I don't like guns but that's because I grew up without them and survived just fine. Also their main purpose is to kill people and no-one wants that. Frankly, I find the idea of gun-glorification (yeah, that's a word now) in the US extremely frustrating, partially because it's just silly and partially because I know it'll never go away. But, for what it's worth, here are my ideas on the main arguments for and against gun control.
"Guns are bad and should all be banned!"
Definitely, but it's never going to happen. What happened when they banned marijuana? Did people stop smoking it? No. Although guns are much more expensive to make than marijuana, the market will never go away. Not to mention how old a tradition hunting is. It's not the nicest sport but people do still involve themselves in it.
"We need guns to protect ourselves from people who would want to hurt us with them!"
Well that's an okay point, so long as their is sufficient training and education in their proper use as well as when and where to fire to immobilise a threat. But even with that, guns aren't a magic sheild. If a person shoots you in the head, even if you have the gun in hand, you won't be able to protect yourself, you'll be dead. You may say "well at least someone could eventually stop them" and to that I say "Did anyone stop the gunman at Colorado?" People's natural response to someone pulling a firearm is and always has been duck and cover. Or in some cases scream and run around like a lunatic. Besides, the people who go on these shooting rampages will target somewhere where people aren't ready so they can have the best chance of survival, and to have the greatest impact. The only way to prevent this is to have everyone carry firearms all the time and that just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
As a final point, I do think guns are bad but I don't expect everyone in America to have a collective epiphany on the matter. I would suggest something like what Canada has, still hunting firearms but nothing that is made for the express purpose of killing another human being. But I mean, I live in Australia, I haven't seen or heard a firearm my whole life and I don't think anyone I know has either. Guns aren't totally banned (I think) but there's no "We need to have guns to protect ourselves!" because no-one has guns. Shootings still happen and it's extremely out of the blue and tragic but even if we were like America, the chance that someone there would have had the "luck" to be carrying a gun and could stop them is pretty low.
Sorry for the long post!
"Guns are bad and should all be banned!"
Definitely, but it's never going to happen. What happened when they banned marijuana? Did people stop smoking it? No. Although guns are much more expensive to make than marijuana, the market will never go away. Not to mention how old a tradition hunting is. It's not the nicest sport but people do still involve themselves in it.
"We need guns to protect ourselves from people who would want to hurt us with them!"
Well that's an okay point, so long as their is sufficient training and education in their proper use as well as when and where to fire to immobilise a threat. But even with that, guns aren't a magic sheild. If a person shoots you in the head, even if you have the gun in hand, you won't be able to protect yourself, you'll be dead. You may say "well at least someone could eventually stop them" and to that I say "Did anyone stop the gunman at Colorado?" People's natural response to someone pulling a firearm is and always has been duck and cover. Or in some cases scream and run around like a lunatic. Besides, the people who go on these shooting rampages will target somewhere where people aren't ready so they can have the best chance of survival, and to have the greatest impact. The only way to prevent this is to have everyone carry firearms all the time and that just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
As a final point, I do think guns are bad but I don't expect everyone in America to have a collective epiphany on the matter. I would suggest something like what Canada has, still hunting firearms but nothing that is made for the express purpose of killing another human being. But I mean, I live in Australia, I haven't seen or heard a firearm my whole life and I don't think anyone I know has either. Guns aren't totally banned (I think) but there's no "We need to have guns to protect ourselves!" because no-one has guns. Shootings still happen and it's extremely out of the blue and tragic but even if we were like America, the chance that someone there would have had the "luck" to be carrying a gun and could stop them is pretty low.
Sorry for the long post!