Originally Posted by: PonyOneyeah, pretty much... i don't know if that was meant to bait me into a debate or not, but, yes, that's fairly close.

more like: i don't think that guns are an inherently bad thing. i mean, i've held loaded guns, i've shot loaded guns, and i've never hurt anyone or anything with them. a lot of gun control advocates seem to make it sound like as soon as someone gets a .22LR, single-shot bolt action rifle in their hands, that it's only a matter of time before a kid dies. simply not true. no moreso than saying that as soon as a kid gets into a Volvo wageon so that his mom can drive to Whole Foods to get all natural coffee and fat free water that her falsified sense of security makes the child's death when the Volvo slams headlong into a semi imminent.

guns can be used in a horrible way, and yes, if there are no guns in the world, no one is going to be shot by them, but, that's an entirely unrealistic way to look at things. three generations of my family have grown up in the US with guns and ammo in the same closet and no one has died, because we were all raised to know that you can kill someone or yourself with them if you're being stupid. my parents never had anything against my showing them to my friends, but, i remember the one time my friend was looking at one and picked it up to point it at me and make a gun sound.... i yanked the thing away from him fast as i could; i knew that even though it had been cleaned and the odds were vast that there was no bullet in it, if for whatever reason there was, i could die.

i think that background checks should be part of the right to own a gun; yes, the second amendment gives us the right to bear arms but what if someone who's schizophrenic decides that he's fighting tyrrany by shooting the government robots at the local preschool? what if someone has been arrested and put in jail a dozen times for assault and battery and he wants to apply for a concealed carry permit and carry a USP? the only time he's gonig to use it in "self defense" is if a cop is trying to arrest him for beating his wife.

i don't think that speeding tickets, public disturbance, etc are good reasons to keep someone from owning a gun. but there are things that should prevent you from being able to own one. and in regards to liscencing... they make you get a liscence to prove you can opeate a car on the streets without endangering those around you, why should it be any different for a gun?