Factchecking the NRA

Just showing everyone the facts!

Forgot to add, this is factchecking the NRA. I'm not going into quotes from anyone here. But, I would tend to agree with Obama on that quote. LOL.

Liscampll,

No matter how either side chooses to distort or not distort the facts, the real facts remain true:

1) We live in a society that is in a downward spiral toward social anarchy.

2) If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns!

3) Our forefathers had the foresight to protect our rights in the bill of rights!

The best way I can explain my position is this; If you don't want a gun, don't buy one but don't infringe upon my right to own one for sporting use, self preservation or home and family protection!

I realize this also leaves it open for the crazies to own guns but here is the rub on that; punish the crazies and the thugs and the gangs, not me! A handgun, if placed in the middle of the sidewalk on Park Avenue in New York at rush hour, fully loaded, would never, ever, in a million years hurt one soul unless a human being picked it up. It would rust and disintegrate first. Punishing law abiding citizens by taking their guns away from them is like prohibiting all sources of making fire to prevent arson, ludicrous!

If this country wants REAL gun control, make it hard on the criminals who use a gun in their crimes and don't just make it a law, ENFORCE it! Far too many criminals get away with violent crimes today and that doesn't send the right message to the criminals! THEY know we can never legislate THEIR guns away but we, as a society, just don't seem to get it!

Rock. On.=D Glad to see someone still believes in sticking up for our rights!

For myself, I am strongly in favour of gun control. Why do people need handguns anyway? In the US, deathrates due to handguns are much higher per head of population than in other Western democracies. This is because there are too many guns around and when there are disagreements, people get killed or you get wackos who get access to guns and then start shooting people in schools and colleges - now though this has also happened in other countries (in Finland today for instance), the instances when this happens is far rarer than in the US, where such events seem to occur nearly on a yearly basis. Why don't people join the dots and come to the conclusion that some form of gun control is needed if we are to make a serious attempt at lessening the number of instances of school shootings?

I know about the consitutional right to bear arms, but that was written in a different age, a different time. What is the purpose of carrying a gun now - allright you may have a shooting range and in that case people can have rifles that are properly licensed, but again why handguns?

One, I would have to argue against ever using the point of view "why do we need" in a free society. It is a slippery slope.
The question is, would gun control, even the extreme measure of banning guns, prevent criminal misuse of firearms.
Now, before you say you don't want to ban all firearms, I can assure as a gun owner, it would take very little to make a shotgun or rifle concealable. A hacksaw is all you need and you would wind up with a much more powerful firearm.
Now lets say we ban all firearms.
Will that stop criminal misuse? Only if you presume criminals only obtain firearms from a legal or a base legal source. They don't. Even with the current level of legal availability of firearms in this country, over million firearms are smuggled in and sold on the streets yearly last I checked (it has been a couple years admittedly). You can research the issue. I doubt it has changed much.
You also have to consider the amount of times firearms are used in self defense. One study had it well over a million times a year. I don't have it handy since I have been out of this debate for quite awhile but, when i locate the study I will post it here. The problem isn't firearms per se, just the misuse of them. Perhaps you remember when the national debate was going on over concealed carry laws? The opponents said we would have gunfights in the streets. Well it hasn't happened and several million people have ccw's now.
Americans are as a whole are safe and sane gun owners.

Firewind, thanks for your response. Obviously we are not going to agree, though I accept your point that gun control won't stop criminals from owning guns, though I believe it will make it more difficult for them to do so. Also, I think that controlling the number of guns out there would help to reduce deaths by shootings, but of course it won't get rid of the problem entirely - not by any means -, there are shootings in other countries as well.

But though we disagree here, I thank you for your considered and well argued response which makes a nice change, as it seems too often that when I post something here which some people strongly disagree with, I get jumped on with insults and name calling instead of reasoned arguments. So I respect you for that.

Thank you evanself, I agree. Polite debate is a rare thing these days.
Far too often we see those who disagree with us as "evil".
This particular debate is good evidence. My side and yours have crossed the lines so many times there are no lines left.
The sad part is we both would like to see the same thing. A reduction in criminal misuse of firearms. No law abiding gun owner is happy with the rate of guns being used in crimes. If this debate was more civil, we might actually work together to come up with a workable solution to bring the rates down.
A pleasure talking to you.

I read the fact check article annie, in fact I even quoted it in my post. thankyouverymuch