you admitted to having committed a crime I wouldn't think you were one of these kind of horrible people, there was probably some kind of special circumstance surrounding your misdemeanour - completely unlike them. It would be offensive for me to say this about people who are actually here, obviously.

[ 04-30-2002, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: Barry the Sprout ]