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Curtis Stinespring's avatar

You're correct. Open carry is dangerous. Concealed carry is more likely to discourage bad behavior except in the case of severely deranged individuals.

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SGman's avatar

I'd personally like to see a licensing scheme where there are various classes, each requiring background checks, psych evaluations, and gun safety training. For example, the first class would be pump/break-action shotguns and bolt-action rifles. Additional classes for semi-automatic.rifles, handguns, etc..., with increasing levels of certification and perhaps even expiration involved. Let there be a transition period so law-abiding owners can get licensed for their currently-owned weapons: if they can't get a license, have a buy-back program so they can divest themselves of weapons they wouldn't be allowed to keep otherwise.

No matter what, we have to recognize that while we will never get to 100% we can still do a lot to prevent gun deaths.

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Scott C.'s avatar

Mass shootings are good reminders that nobody really thinks life is all that precious and people won't go out of their way or inconvience themselves all that much to protect it. If there were no guns there would be no gun violence. Tens of thousands of lives saved every year. If life was truly precious wouldn't everyone sign up for that? People need their "modern sports rifle". Talk about a stupid phase.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against guns nor do I think they should be banned. I'm just tired of the fake outrage and compassion we have to witness everytime people are gunned down here. People on the life aren't really outraged, and people on the right don't really care.

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David Thornton's avatar

The thing is that if guns went away, human predators would still be among us. Guns give the innocent a chance to equalize the situation and defend themselves if they choose to take it.

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Scott C.'s avatar

A human predator without a gun can do a whole lot less damage than one with a gun. I get the self defense angle but if the bad guys didn't have guns either you wouldn't need one to defend yourselves. And if life were truly precious then a society would do whatever it takes to ensure there were no guns. No easily committed mass murder.

If a society admits and understands that a certain amount of people will be killed for something, then is life precious or the thing you are sacrificing people for? America decided at our start that the right for a human to own a gun was more precious than American lives. That's just a fact.

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David Thornton's avatar

I think it's a fallacy to say that we wouldn't need guns if bad guys didn't have them. A small, elderly woman is not going to fight off an unarmed 20-year-old twice her size and weight. Add knives and other weapons and the fight gets even more one-sided.

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Scott C.'s avatar

In all honesty how many elderly women do you think would be able to protect themselves and is it less than the number of children accidental killed? For perspective.

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