Opinions/Discussions on Guns

[woolybug25]

Originally Posted by General Colon Bowel

This has been making the rounds on facebook today. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it. I'm just posting it as a conversation piece.
The Anarchist Soccer Mom: Thinking the Unthinkable

That was haunting. What a terrible situation for anyone to be in.

[Domina Nostra]

Originally Posted by woolybug25

I say, yes.

Would you be ok with your neighbor owning biological warfare materials? What about him rigging his property with land mines? What if they felt that these were appropriate measures to protect themselves?

These are two exaggerated examples, but they prove the point that everyone has their personal limit on what they deem to be over the line of "self-defense". Assault Rifles and automatic weapons aren't on the same plane as the examples above, but I think its fair to have a national conversation on how to properly manage these rights in order to find a compromise between rights to bare arms and the unalienable right of Life, Liberty and Happiness that those arms can take away from the rest of us. Both are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (respectively), but we find ourselves in days where they are conflicting with each other.

Right. For example, we seem to agree that automatic weapons are out.

[NankerPhelge]

This really is horrible. It sickens me on so many levels. The deaths of these innocent kids most emotionally at the gut level, which any of us, whether or not we have children or grandchildren (I have both) cannot but to feel a more or less degree of shock and sorrow. But, even more profoundly, yet another stark example of the sick society we have become. And all we can ever do is address the superficial. Get ready for the tired, worn-out, and totally useless debates about gun control, politics, etc. blah, blah, blah, ad nauseum while we ignore the disease that is right before our eyes.

My first thoughts, when I got over the first blast of horror and sadness when I heard about this, were "well, should anybody be suprised that this keeps happening here?" After all, the only difference between these poor children and the other millions that we slaughter every year were that these at least made it out of their mother's wombs. Then, tonight I read where Mike Huckabee basically said much the same thing, in the context of how we have increasingly removed God from schools and everywhere else we can eradicate him from the public square. The comments on his statement were filled with some of the most vitriputive hatred I have ever seen. As will, I suppose, some of the responses to this post. But, I just don't really care about not "offending" anybody anymore, while being offended everyday by some of the the drivel that passes for "enlightened" opinion.

Pope Paul VI started the chain of thought in Humanae Vitae. Pope John the XXIII continued the conversation, and warned that we are becoming a "culture of death." He was right. We can deal with the superficialities all we want--that's easy. But that will have no real effect one way or the other. Until we take a close look at ourselves as a society--what we promote, what we value, how our laws reflect those values, and whether we believe that those laws and values have their source in anything other than the political process and man-made edicts, we are deluding ourselves if we think that we are truly going to make headway in dealing with the various evils we see running rampant all around us, to a greater degree all the time. We consistently devalue life, treat the very decisions of life and death as a commodity of some sort, work constantly to eradicate anything holy from the public square and debate, and attack and and do everything we can to marginalize in any way possible those who attempt to bring a different perspective to the table for consideration.

I know that not everyone on this board is Catholic, and I respect that. The fact that my thoughts on this issue devolve from the teachings of the church, however, make them no more invalid than opposing thoughts of others that have their sources elsewhere. Or does it?

[chubler]

And i'm glad we agree on that, that's getting rarer and rarer...
I'd prefer to see the supreme court's stance on the 2nd amendment reversed, and returned back to the doctrine of the right to form militias but not an individual right to bear arms...
I also believe that at this point, if a gun doesn't have a hunting or self defense function, it shouldn't be sold. You can shoot target practice with an airsoft gun or something, I know its not as much fun, but it's a small price to pay.

[DSully1995]

Originally Posted by General Colon Bowel

This has been making the rounds on facebook today. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with it. I'm just posting it as a conversation piece.
The Anarchist Soccer Mom: Thinking the Unthinkable

Umm, here in canada, if you plead mentally ill/are proven mentally unstable your sent to a mental hospital until/if your able function in society, that story makes it seem like it doesnt exist in the states?

[DSully1995]

Originally Posted by Domina Nostra

I am not trying to argue here, so don't find an argument.

I am not sure if anyone thought that a bunch of farmer's with muskets were going to be able to take on the whole British army either. And I am pretty certain the right to bear arms did not protect the right for private citizens to own canons, warships, etc. The right just does not deal with the ability to withstand a frontal assault from a standing army.

The point of the right was always that a government does not have the right to prevent free men from defending themselves. This was one of the rights that free Birtish men assumed to be theirs by nature and custom. That right has and had practical limits, but then so does the government's right to limit self-defense.

+1. Honestly as NATO countries we should all know this, our boys are being killed by people who live in caves in a mountain range.

[irisheyes]

Im just going to add that " assault weapons" are used for hunting. They are great for coyotes and hogs, both big threats to farmers.