You seem to be projecting your own fears/insecurities here without any real basis since you live in a country that doesn't allow gun ownership. Why do you think owning a gun makes one paranoid? Or that owning a gun makes one a part of the problem? Here in the US we have a screening process for buying a gun. People known to have pyschological issues can't legally own a gun. Nor can convicted criminals.
Intelligent people can always make reasonable sounding arguments, whether they are true or not. That's what (gun) lobbyists are for. And while they may present compelling arguments backed with statistical evidence, there is little doubt that they are presenting the evidence and statistics that suits them in the manner that it suits them rather than truly objective observations absent any agenda. How long have the tobacco lobbyists been able to hold court with their statistical and expert evidence? They must have sounded "reasonable," because tobacco companies kept winning court cases for so long. And in the end, we all hear what we want to hear, until we lose a loved one to lung cancer or gun violence. And maybe even then, we'll keep on hearing what we want to hear. In that respect, you and I are no different. And, of course, I was kidding with my gym scenario.
Please reread my post again. I did not say gun owners are necessarily paranoid. I said I was troubled by paranoid militia groups who have the right to own guns. And I referred to as yet undiagnosed people with psychological issues who are freely allowed to own firearms. Don't kid yourself, there are many undiagnosed sociopaths who walk among us. A lot of the diagnosis gets done after the fact.
Please do not tell me that something like this will never happen again. Humans have not evolved at all in the last 61 years. NAZI LAW (Regulations Against Jewsâ Possession of Weapons, 11 Nov 1938, German Minister of the Interior) "Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority...... by Stephen P. Halbrook, PhD., J.D. The Night of the Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) the infamous Nazi rampage against Germany's Jews took place in November 1938. It was preceded by the confiscation of firearms from the Jewish victims. On Nov. 8, The New York Times reported from Berlin, "Berlin Police Head Announces 'Disarming' of Jews," explaining....... On the evening of Nov. 9, Adolph Hitler, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazi chiefs planned the attack. Orders went out to Nazi security forces: "All Jewish stores are to be destroyed immediately . Jewish synagogues are to be set on fire . The Führer wishes that the police does not intervene. All Jews are to be disarmed. In the event of resistance they are to be shot immediately."3 All hell broke loose on Nov. 10: "Nazis Smash, Loot and Burn Jewish Shops and Temples," a headline read......4 Thousands of Jews were taken away. Finding out which Jews had firearms was not too difficult. The liberal Weimar Republic passed a Firearm Law in 1928 requiring extensive police records on gun owners.(Gun Owner Registration) Hitler signed a further gun control law in early 1938. Other European countries also had laws requiring police records to be kept on persons who possessed firearms. When the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939, it was a simple matter to identify gun owners. Many of them disappeared in the middle of the night along with political opponents. During the war years the Rifleman regularly included pleas for American sportsmen to "Send a gun to defend a British home. British civilians, faced with the threat of invasion, desperately need arms for the defense of their homes."18 Indeed, The New York Times carried the same solicitations. After two decades of gun control, British citizens now desperately needed rifles and pistols in their homes, and they received the gifts with great appreciation. Organized into the Home Guard, armed citizens were now ready to resist the expected Nazi onslaught.
Sorry, didn't mean any offense. We no longer need to scream at each other. the Democrats will now have more of a say in how government is run Which is to say, the Democrats will now want and have more say in how our lives are run. Bush sends a volunteer army off to war, (a dumb move in my estimation), and we hear shouts of "Fascism" for four straight years. Not sure what the Republican counter will be when the Democrats start peeling away at our personal freedoms, as you are advocating here. This line of communication is encouraging, the more heavy handed the government becomes, the quicker we will be able to throw the Democrat bums out. And so the cycle continues....
The Nazis! Excellent argument, FightTheFuture. If that's not reason enough to dust off the old grenade launcher, and for every home to have at least one surface-to-air rocket missile, then I don't know what is. And to better show our resolve to any would-be occupiers, perhaps we should regularly march in our town squares with our weaponry in tow. Maybe Kim Jong-Il isn't quite so psychotic after all.
Suffice it to say that I would feel more personal freedom if there were fewer guns out there in the hands of people who don't actually need them.
What's gun control got to do with grenade launchers, missiles? History repeats itself often. Hitler is just one example of the 20th century. You can be anti-gun if you want to. You don't have to own a firearm. It's your choice. Just don't infringe upon the rights of individual Americans. Those that founded this country knew what they were talking about. Human behavior is genetic. It is a constant. People are no different than 61 years ago or 1000. Dictators will seize the chance when opportunity is provided.
Can you see the flaw in your argument? That's like a smoker sitting next to you telling you that you don't have to smoke if you don't want to. And now I'll let you get back to worrying about foreign dictatorial occupation on U.S. soil that only personal ownership of firearms can foil.
Kind of hard to breath clean air when a smoker is sitting next to you so my clean air rights would be infringed whilst within the smoker's vicinity. However, if you and I are at a restaurant and conversing as we are now, and I'm packin' a .45 and you don't even know it, how am I infringing on your rights? Yet you want to disarm me and infringe upon my right to a gun to protect myself, which I need because I'm pretty much a cripple, yet I still want to live, and someone is determined they are going to bash my head in with a hammer the next time he sees me anywhere, perhaps the restaurant that we are at. What are you going to do if you have taken my gun away from me at the restaurant, call the cops for me after I'm dead? Gee, thanks a lot Thunderdog.