Question about American gun laws.

[Big Mac]

But he's in it for himself, not the people. They all are.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.  That's about my take.

The biggest problem is how they want to dictate how and what we protect ourselves from while they hire heavily armed bodyguards, have Secret Service Agents, freely get CCW permits, etc. all the while we peons are not worthy protecting ourselves and our loved ones. To me it's pure Bizarro logic.

They sit their in their ivory towers and say we don't need more than 10 rounds to a magazine, then they say we don't need a certain caliber, then they say we don't need a gun at all because we can use mace, stunguns, and other inferior (compared to a pistol, these things are ANEMIC!)  self-defense items.

Most gun control laws in the US are based on racism. A lot of them were to keep blacks (and to a slightly lesser extent Hispanics) from carrying the means to defend themselves way back when Jim Crow laws were in full effect. It's sad to see a lot of minority politicians advocate disarming everyone when really it seems to be arming people helps lower violence.

People tend to be less willing to attack someone when the threat of armed resistance is a very possible threat.

In my view (feel free to call me a cynic, I honestly will wear it as a badge of honor) society and civilization is a very slim veneer and underneath is some very barbaric stuff. Sad but true, most people resort to violence and hold violence as the ultimate deterrent. Do I think every person I meet is a savage monster? No, but you never know what someone else (or yourself for that matter) is capable of when pushed to certain limits.

[karadan]

I'm not heartless, I'm just not going to sympathize with the person who kicks down my door with the intent to rob me at 3 in the morning. They are going to receive a wall of lead from my end.

You know, there are times I've bought a meal for a panhandler if he honestly said he was hungry and willing to take a meal. If said person needed shoes and was believable I would go to Good Will and buy them a 10 dollar pair of shoes (hypothetical because that one never popped up). What burns me up is people who bemoan the lack of resources without trying them. Where I'm from you'd be amazed at the generosity of people if you demonstrate a basic human need.

But all my sympathy goes out the window when you victimize the weaker/vulnerable member of society. I don't care what your story is. You are now just a jackal who needs putting down.

There you go. I knew there was a heart in there somewhere

I don't think our views are that opposing to be honest. I'm all for harsh retribution for anyone stupid enough to try to rob a house, especially if that home owner owns fifteen guns. If the thief lives in a country where guns are legal, they should expect to be shot when robbing a property. I have no problem with this. I'm not going to cry for someone who rapes a woman and I'm not going to cry for someone who shoots a bank teller. What disheartens me is the process by which people become delinquents in the first place. If you study the personal history of most criminals, you will find they've come from broken homes or have had horrendous upbringings. Unfortunately this is a vicious cycle. Criminals can still have children and they instil their own bullshit into the minds of their kids. My ex girlfriend used to despair at the kids who she made a little progress with in any given day in the full knowledge that all the good work she did would be undone by a criminal father or mother. She was at that inner-city London school long enough to see the transition from cute and quiet kids with potential, to young rebellious thugs.
Really very sad.

[Big Mac]

I don't think our views are that opposing to be honest. I'm all for harsh retribution for anyone stupid enough to try to rob a house, especially if that home owner owns fifteen guns. If the thief lives in a country where guns are legal, they should expect to be shot when robbing a property. I have no problem with this. I'm not going to cry for someone who rapes a woman and I'm not going to cry for someone who shoots a bank teller. What disheartens me is the process by which people become delinquents in the first place. If you study the personal history of most criminals, you will find they've come from broken homes or have had horrendous upbringings. Unfortunately this is a vicious cycle. Criminals can still have children and they instil their own bullshit into the minds of their kids. My ex girlfriend used to despair at the kids who she made a little progress with in any given day in the full knowledge that all the good work she did would be undone by a criminal father or mother. She was at that inner-city London school long enough to see the transition from cute and quiet kids with potential, to young rebellious thugs.
Really very sad.

I remember one time I was tutoring a kid who was 12 but couldn't read past the 2nd grade level. 2 weeks later the kid is doing leaps and bounds better, and he was not a genius either. One day when his mother comes to pick him up she has the nerve to say "That reading junk ain't gonna help him that much in life!" She was apparently angry that he was now trying to read more and more at home. I had told him that libraries have tons of books and had given the kid reading suggestions. So when he picked up a book at home and was actively reading it, it bothered her. I think it was Reader's Digest or something completely innocuous. It wasn't like I told him to get a Playboy and have at it. Might as well have in her thick skull.

She comes to pick him up, sees me and goes on about how I'm filling his head with unrealistic expectations (except she probably wouldn't know the last two words). How I'm making him think he can go to a brighter future that isn't possible with reading (she said he needed to instead play more basketball and get good at that). Kind of like that scene from Coach Carter: "Deez kids ain't supposed to be learning, dey supposed to be playing basketball." That was what she saw as the key to success.

It was probably one of the most sickening things I've ever seen. But I think it's a sign of how effective mass control of people works. I've met tons of people who have been conditioned to be self-destructive enough to not advance too much in life but also be good cogs in the labor machine that don't burn out too soon. I think a lot of the hostility towards reading/intellectual pursuits is a fear beaten into their heads to not think and that reading is "faggy".

Kind of like this pic: