Was threatened last night...what would you do?

[Wes Mantooth]

Yeah especially if you have young kids, a gun might not be the easiest solution. You have to lock it away from your kids and then at that point it isn't exactly handy in the first place.

If only people weren't such assholes

[lizardville]

only in America a thing like that could happen...

you have to be kidding.

look, I'm not a violent person at all. unfortunately, there are a lot of violent people all over the world. what is so wrong with protecting one's self from others who wish do to you harm? You can't control the actions of others, but you can control your own..just sayin'...

I have a kid and im not violent person either. But I live in a country where guns are illegal and people don't get shot on the streets. easy as that.

of course you get the usual shit, but compare the figures of people dying because of gun related incidents and then tell me who must be joking..

[devnulljp]

I have a kid and im not violent person either. But I live in a country where guns are illegal and people don't get shot on the streets. easy as that.
of course you get the usual shit, but compare the figures of people dying because of gun related incidents and then tell me who must be joking..

I'm devnulljp and I approve this message.

[Kaptink]

yeah reading this thread as someone from a place where guns are illegal is crazy.

[J-Fuzz]

I have a kid and im not violent person either. But I live in a country where guns are illegal and people don't get shot on the streets. easy as that.

of course you get the usual shit, but compare the figures of people dying because of gun related incidents and then tell me who must be joking..

Think of it this way: Germany, one of the larger European countries, has roughly 80 million people. Compare that to the U.S., which houses just over the 300 million people mark. More people=more crime. If the U.S. was to ban the sell and possession of all guns tomorrow, there would still be enough on the streets (and in homes) illegally that the crime rate involving guns would not show a significant decline in at least the next 35 years (yeah i'm totally extrapolating that last figure).

Don't get me wrong, I would love to live in a place where there was absolutely no need for guns...but I don't. Please don't feel like i'm being combative. I only want to express my opinion on the matter. And no, I'm not a right-winged conservative nutter.

[bubstance]

.

[dubkitty]

not to mention that if guns were "illegal" in the US, they'd just be imported over the Southern border from Mexico along with the "illegal" residents of Mexico whose presence in the US is not deterred by mere law. and that in Germany and across the EU, serious criminals, i.e. those in organized gangs and multinational enterprises, are as well-armed as those in the US. i find the faith of Europeans in legal institutions, and governmental institutions, hilarious and sadly ironic in light of the continent's bitterly bloody history over the last centuries...during which arms were, increasingly, strictly controlled by the various sovereigns and states.

[CBGB]

Sounds like LA: traffic + agressive arseholes + guns. Plus it's hot as hell here too.

I would have let the woman go ahead of you. Incident doesn't happen. It's not worth getting into a fight about, and at the end of the day you can be happy that you don't have to be her (in a smug, self-satisfied sort of way).

[CBGB]

...of course US history hasn't been bloody either, right dubkitty?

[dubkitty]

but to the point of the OP: this will come out sounding harsher than i intend it to, but if you're a person who can't deal with a stuck-in-lot-traffic situation without starting and then escalating a verbal argument, then you probably aren't a good candidate for a CCW permit. i am a fervent supporter of firearms rights, but i don't own a gun because as some posters will have noticed i have a short temper (as well as suicidal ideation, but that's another can o' worms) and the danger of getting in a situation where my mouth would back me into a corner where a bullet was the only way out is just too great. as the cliche goes, with great power comes great responsibility. to be a responsible carrier of a weapon in public IMO you must be the opposite of aggressive as a personality type, equivalent to the way folks used to be expected to approach martial arts. you must remember that being right, or prevailing in a given situation, is probably not worth the potential price: a dead guy.

[dubkitty]

...of course US history hasn't been bloody either, right dubkitty?

of course it has. but the point, here in a short declarative phrase, is that government institutions and laws in the 1800s and 1900s didn't keep Europeans safe from violence. rather the opposite.

[CBGB]

Maybe in peacetime they did? Not sure allowing everyone to carry arms would have stopped World War II or the Balkan War or whatever.

But I agree with you about the jwar's traffic incident.

[dubkitty]

perhaps it wouldn't have stopped the wars, but it would certainly have made, e.g., the deportations associated with the Holocaust much more difficult.

[devnulljp]

I always thought this was a funny spin on the whole thing.

Anyone who thinks you're ever going to overthrow the US government because you have a .38 special in your pocket is an idiot.
Anyone who tells you the reason they have a gun is because they want to be ready when the time comes to overthrow the government is a liar (or a fuckwit).

[Bassus Sanguinis]

guys - it's true that gun don't kill people, it's the people that kill people, like the gun industry likes to say. BUT there is a HUGE difference in the amount of gun related violence and accidents and black market guns moving around if they are under strict control. Like they ought to be.

It doesn't matter if there's 300 million people in the US and only 6 milliion in the Finland. Though the cultural differences are a factor that mighty be taken in consideration, I still feel it's not the population that counts, it's the percentages and the statistics that count. Just saying. Less guns = less gun related violence and accidents, logically.