The Swiss all have guns and almost no crime, in England they are banned with a horrific crime rate. Knowing everyone is armed makes people think twice about harming others. Of course a stricter legal system where you can't walk away in a few years after raping a child or committing murder would have the same result. There is a reason after all hangings used to be done in public. In today's world where someone hurts himself breaking into your house and sues you all of that just goes out the window. I know someone who spent 7 years in jail for manslaughter because a guy was raping his sister by knife point and he broke it up, the resulting fight with the armed rapist left him horribly cut up be he wrestled the knife away and the rapist then lunged at him and he stabbed the guy. Legally speaking he was in the wrong for using a weapon against an unarmed person. He was supposed to have thrown the knife aside and keep fighting. People like him go to jail, drug dealers who poison our society are handed fines, and child molesters and rapists spend very little time behind bars only to do it all again when they get out.

Not an anonymous coward. Name is Dave and I live about 5 miles south of Kennesaw, GA. And you are right about the law. Before you can own a home in Kennesaw, you are required to show proof that you own a firearm. It is much more safe up there because of it.

Think about it like this. I am not a hunter. I would have more of a problem shooting a deer, than I would shooting and killing someone breaking into my home. Why? A deer was just doing it's deer thing, eat, sleep, shit... This tard that breaks into your home, sat outside, thought about the consequences, and made his decision. He knows you could wake up, he knows he will have to handle it. Screw that guy, He leaves my house in a bag.

Yes, I am from the south. Yes, I am a proud gun owner. No, you cannot take my gun away, and honestly, if they tried to ban guns completely, there would be serious issues. When you outlaw guns, only outlaws have guns. Consider me an outlaw, padre. Because I'll die before giving up my right to own firearms.

Dave
Austell, GA

Second amendment rights do two things; 1)Protect our great nation, and 2)Protect our families and ourselves. Hey, guys, it's all about peace of mind,...bottom line!!

lol typical foo response in the 1st 2 posts. I mean if guns weren't allowed you'd still have over having over 11k gun related murders, injuries or accidents a year wouldn't you? I know you guys have enough trouble placing yourselves on a map, but maybe they could introduce statistics into american schooling.

KingKipper, I'm from the UK and you would never believe it, but we banned guns, yet have even more gun crime than we did before.

Maybe you think the others lack statistical knowlege (I have a degree in it), but you might want to realise that making a law doesn't make it so. Yes there would be less accidental deaths in the US if you banned guns, maybe a few less murders (maybe more). But please don't kid yourself that prohibition would work (look at drugs, they are illegal and they are a massive problem). It isn't as simple as guns or no guns.

Personally I think the least bad solution is legal firearms, gun and whatever-the-hell else. If you make things illegal, the bad people will still find a way to get ahold of them, so you may as well do your best to keep it all regulated (who is more likely to sell a gun to a 13 year old, a gun shop or a dodgy guy on a street corner?) and let the good peopel have access too.

A few years ago Minnesota passed a conceal and carry law. Part of the law stated that a business has to post a sign if a business owner doesn't want anyone carrying concealed weapons in their establishment. You see these ‘Firearms are banned in this establishment’ signs everywhere.

So, there’s this bar not to far from my place that got robbed by at gunpoint. They removed the ‘Firearms are banned in this establishment’ and replaced it with a sign that read ‘We encourage our patrons to carry firearms.’ Since then, no one’s had the balls to rob that place again.

The comparison seems like pure spin to me. The same stats could be used to reach a very different conclusion. For instance what you have right now are two similar-sized towns with pretty similar crime rates. When one town has zero gun ownership and the other has 100% household ownership, if gun ownership has any meaningful effect on crime rates at all there should be a bigger difference between the two.

Leave it to mothertruckin' Georgia to set the example for all to follow!

Oh my GOD, are members of Kung Foo becoming conservatives? Did hell just freeze over?

(Hey Ricky, are you ever going to approve the article I submitted 20 days ago?)

- Dick

KK, that was an awfully EuroTrash piece of commentary. Sure, there are people here, just as anywhere else, that aren't at your intellectual standard. But I'd bet you a pint that that person also has some skill that you don't. Can you repair a diesel engine? Can you grow food? Don't automatically correlate lack of educational credentials with abject stupidity. Some of the smartest people I know hold some of the lowest stations in life. IMHO, everyone is a genius at something.

