In response to
http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/game-types/shooter/why-do-americans-own-guns-again-teen-kills-mother-over-halo-3-$1255104.htm


> Really, why do you need guns except to shoot a pigeon, or a deer?

To defend my life and the lives of my loved ones.

> You're not a policeman.

No, I am not. But how is that germane? I have no responsibility to go
out and _prevent_ crime. I have no responsibility to go out and
_apprehend criminals_.

But I most definitely _DO_ have a responsibility to protect and defend
myself and my loved ones against those who would do them harm, against
those who would try to commit an act of violence against them.

And a little fact of which you may not be aware: the police have _no_
responsibility _whatsoever_ to ensure my personal safety or the personal
safety of anyone else. The police exist to enforce the law, investigate
crimes, and apprehend suspects; they are _not_ public bodyguards.

And don't forget, the police can take forty minutes to respond to a
desperate cry for help via 911, if they respond at all.

Every adult has the responsibility to see to their own safety.
Expecting someone else to make your life safe for you is a hallmark of
immaturity, and someone who believes the existence of the police excuses
them from taking any responsibility for their own safety is a child,
regardless of how many years they have seen.

> You can't ensure that you're [sic] children won't get hold of your
> gun.

No, I can't. That's why my children (if I had any) would be carefully
taught in how to behave safely around a firearm from an early age. When
they are young, the lesson would be to _not touch_, when they got older
it would be how to safely handle and unload a firearm. You can't make
guns childproof - but you can make children gunproof.

Why is such ignorance of how to safely handle a dangerous tool so widely
accepted - worse, so widely _sought_? If you are _serious_ about
reducing accidental deaths of children from firearms, why are you not
loudly advocating mandatory firearms safety classes in school?

And bear in mind, this was not an accident. The boy murdered his mother
and attempted to murder his father. Don't look to the gun for fault in
this, look to the child and how he was raised.

> You can't hold yourself to be a responsible adult when you return home
> angry, drunk and volatile.

I _am_ a responsible adult - I don't _get_ drunk and angry. And on those
rare occasions when I do drink more than just a glass of wine or beer
with a meal, I disarm myself beforehand. Alcohol and guns do not mix.

> ban guns.

As much as some people would like it, you cannot wish guns out of
existence. They cannot be un-invented. They exist, and they are easy to
make, so we must deal rationally with them.

If you make it a crime to own a gun, then all you do is restrict gun
ownership to those who commit crimes. You _may_ reduce gun violence, but
total violent crimes will increase to greater levels than they were at
before the ban, as law-abiding non-criminals are now unable to
effectively defend themselves against criminals, even unarmed ones.

This is the case in Great Britain - you yourself should be intimately
familiar with that fact. In fact, firearm use in violent crimes in the
UK has _doubled_ in the decade since the ban was instituted.

Australian academics say they will soon release a report saying that
their gun ban isn't helping reduce crime rates.

Don't believe me - believe the Australian government:
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/cfi/cfi115.gif

Guns are effectively banned in Chicago and NY, and D.C. is clutching
their slowly morphing gun ban as desperately as they can even in the
face of the recent supreme court ruling - what were the violent crime
rates in those cities, again? Compared to locations where non-criminals
are allowed to possess and carry firearms?

Two government-funded studies in the U.S. found that no gun control law
had any measurable effect on reducing violent crime - so, what is the
true point to calling for a gun ban?

How well did prohibition do at keeping alcohol out of peoples' hands?
And wasn't there a huge wave of organized violent crime trafficking in
illegal booze while it was in effect?

How well has the War on Drugs done at keeping drugs out of peoples'
hands? And isn't there a huge wave of organized violent crime
trafficking in illegal drugs?

Why do you think banning guns would turn out any differently?

A call to ban guns arising in response to a heinous (and unusual)
violent crime splashed luridly across the increasingly tabloid front
pages of the nation's newspapers conveniently ignores the hundreds of
thousands (possibly millions) of cases each year where a firearm was
used to _prevent_ or _end_ a violent crime - often without the firearm
even being discharged. Unfortunately, "if it bleeds it leads," and such
day-to-day non-criminal use of firearms by everyday people is sadly not
sexy enough for mainstream coverage even in the cases where there is not
an editorial agenda to demonize firearms. There are several sites that
aggregate the articles that do appear, though - one such is this:

http://www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html

Are you truly so callous that you say "I don't care how many assaults
and robberies and rapes and murders occur just so long as people can't
legally have guns"?

> Performing the same swift action with a knife is less believable

Perhaps. But the weapon at hand likely had little to do with his
decision to commit the murders, and this was a surprise attack. If the
weapon at hand _had_ been a knife, he likely would have just committed
the murders differently - perhaps by stepping behind his parents when
their eyes were closed and stabbing them in the throat.

The presence of a firearm cannot make someone into a murderer who does
not already have that capability or desire or lack of moral values
within them. Stop blaming an inanimate object as the source of the
problem.

Resources:

http://gunfacts.info/

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/cfi/cfi115.html

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf