Also, the same argument could be extended to allowing citizens to own C4 explosive, hand grenades, armored vehicles, tanks, and combat aircraft. If the aim is to prevent the Government from being able to impose tyranny, then why not allow citizens the ability to own and operate these types of weapons - with appropriate training, education and licensing of course!

It comes down to the fact that private citizens cannot be trusted to safely operate a piece of equipment designed solely for the purpose of killing or maiming human beings. Too many things can go wrong, there is too much potential for catastrophic harm to others.

If the aim is self-defense, then a combination of education in basic martial arts combined with a taser, baseball bat or some other non-lethal short-range defense mechanism is more than enough to cover virtually any logical scenario.

Boy, some of you fellas live in Wonderland with all of your "What if's"!

Bottom line, the majority of violent acts are performed by criminals.  Those very same criminals do not go down to Bass Pro Shops, Dick's Sporting Goods or their local gun shop and legally purchase a firearm so they can go out and perform some criminal act.  For the most part, they obtain their firearms during home break-ins and steal them because some gun owners, not all, are idiots and do not understand the importance of properly securing their firearms.

Also, licensing & training only go so far and only apply to the legal gun owner.  It doesn't apply to the criminal who does not purchase their firearm.  Another thing, training cannot replace common sense.  You really have to have common sense as a base for handling firearms.  I have heard many stories where POLICE OFFICERS have accidentally discharged their firearms while they were cleaning them!  Common sense here would dictate that you remove all of the rounds/bullets prior to cleaning your firearm.

Yes, my family's safety outweighs any other concern.  I believe that my life as well as the lives of my loved one's are worth more that a rapist, child molester and murderer (see earlier post for examples on these creeps).  If this shocks some of you, then you need to move to lala land where evrything is peaches and cream, where every thing and every one is peaceful and loving and crime doesn't exist.

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ALL violent acts are performed by criminals. Violent acts are ILLEGAL.

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Yes, my family's safety outweighs any other concern.

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Apparently not, given the number of family members, especially children, who are hurt and/or killed by guns in the home every year. (LINK)*

As long as you are able to give us an equation for the value of life, perhaps you can tell us the degree of worthlessness of those kids, since owning guns, to you, outweighs their right to a long and healthy life.

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* Note: According to that link the number of kids killed unintentionally was TEN TIMES the number killed thru "legal intervention".

Gun safety. That's an oxymoron, right?

Not true JB!  Soldiers are required to perform violent acts in defense or at the behest of their nation.  They are not criminals!  Also, acts of self defense also result in violence and under the law are not considered illegal.

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Nowhere in this discussion has anyone been talking about SOLDIERS, save in the sense that only military and the police should be allowed the use of firearms. If you want to redefine the discussion, you must first make clear your intent to do so.

As to "self defense" -- are you deliberately ignoring the fact that this is something which must be judged to be so in a court of law? That any violent act is illegal until it is judged, RETROACTIVELY, to have been "self defense"? Shoot someone who's coming at you with a chain saw, and the cops will still be required by law to arrest you and charge you, and it will be for the courts to decide if what you did was "self defense".

No Scott, it does not. Your family's safety does not outweigh my family's safety (and vice versa). That means I and others should not have to put up with people owning lethal weapons and brandishing them at will whenever they want, just to make them feel safer.

In other words your right to safety ends where my right to safety begins, and I do not feel safe knowing virtually any moron can get their hands on a gun in the name of "self defense".

Of course fortunately I live in Australia, and hence am shielded from this sort of stupidity given we have a ban on guns, and thus my neighbors are extremely unlikely to be legal gun owners. I feel sorry for those of you in the States who have to live among the insecure and self-obsessed people who insist that an outdated passage in a document gives them the right to place everyone around them in danger.

I must take exception to the assertion that licensing, registration, education and training will be ineffective.

A lot of gun deaths are accidental. The purpose of any safety training is to drill safety rules and safety procedures into people so that they will remember them when they need to and avoid accidents.

A requirement that people with guns own gun safes (if followed up on by police through spot checks) may eliminate accidents.

There are people who don't even know that you can kill people by firing your gun in the air.

If not only guns but also the markings they make on the bullets are registered, it would be easier for law enforcement to track a gun back to its source. That would mean an incentive for people to report lost or stolen guns. It would also link a perpetrator to that robbery. It could help pinpoint gundealers with a high frequency of guns going to criminals.

There is a lot that can be done with simple means that should be legal.

In the army we learned a lot of safety rules that everyone should know:
1. If a gun leaves your hand, even for a second, check to see if it's loaded when you pick it up again. Never assume a gun to be unloaded (this standing order is so strict that it is illegal for an officer to order you not to check your gun. Such an order must not be obeyed. The exception is in combat situations where your gun is always presumed to be loaded.)
2. Always point the gun in a safe direction. Which means over people's heads, but away from populated areas or at the ground.
3. Never put the gun away loaded.
4. Always lock the gun away in a metal cabinet or safe.
5. Never let anyone else handle your gun.
6. Never let the gun out of your sight when it's not locked away.

Koroush, I believe I stated that my life and those of my loved ones are worth more than a rapist, child molester and murderer did I not?!  You and your family do not fall into those categories, correct?  Then your fear for your safety in unwarranted.

Also, if the passage in our cherished document is considered outdated, then why don't we just re-write the whole damn thing altogether and start from scratch and throw away the very foundation upon which our great nation was built upon!