Unc links to this peice by Cracked on Gun laws.
1. The issue of gun ownership, and the obsessive, nay hysterical, arguments over it, leave most non-Americans totally baffled.
2. We mean – it is just a hunk of metal that can kill people.
3. So are cars. Either ban them too, or get over it.
Yep guns are tools, when used as weapon they are nothing more than force-multipliers. If the guns are in the hands of peaceful and lawful people who are unmolested, you are multiplying by zero. When a violent criminal is unarmed they pose more danger than a lawful person who is armed because their violence is a factor greater than zero.
This was good too:
Gun laws in the US are confusing. You can be totally legal, drive over an invisible line and be a criminal. It is a legal system designed by Escher and built by W. Heath Robinson.
Concealed carry permitted. Concealed carry illegal. Open carry permitted. Open carry illegal. .22 caliber a no no, or carry a .50 Browning. Do not bend, fold, spindle or mutilate. We’re from the government, we are here to help.
That about sums it up. But then there was this:
These stand foursquare for the right to own as many damn guns as can be held in your house and the giant bunker you’ve dug out underneath it. They interpret the second ammendment to mean they have the right to buy them instantly, and the right to use them any damned way they wish, including shooting targets made to look like your opponent. To be fair to the party, they reflect the views of their supporters. The vast majority of Republican supporters are rational, hard working folks from rural areas or “frontier” states. Yes Texas, we’re looking at you, and frankly are a little tired of your bullshit. You haven’t been a frontier state for half a century now. Move on. These folk consider a gun as no more than a hammer, or a computer – just another tool. And like all tools, to be learned and used correctly.
What I really hate about the gun-rights debate is that being “Moderate” means supporting some laws that don’t make any sense, or accomplish anything useful. This isn’t a moral debate, this is about right and wrong. Carry permits, training classes, Assault Weapon bans and “Safe Storage” laws were all made to make people safer and to lower crime.
THEY DIDN’T WORK! Let that sink in a tad. This is like saying you’re in favor of integrated schools and public bathrooms, but segregated restraints and public transportation in the Jim Crow south because you’re “Moderate”. Sorry, you aren’t “Moderate” you’re just slightly LESS dumb than the hard-line bigots.
I’m not against bans on private sales because its going to completely infringe on my 2nd Amendment rights, as well as my ability to defend myself (tho people who don’t live in an urban area flush with gun shops like I do, might be in a different situation) I’m against bans on private sales because I don’t feel like supporting a law that accomplishes nothing except annoy good people for the sake of appeasing pointy-headed “Moderates”.
How about this for Moderate. Roll back all the bullshit permitting laws (both Carry, ownership, as well as FFLs) and restrictions on standard civilian weapony, and I’ll let you miserable bigots keep the NFA, complete with Hughes amendment, spare suppressors which are just good manners. Oh and I’ll let you keep the hunting laws too.
How’s that for moderate?
Amen. Thought that same thing.