I heard these arguments against guns on another message board. They seem logical to me.
"Keeping and using arms just keeps political brawls going. Look at most of Africa for example. They do just what you say--they fight to protect their homes, families, land, whatever. But it never gets settled and there's perpetual slaughter and unrest. It keeps Care and Unicef, etc. very busy.

"If America has experienced relative peace, as has the rest of the democratic world, it is because they have put the guns down and have set up a system for everyone to address and resolve problems in a fair and civilized way. It's called creating checks and balances; establishing balance of power. And our liberty, dear fellow, is not derived from having a bigger gun with more bells and whistles. Our liberty is in law . We settle our disputes in a civilized way on the courtroom floor or the legislative floor--but we are smart enough to leave the guns out of it.

"As soon as you pick up the gun instead, well--might as well move to Mogadishu where you'll fit right in. Then you too can keep the need for relief organizations going, and expect you and yours to live a much shorter lifespan with nothing resolved politically."

"Natural rights are something that you have because you are a human being. I don't think that there is a natural right to bear arms.

" 'It is interesting to note that the right to arms (either linked or divorced from duty in a militia) formed no part of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man promulgated by revolutionary France in 1789, and that it forms no part of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms today.'(The Militia and the Right to Arms or How The Second Amendment Fell Silent, chapter 7 endnote 34)

"So the French, the UN, and the European Convention haven't recognized that a right to bear arms exists."
http://p078.ezboard.com/fguncontrol4778frm18

200 years ago people had muskets and it was hard to mass murder people with those. But now people have machine guns because the AWB was repealed so you have problems with mass murder. Times have changed.

Here in the US we already had a war with an oppressive government and we won and installed a democracy. In many places in Africa they haven't. Currently we need our guns for protection, hunting, and recreation.

Are you really trying to persuade people by saying that the Europeans don't have guns so we shouldn't? I could care less about them. Here in America we do have the right to own firearms and we will never let that right be taken away.
You don't have a clue what the so called "assault weapons" are. They are semiautomatic rifles(which were already legal) with at least two of these features.
a folding or telescoping stock;
a pistol grip that protrudes "conspicuously" beneath the action of the weapon (whatever that means);
a bayonet mount;
a flash suppressor or a threaded barrel "designed to accommodate a flash suppressor";
a grenade launcher (which any rifle or shotgun can be)

None of those features makes a rifle into a machine gun.


'A well-regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'

__________________
Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness ~Thomas Paine

...was as "easy" with the Assault Weapons Ban as without it. You need either a stamp or a Federal license (class 3 , I believe). I don't own any full autos but they were common at many of the shows I used to attend.

To the rest, ditto to what Sick & Tired said.

__________________
"Tweeter was a Boyscout before she went to Vietnam and found out the hard way... nobody gives a d@mn."

Are required to maintain a free society. If the government ever becomes tyrannical, the people have the obligation to overthrow it and start anew.

No matter how wonderful and pretty the Bill of Rights sounds of paper, it's enforced through the barrel of a gun when it comes down to it.

I bet if we took away all the guns, the murder rate wouldn't go down. The deranged would just use the next-best thing (crossbow?). Crime is a result of thousands of other factors; denying people the access to a gun wont stop violence and murder.

And I agree with Sickntired said, gun bans just keep guns out of the hands of honest citizens. The criminals and gangsters will always find ways to buy Mac-10s, Uzis, and AKs.

__________________
Proudly a "South Park Republican"

And in the last 50 years there has been no crime commited with a legally owned machine gun.

__________________
Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness ~Thomas Paine

True, class III FFL. Intestingly enough, and I don't know al of the details, but a class III liscense holder can buy and sell full auto, but they CANNOT sell emiauto, revolvers, shotguns, etc. The ATF doesn't want any mixing of the FFL types.

I heard that, anyway, from a class III holder.

Why not go to this web site and get the facts so you do not appear ignorant on the subject.
http://www.atf.gov/

__________________
Internet stalking is a crime and college educated stalkers(actup)need to be punished!

There is no requirement to be in a militia to bear arms!

Rather than own our own guns, I think we should sign long-term leases.

Thanks to France.

What a joke, even the founding fathers would be smart enough to amend that one.

__________________
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. " — John Stuart Mill

Gun ownership is a very good idea. Ownership of firearms is a right, and all rights should be exercised. Furthermore, I find it disturbing that we allow the government to regulate and make us ask for permission when trying to exercise some rights such as gun ownership.

__________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH