[QUOTE=Whack-a-Mole]
The #1 tool for intentionally causing harm to others in the US are guns (handguns primarily). ALL other weapon attacks combined do not equal guns.
I am fully aware that MOST people who handle a gun are likewise law abiding and have no intent to cause harm but for those who are intent on causing harm a gun is a primary choice. Not a car. Not a swimming pool. Not a cigarette. Not a motor boat.
To keep dancing around this point is disingenuous. Call a gun a tool but it is not like any other tool. Its primary purpose is to be lethal to others (be they human, animal, paper or beer cans).
[/QUOTE]
Whack-a-Mole, I think your points are valid. However, by the same token, the #1 tool for defending one’s self against harm is the gun. If my figures are correct (and, to be honest, I have very little faith in statistics, but all the ones we’ve seen are from government sources and not right or left wing websites, so they’ll do for comparison) then it seems like guns are used to prevent crime more often than they’re used to commit it.
I mean, why do all these mass shootings happen in gun free zones? Courthouses and schools and, in some cases, churches. Why, if the ease of obtaining guns, or the “gun culture” is responsible for these killings, aren’t there mass shootings at the NRA conventions, or gun shows? My contention is that criminals, who I despise as much as you do, want easy targets. You know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a school is an easier target than, say, my house, because the people who live and work at that school have been disarmed.
My points about swimming pools and the like is merely to illustrate the bias against guns. To claim that the whole debate is about preventing unneccesary deaths, when it really isn’t, as those swimming pool deaths are unneccesary, is also disingenuous. Your point about swimming pools not being designed for violence is 100% right, it’s just that people aren’t outraged about those senseless deaths. Some people view guns as scary or evil, and so gun deaths are infinitely worse than other deaths.
The last thing I’ll say about it is this: we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. If I had my way, nuclear weapons would never have been invented. But they have, and so I want the US to have the most nukes. Likewise, guns would never have been invented (history would be interesting, I suppose). But, they’re here, and I’d just as soon the good guys have more of them than the bad guys. As much as I respect the police, they simply cannot protect us all the time. And, there may come a time when I need to hunt for my supper, so I like the knowledge that I could grow a garden, shoot a deer, and drink from a stream.
You asked the question about why we feel the way we do about our “right” to have a gun. Obviously, as you said, the Bill of Rights is an easy citation, but I’ll try to elaborate a little.
Fundamentally, I believe in a set of God-given rights, in much the same way the framers did. These are not vested by a nation, they supercede nationalities and races and all our artificial arrangements. The phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” means a lot to me, as I see those as fundamental. I should have the right to exist, and be free. I also believe in the fundamental right to defend myself. Sometimes I sit outside and watch the little critters. One squirril attacks another, and the attackee defends himself, rightly. Can’t blame him for that. Although there are nations that impede that right to one degree or another, I do hold that it’s a right of all people, regardless of nationality or ennumeration in a document. I think a person in England has just as much right to defend himself as a person in America, or China, or Pakistan, or the moon.
Giving up my guns, when there will still be guns out there that could be used against me, is tantamount to my giving up my right to defend myself. Sure, I could use a bat or knife, but I’d be an idiot to bring a knife to a gunfight. So, since the genie can’t go back in the bottle, I feel very strongly about keeping my firearms.
I’ve really enjoyed this whole thread. Although our opinions may be polar opposites, it’s fascinating to hear your point of view, and others. Even if none of this changes any minds, I hope it leads away from the pure black and white thinking.
Regards,
BT
Again, you say this as if its meaningful. Its a personal value judgement…to YOU perhaps ‘recreation’ for a tool means it has a higher value than ‘weapon’. Its often surprising to people that their value judgements are different than other peoples.
). Much of our early history is wrapped up with personal gun ownership…and independence.