That said, the whole firearms argument is far too rife with people prepared to take extreme perspectives. Ban all guns? Require gun ownership? OK, whatever. Putting ideology ahead of practicality is always a bad idea. I'd bet this town has more than its fair share of "Barney Fifes"....people who have no business carrying a firearm and who are as likely to point it backwards as forewards.

But ultimately, you know what? Whatever works. That's how we roll over here on our side of the pond; we generally tend to devolve rights and responsibilities such as this down to the local level. As long as people are taught and trained in proper firearm practices, it's really not that big a deal.

I live in a town in Ohio that sits right between "metro, liberal" Ohio and "rugged-country Appalachian" Ohio. I don't own a firearm myself, but I know a LOT of gun owners. And I know only one that I prefer not to be around when he's brandishing his weapons. I guess it comes down to how much you trust your neighbors. Here, nearly everyone has had some exposure to firearms, if not formal training, and knows the cardinal rules of firearms. My town is only about 30miles from Columbus, which has about 100 homicides a year. We have perhaps one year, on average, if that, because the crooks coming down from Columbus know better than to think they can get away with being Tony Montana in our little cowtown.

As with everything else, it comes down to responsibility. Do we punish the majority of responsible gun owners for the crimes of the few? Do we restrict ownership because some people have failed to teach their children that the gun closet or safe is OFF LIMITS?

My own stepfather never really laid a hand to me growing up, but let me know if I ever touched his guns without his approval that he'd beat me black and blue, that it'd be for my own benefit, and that it would actually be his responsibility to do so. And, being now grown up, I agree. If your kids can't keep their fingers off of things, if they aren't staying out of the things you've told them to stay out of, then that's your problem, right there....not the nasty, scary guns that are perfectly harmless in the hands of competent, discriminating people.

Some other things to consider:

Remember Susan Smith? The one who drowned her own babies? Wouldn't a firearm have been a more convenient method there? Probably, but she drowned them anyway. Take away the guns, people use knives. Take away the knives, people will use their bare hands. Murder's been a part of human life since pre-history, and I don't see the impulses that cause it going away any time soon. There is truly nothing new under this sun.

Or, look at the VT massacre: Do you really, REALLY think that this guy would've been deterred by NOT possessing a firearm? If the assailant had had no firearms, we'd be discussing banning this or that bomb-making chemical in this thread, not guns. If anything's clear there, it's that the man had a very detailed plan in mind when he set out to kill that day. And it's equally clear that the surfeit of armed police officers in close proximity allowed him to proceed farther than he probably expected. What that tragedy showed us, in detail, is how easy it is to be a wolf when all the sheep think that disarmament has made them unassailably safe.

For the record I'm anti guns, but I thought I'd post it to get some debate going, and also to see if people had an explanation for the statistic other than "guns improve safety" , which karey pretty much did.

Yeah, I'm pro gun, but mostly I just wanted to bare my fangs for a good old fashioned flame war. Sometimes, I do miss those.

Damn, I love guns..... I view them as works of art ...steel and wanut. things.... machines..... function and form..... some people have no reason to be among the firearm culture. I was born into a firearm culture..... we do not tread on others ........ we mind our own business. Those who choose to commit crime break more than firearms laws....the lawbreakers have never fit in with the law abiding citizens.....I feel quite safe among my people.....law abiding people armed to the teeth.... It makes me so warm and happy criminals suck... those who want to give criminals an advantage suck.......dumb ass people of course do not need to have firearms.... how do we divide the dumbasses from the competent? I don't know... I will keep my nice harmless guns , thank you.... I can be trusted .... never shot any one........I do love to shoot a gun and feel it go BOOM

Damn, I love guns..... I view them as works of art ...steel and wanut. things.... machines..... function and form..... some people have no reason to be among the firearm culture. I was born into a firearm culture..... we do not tread on others ........ we mind our own business. Those who choose to commit crime break more than firearms laws....the lawbreakers have never fit in with the law abiding citizens.....I feel quite safe among my people.....law abiding people armed to the teeth.... It makes me so warm and happy criminals suck... those who want to give criminals an advantage suck.......dumb ass people of course do not need to have firearms.... how do we divide the dumbasses from the competent? I don't know... I will keep my nice harmless guns , thank you.... I can be trusted .... never shot any one........I do love to shoot a gun and feel it go BOOM

do a google search on case color hardening...... and engraving........and burl walnut gunstocks...... and best english shotguns........damn, i am getting a hard on