HTOTM: FUSION
Original Post
Gun Control
In lieu of the recent Aurora Shooting, I thought this subject might be in a few people's minds. It certainly popped up in mine.

Let's lay the ground work.

Gun control-efforts to regulate or control sales of guns

And a few questions to spark some discussion:

Are you for or against gun control?

What are the pro and cons of gun control?

Would stricter gun control laws nationwide help or hurt a country?

What is the connection between gun control and criminal activity?

Is criminal activity lowered by stricter gun control?

If not, what would help resolve US criminal activity problems?

Would stricter gun control laws in CO have stopped the attack?

I certainly have an opinion on the subject and each of these questions, but I'll keep it for when the discussion takes off.
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I'm for gun control. I don't believe there is a legitimate reason for a civilian to own a gun. Even police now days can just have tasers/etc and leave the gun play to TRG/SWAT etc.


Australia and Japan have the strictest gun control that I know of, look at their violent crime stats. It's near impossible to get an illegal gun in Australia and Japan.
I'm against gun control. If gun control is mostly being enacted to stop criminals from committing crimes, then I don't think it's really necessary. If you want to solve the problem of criminal activity, you shouldn't be attacking the tools used in the crime but instead the way people become criminals in the first place (better public education etc).

Australia and Japan do have low crime stats, but look at Switzerland. Each male receives combat training, and each household has a rifle in it. Swiss gun crime rates are the lowest in the world and are virtually non-existent.
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That's something else though. Switzerland trains all it's male citizens to be soldiers, aka not idiots that have rifles. I can legally own a rifle in the US just by presenting documentation that I have resided in the States for the past 3 months. I can buy the ammunition even easier. I can own a handgun by taking a very shitty handgun permit class.


Plus, the guy in the Aurora shooting had all the ammunition he had delivered to his school residence. And that didn't tip ANYBODY off that something wrong might happen. Gee, either we're fucking morons, or there's nothing in place that rings every alarm bell in the fucking building and the building next door that something's fishy. At the very least, "school shooting" should have been blaring in somebody's head.
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Originally Posted by Oracle View Post
That's something else though. Switzerland trains all it's male citizens to be soldiers, aka not idiots that have rifles. I can legally own a rifle in the US just by presenting documentation that I have resided in the States for the past 3 months. I can buy the ammunition even easier. I can own a handgun by taking a very shitty handgun permit class.

Other than the stereotypical redneck, there aren't that many idiots that invest in rifles. A lot of these people who invest in guns are part of the gun community that take self defense very very seriously. Look around youtube and around some tactical forums. These people talk about everything from survival gear to knives to guns.


Plus, the guy in the Aurora shooting had all the ammunition he had delivered to his school residence. And that didn't tip ANYBODY off that something wrong might happen. Gee, either we're fucking morons, or there's nothing in place that rings every alarm bell in the fucking building and the building next door that something's fishy. At the very least, "school shooting" should have been blaring in somebody's head.

This sort of proves my point for me. People who intend to use guns maliciously are going to get their hands on guns somehow.
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Gun control. OK lets just say everyone had a gun, I believe it would be more chaos. Guns give people power it lets you be able to kill anyone you want in less than a second. If everyone had that power I think the human race would be extinct.

My personal opinion on the subject.
This is clearly a culture thing as well. Switzerland may be training their citizens to use the weapons they are given, a tad ironic considering their neutrality, but as far as I am aware they don't really have a gun culture that ha any dominance.

To me, much stricter gun laws CANNOT hurt. They can only improve the situation. It will be funny to hear some people say that "Oh, then they will get unlicensed guns and nothing will be solved", which is entirely not true. Though gun related crimes from there on may have been committed using an unlicensed weapon, with less access in general there is likely to be less crime involving firearms altogether.

In Australia, New South Wales in particular, it is a very long, drawn out and stringent process to get a gun licence. It's even harder to get a carriers licence. Even after all of that, automatic weapons and most semi-automatic weapons are still not available at all, let alone rocket launchers, machine guns and flame throwers. So, it seems to me that if you don't take away the option but make the process super long and difficult, then you'll not only see less ownership, but you'll see less crime involved as the process to get one attempts to rule out giving weapons to people who are not capable of controlling them and using them appropriately, unlike in America where opening a bank account gets you a gun, even if you don't deposit money.
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Originally Posted by RayA75 View Post
I'm against gun control. If gun control is mostly being enacted to stop criminals from committing crimes, then I don't think it's really necessary. If you want to solve the problem of criminal activity, you shouldn't be attacking the tools used in the crime but instead the way people become criminals in the first place (better public education etc).

Australia and Japan do have low crime stats, but look at Switzerland. Each male receives combat training, and each household has a rifle in it. Swiss gun crime rates are the lowest in the world and are virtually non-existent.

Switzerland is a special case.

America cannot be transformed in to Switzerland. Consider the solution that works in the general case, not the one that has worked only in one specific case.
Gun Control: Against.
Gun control is a very good idea but it helps nobody. All it does is make it where no body can defend themselves if they're being assaulted or mugged.
You can't stop crime by not giving out guns because most guns come from drug dealers and such, who have unlicensed guns from mexico bought from drug cartels.
The only thing that wouldn't happen is crazy people getting their hands on guns, so this wouldn't of happened, but crime would still be going on, even more so considering everybody is an easy target if they don't have a gun and the mugger/assaulter got theirs from a black market. You can never stop crime, it's going to happen, I mean, even the police officers are assaulting people with pepper spray, releasing dogs on protestors, and shooting people just because they run away. The only thing that gun control would stop is miscellaneous muggings and murders, maybe even SOME big stuff like bank robbings. But you won't stop the major crime because those crimes are commited by people who don't need to get guns at "your local gun store", and they already have a lot of guns. so gun control would only make us, the american citizens targets. We would also not be able to revolt against the government if they ever wanted to enslave us.
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Originally Posted by torineko View Post
Switzerland is a special case.

America cannot be transformed in to Switzerland. Consider the solution that works in the general case, not the one that has worked only in one specific case.

Well, Switzerland is a special case for a few reasons. They're a pretty small country, and they actually can supply their whole population with weapons. Though, on an individual level guns remain as excellent self defense in the hands of the average person. I can understand gun control in a state where crime isn't rare, but not giving people guns isn't the solution to crime.
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