[Sir Heinrich Godfrie IV]

i know that you (magik) originally wanted only votes, but i still feel the need to add my two bits.

first off, i want to share this little statistic or fact. there are more guns per capita within isreal than in the united states. YET, isreal's murder rate is almost non-existent. this goes to show that guns ALONE are not the problem.

if you think logically and leave out all the warm fuzzy emotions from it, disarming the law abiding citizens will do very very little to bring down crime. in fact (or so i have heard) the armed robberies within nations that have banned firearms has risen, especially for home burglaries/robberies. because if you think about it if you were a criminal looking to break into someone's house, where would you rather go, the household with the gun or the one without. duh! thats a no brainer! what i'm trying to get at is that a burglar within the united states would probably think long and hard before entering a stranger's home. on the other hand, that same burglar within the united kingdom or austrailia would already know that that household was unarmed. again a no brainer.

although i do not own a firearm i must say that i feel that the beauty of the united states is in the fact that we are armed to the teeth. the reason is IMHO that if china or another nation down the road, got into an all out war with the US and knocked out our navy, army, marines, airforce and tried to invade...their troops wouldn't make it past CALIFORNIA !!