Oh boy! I love firearms.
I'd be fine with all them disappearing off the face of the earth, but never ok with taking them out of the hands of the common people.
The most confusing thing to me is that all the people that are afraid of inanimate objects (firearms) are the people I want to own them the most, typically. I prefer that every average level headed citizen that makes a point to be media literate, own some sort of firearm. I prefer my friends who are radical in the favor of people, unions, stuff like that, own them.
It is a fundamental position that the common person should have the potential to combat their government, or another. I wish my friends had better training with them, though. Unfortunately they can be way too uptight about advice on it, seeing it as a "I can learn on my own" thing... Which may be true but damn, if my life depends on them I'm screwed!
Seriously, I want my friends, family, and community supporters to own firearms. I don't want police to own them. I trust probably almost everyone on this forum a lot more than a cop.
I'm going to ignore most the arguing but state a few things.
1. A healthy safe state (country) has little to no fear of misuse of firearms because the incentive does not exist. Switzerland is a good example. Look at some real facts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence You will notice the poorest - with the most civil unrest - countries have the highest gun violence. The happier the citizens the lower the gun violence without relation to gun ownership.
2. People die more frequently from other things constantly. Firearms are not a real threat in your daily life unless you live somewhere real bad, and know all the wrong people. You are more likely to die from just about anything you can think of, literally. They are no different that cars... It is amazing that millions of cars drive everyday and out of the millions the rate of accidents and deaths is not that high when you consider everyone driving must adhere to pretty close tolerances in order to survive (probably 3/4 of car travel is at lethal speeds). It is kind of amazing the synchronicity that happens around the world with them. You are, of course, way more likely to die in an automobile accident, but the point is frequency of potential danger doesn't equal deaths in an exponential way. See the first statement I made, if you want to find a reason behind gun violence. Consider how many millions of guns are owned in th U.S and how essential only a few heavy poverty crime areas exist. We literally refer to other places, other states or cities in the U.S. that we don't even live in to talk about them, a lot of the time. The frequency of violent use is just really low given the rotation of them in and out of our hands, and being carried daily by many individuals (including police).
3. I'm opposed to gun registration. What difference does it make? First you can't go check on anyone, ever, without a warrant. What good does it do to point out someone illegally owned a firearm after they used it? I disagree with convicted felons not being able to vote or own a firearm. They are essentially stateless at that point. It requires almost nothing to become a felon these days, as well. There just isn't any particular good reason for gun registration (safety wise). Anyone that wants a gun can get one, period. In fact the more illegal and harder to get a gun legally, the more likely someone with devious intentions will be able to acquire one. Why? Because if the market is better in selling illegal firearms than it is to go through the legal hassled-to-death route, people will sell more illegally. It is only a mark for a broken society when this is a big concern, if you want to refer to point 1.
4. I don't think anyone really needs a bunch of automatic weapons, or needs to spend the incredible amount of money they cost, on them, but I really don't care that all the legal ownership of class 3 weapons happens. Seriously rich dudes shoot automatic rifles. They don't need them for violence; and don't use them for it. Poor people can't afford class 3 weapons. If criminals can afford them then you have some kind of bigger societal issue where a gap between the state and people has been created, allowing serious crime.
5. Afghanistan is not run by the U.S. implemented state really. It is a war zone that hasn't been won because they are tactically super smart. They may not be well trained with rifles, but they often make our military look like fools. I know my friend has been ambushed by them and lost people he knew. Imagine if everyone rebelled to U.S. forces there, we wouldn't even try to invade.
On to the gun bits... Very few guns are up to the standard of a Leica M2, M3, or M4. Unfortunately most guns lack a "clockwork" quality. You might be surprised how simple they are. Most of it is just gaining a better understanding of physics, than anything else. I love gear, and firearms, but camera designers are closer to watch makers than firearm makers. That being said firearm makers could probably teach camera makers a few tricks of physics. The simplicity of some of the best firearms made, are what make them great. Doing an incredible amount with very little...
