If the founding fathers of the US Constitution had ever seen an Armalite rifle, and what it could do in seconds to a McDonalds restaurant full of mums, dads and kids, they may have had second thoughts about the Second Amendment.
LEGO,
Not just rifles, Education too !

I believe in the right to bear arms/a bill of rights that would enshrine such a right.

Those that carry legal weapons/obliged to use them, must have their mental health, integrity, reasons to carry/use a firearm, tested via unbeatable space age lie detection.

I mean, a police officer shot an unarmed lady reporting a possible rape etc-etc! Underlines the fact, those we trust with lethal weapons, no safer than Joe public! Yes, the average sane citizen ought to be able to carry a weapon to protect themselves.

Imagine, a young heroic nurse running to aid a stab victim of a terrorist, being able to take out a small .22 pistol, use it on the armed maniacal attacker. How many other lives besides the heroic nurse's would've been saved?

We have laws that make drugs illegal. Have waged a losing battle against the illegal drug trade for over eighty years.

As we succeed, even worse more addictive drugs found their way onto our streets/our schools etc. With mafia-like gangs trying to control turf with drive-by shootings with illegal unlicensed weapons.

The only laws that are worth a pinch of sh!t are those that are enforceable! Hardly a day goes by that we are not assailed by yet another headline of some vulnerable elderly person mugged in their own home.

Should the criminal trespasser be injured by a citizen using force to protect themselves? Our insane laws give the criminal interloper more rights than the homeowner/landowner!

Time we were allowed to arm ourselves and defend our (castles) against unwanted trespass, be they break and enter merchants or vigilante animal activists trying to prevent a farmer from conducting lawful business!

A backside peppered with rock salt is a very valuable lesson and may even break the nexus between juvenile crime and our massive and ever-increasing incarceration rates?

Finally, women need to be able to take back the night. A concealed .22 might just allow that. Without protection, young women will continue to be attacked and murdered by the nut jobs now roaming what once were safe neighbourhoods!
Alan B.

AFL,
Amusement For Losers

Criminals can and do get to have their choice of weapons. Be it a semi-auto Armalite or an uzi with phenomenal automatic firepower. There's a black market and money talks! Rounds per minute may be quite impressive, but I'd rather a fifty cal bolt action. And a head target.

I mean, one could empty a magazine and hit nothing. I've seen a rabbit poke its head upon a military rifle range and all manner off fully automatic weaponry trained on it by experienced marksmen. Only to see the rabbit hopping back to its burrow when all the magazines were empty!

As always our gun laws are framed by those who know the least about them and fear them. We still have more homicides with knives than guns! If I was to be murdered by an armed intruder. I'd sooner be shot in the head than be stabbed in the belly and die a slow and excruciatingly pain-racked death.

Suicide? Those that attend the aftermath of such events often report the mess, such as not being able to locate the head when the victim blows the head off with a shotgun.

But have fewer problems when the victim tops themselves with legally available euthanasia. It's odd don't you think that we legalize both abortion and euthanasia, both of which may still a beating human heart.

But go ballistic when someone chooses to top themselves with a gun! He or she should have got some tablets? Right?Or Numbutol? Then it would all be hunky-dory, right? I mean there'd be no mess to clean up? Right?

Go figure?
Alan B.

Giday Alan B.

How bout sticking to your daily Thorium injections rather than writing ignorant blather on American? or Australian gun control?

Where you say:

1. "[You] believe in the right to bear arms/a bill of rights that would enshrine such a right."

Are you suggesting we bring America's system of suicide/family member gun carnage to Australia?

2. "lie detection" is about what you have done in the past not what shopping mall you intend to shoot up.

3. "Yes, the average sane citizen ought to be able to carry a weapon to protect themselves."

What the gun killing of 30,000+? sane American citizens yearly is OK with you?

4. "Imagine, a young heroic nurse running to aid a stab victim of a terrorist, being able to take out a small .22 pistol, use it on the armed maniacal attacker."

Given nurses have a Hypocratic Oath to "Do no harm." and a .22 pistol would not stop an American crim's .44 Magnum or Uzi machine gun - Are you sane old chap?

5. "Time we were allowed to arm ourselves and defend our (castles) against unwanted trespass"

We Australians already have that right

I would consign your ignorant fantasies of gun carrying Australians to the hell that is already American Gun [Out of] Control.

Avagudweekend

Pete

The role of a gun is to kill.

That is an ultimate power which must only be used in the most extreme circumstances.

The concept of state-directed killing by armed forces is one which imposes heavy moral responsibilities upon those charged with employing that warfare.

I believe that the US population lives under the delusion that ownership and use of guns will ensure their freedom from attack, a delusion fostered by a severe lack of personal ethical mores and the casual entertainment settings in which gun use plays a major role, permitting assumed freedom to do whatever they wish without accepting responsibilty for the outcome.