I’m puzzled why you think the OP would be opposed to your position. After all, it’s about choice. Your right to choose not to have a gun and the OP’s right to choose to have one. No one is going to put a gun to your head (heh) and FORCE you to own a gun…the problem is that people want the converse.
-XT
Yeah. Even I’m beginning to consider joining the NRA. 
The no thanks was declining his offer to have an extended argument about it. I’d rather people didn’t have guns (I think I’ve made that clear in the past) but my preference for it to be so isn’t, and won’t ever be, the case hence my turning down the offer to have threads and fights about it daily.
Maybe I mis-interpreted:
Do you feel the same way about driving? You can get a license if you want, but it’s OK if other people don’t want to?
People who are as obsessed with guns as the OP appears to be seriously fucking creep me out.
“Why do people call us ‘paranoid gun nuts’?”
Is this a trick question? If you are asking me if I’m ok with making a license mandatory…yeah, I’m ok with that. If you are asking me if I think getting a license (I assume a gun permit license), then no…I don’t think it’s necessary. Not unless it’s necessary to get a license to purchase alcohol or things of that nature. A DRIVERS license should be all an adult citizen needs.
But…I’m cool with gun licenses, at least in theory.
-XT
In all seriousness, don’t you think that using a gun responsibly and safely requires a level of training analagous to driving a car?
Yes - it means too many people on here rely on blogs for their prime source of biased and partisan information in GD for both starting and replying to threads, something I see a lot in energy and environmental threads as well. So I speculated somewhat hyperbolically (OK, there’s no “somewhat” about it) that it’s possible some “teh kewl” blogger is making a big deal about it and people are parroting the topics here.
It does not mean Joe Biden picked up the phone and started calling the households of SDMB members, asking the parents if their son could stop trying to hook up with that 50 year-old pedophile named “Big Bob” pretending to be 13 year-old “SeXyViKkI” in chat (who would really like some boys to show her what a penis looks like!), and start posting about guns on the SDMB.
I’m guessing that starts happening about 2010.
What would Jesus pack? I mean, a man of his caliber…
Does it creep you out when people raise objections to abortion? There are those that believe vehemently that abortion is murder, there are those that vehemently disagree, and there are those that don’t care. Given that that debate is as contentious as this one, would you say that NARAL members are “wide-eyed” or “paranoid” when they object to certain judges being selected, certain policies implemented that restrict their rights, or candidates that have publicly taken a position in opposition to their own?
I don’t see passion, frustration or defiance as “creepy”. It’s people like these that protect the rights you care about, why shouldn’t they protect the ones you don’t care about?
I’m just saying you shouldn’t bitch about people calling you a paranoid gun nut when you’re in the middle of a paranoid rant accusing people of TRYIN TO TAKE MAH GUNS.
The creepiness thing is based on my observations of people who were really, really into guns. It’s my subjective impression.
Nope. Like using a hammer or drinking a scotch I think the only limiting factor should be age and perhaps mental competency. A car though is a fairly complex tool, with a lot of rules governing it’s use…so, like an air plane (same thing), it makes sense to require at least rudimentary training and licensing before allowing it’s general use.
Like I said, I don’t have a PROBLEM with licensing gun use…I just don’t think it does much. It’s one of those things that people think does something though, and I’m cool with that.
-XT
Well, my own careful reading of the Bible (about 30 years ago) leads me to believe that Jesus would really like a nice 4mm M77 Gauss Rifle with extended scope. I think the whole ‘Man! I can fire darts at half the speed of light and blow the heads clean off those raiders!’ thingy would be what would get him there.
I concede though that he might just like a nice .45 though…
-XT
I don’t. To drive a car on public roads, you have to control the vehicle while obeying all the applicable laws. Compared to that, pointing a rifle at things you want full of holes and pulling the trigger (while not pointing a rifle at things you don’t want full of holes) is incredibly simple.
The title: “Gun Control: Bring it!” is the best thing here so far.
I believe in gun rights.
But I am completely opposed to the NRA.
Their “Out of my cold dead hands” attitude and constant paranoia is a sickness, not a movement. They preach hate and fear. They act like it’s your damn responsibility to own a gun, and a simple choice not to own one is somehow criminal. They spout bullshit statistics. They encourage psychopathic morons to buy zillions of guns to arm themselves against some fictional armageddon, and to call anyone who doesn’t agree with them 100% as “Sheeple”.
Seriously, how can you want to be associated with such a group of tools?
I’m thinking of starting a group called “Sane Gun Advocates Against the NRA”
And yet people manage to shoot themselves, loved ones, and innocent bystanders by mistake.
The test could include things like. True/False: Handing a loaded Uzi to a 9 year is a good idea.
Well Jesus, if he existed, was a Jew. So to honor the covenant with Yahweh he’d need to use a sawed off shotgun.
I’m not “insinuating” it; I’m outright saying that’s what gun ownership is largely about. Thugs and paranoids and fanatics and fools.
Of course; like a typical gun rights supporter, the deaths of all the people who die because America is awash in guns means nothing to you compared to your burning need to own a gun without restrictions or rules or even training. You’d elect a genocidal dictator if he promised you your guns. No morality; no compassion; no common sense; no self preservation; just gun worship. A one dimensional issue upheld by one dimensional people.