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Originally Posted by antimony
The arguements, I believe are also to keep guns out of the hands of less responsible member of society, who may be law-abiding but who may not be stable enough to handle and operate a gun, like habitual alcoholics.
It might seem like a paradox, but I gained new respect for gun laws when I first fired a gun. I remember thinking that no way something this much of power should not be made available to every yahoo who wants it.
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We already have those measures in place. Have you ever bought a gun? There's a ton of paper work, a test to take (in CA at least), need to demonstrate how to physically manipulate the gun you are interested in buying, a 10 day waiting period (in CA), submit a thumb print to the state, and a background check.
Quote:
Originally Posted by antimony
Without going into "now and forever" I would say that I would trust a stable democratic society not to degenerate into state sponsored tyranny; I would not make any such bets about pseudo democracies/ non-democracies. For e.g., I woulld say that i would not need a gun to protect myself against state tyranny in US and most of Western Europe, but for Pakistan and Iraq (and I am ashamed to say, some parts of India) all bets are off.
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The problem is we don't know what will happen in the future. What guarantee do we have that our government won't turn on the people? Or to a lesser extent, what guarantee do we have that our government will be here to protect us from the criminal element? American laws state that the police is here to enforce the law, not to protect the citizens. In fact they are not obligated to do so unless it's in the course of discharging their duty to enforce the law. Only you can prevent a crime from happening against you or those around you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by antimony
Would love to see some data around this. I would think that carrying a gun would make one naturally more belligerent, within the wide margins of being "law abiding".
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I certainly believe so. Of course there will be a number of people who will become more belligerent. But there are more good people around than bad people. And if we are more open to concealed carry, bad people just might think twice about committing crimes. Gun ownership isn't about getting into shootouts with crooks on a daily basis. Gun ownership is about the deterant of crime. Most crooks don't want to get shot just like most people don't want to get shot. If the chance of him getting shot is high during a crime, he just might forego this opportunity.