this about sums it up.

I am curious, What is the law of your county say about guns? Do you have to sit for a gun licence? Is there an age that someone has to be to have a gun?
Can I come into your country and buy a gun and go hunting? Is it that easy?
We hear so much of this sort of thing over the years and I just wanted to know. Here in NZ we have very strict rules with guns and yes accidents do happen in the bush and we have had our fair share of people doing the wrong thing. We also have to practise a lock down in the schools for this sort of thing.

I can only speak for my state of KS...so much has changed within just the past 5 yrs about the CCW {concealed weapon} laws.

Hunting: I have my dad's 22 rifle, I also own a 410 shotgun that was special made for me - light weight and I primarily use it for skeet shooting/target practice or competition shooting! Both of those have never been registered; they are locked up in a gun safe in my basement...they predate that rule/guideline for Kansas.
I have a small caliber hand gun that was my husbands - in a lock box safe in my night stand - I do not carry it with me!

We still have those highly contested 'Gun Shows' that have been busted for not following the proper protocol about - selling weapons - waiting for the proper permits - and checking out their backgrounds. **** happens and it still happening about those shows; we have gun shops that basically follow the state mandates for selling - doing the proper paper work and the waiting period. But now everyone and their 2-headed cousin is allowed to pack a concealed weapon around with them once they've met the criteria for legal ownership.

BUT - BUT...there's still those 'underworld' thugs that are able to steal someone's weapons and sell them under the table!

Hope that helps --- I'm quite sure that Tomato or Metalwing or even RebelArcher have some differences where they live.

where i live, you walk into the gun store, show them your ID, fill out a form. they call the state police for an instant background check. if you pass, you pay the man and walk out with your gun. it is legal to open carry your guns without a permit, but if you want to conceal it you have to apply for a conceal carry permit. you pay a fee, they check your background, if your background is clean, they give you a conceal carry license.

It is confusing to Non Americas, because we are 50 states & territories. We are separate but we are one.
Each state governs itself & writes it's own laws. But also has " Federal Law"
(Example - Gay marriage is not legal in the United States of America but is legal in 24 states out of 50+ ).

Technically anyone can own a gun.
* But w/ Criminal & Mental Health Restrictions *
Different states have different laws for different guns and ammunition.
Some guns require registion & the laws to ' carry' a gun & the type also vary.
Most Americans do not carry a gun.
* This is a common misconception*
But they should...
But most can own one.

a huge % of americans arent even allowed to own guns in todays america.

ever got in an arguement with your wife? cops called? theres goes your gun rights, forever. misdemeanor DV

friend of mine got 2 dui offenses, didnt run from the cops, didnt crash, noone hurt. cant own a gun the rest of his life.

they have been passing laws over the years so that the most minor offenses prohibit people from owning/carrying guns. honestly its ridiculous.

i dont agree with the whole "felon" cant own a firearm BS.
if your crime was non violent, and you served your time, paid your debt, you should be just as free as any other american.

the only reason someone shouldnt have a gun is

1. you're in jail (thats a given)
2. you're on probation or parole

if your not in jail or on probation/parole, that means you have paid your debt and should be entitled to self defense just as any other american. gun control isnt about saving lives, its about control, control by the government. our founders warned us of this very thing and yet we are falling for it like idiots. if your so afraid of some "ex" criminal with a gun, get your own gun, learn how to shoot it and be proficient with it. that way if your ever in the situation where you need to defend yourself, you can do it effectively. the reason felons have such a high rate of recidivism is because once a felon, always a felon in the eyes of government. felons are treated as 2nd class citizens for the rest of their lives, even though they have "paid their debt" to society. if you were someone who was convicted of a felony, and paid your debt why should you still be subject the being a 2nd class citizen. cant get a good job, cant get any government assistance, cant legally defend yourself. thats why felons repeatedly get in trouble and dont become rehabilitated. and no im not a felon, thats just how i see things. but gun control is already out of hand in my opinion. and the whole mental health aspect of it, if your sane enough to be walking the street, why should you not be allowed to own a gun to protect yourself? if your that much of a danger that you cant be trusted with a firearm, you shouldnt be walking the street in the first place, you should be in an institution getting help for your issues.

we have the most gun ownership of anyone in the western world,, yet

In 2012, only 259 "justifiable homicides" involving a private citizen were reported, compared to 8,342 criminal homicides committed with a gun.

Put another way, for every justifiable homicide involving a gun, 32 criminal homicides carried out with a firearm occurred. And that does not take into account "tens of thousands" of gun-related suicides and unintentional shootings.

"In fact, in a nation of more than 300 million firearms, it is striking how rarely guns are used in self-defense."

http://news.yahoo.com/guns-rarely-used-self-defense-us-205812892.html;_ylt=A86.J7zceYNVE3UAD2UPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbHNxNnYwBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDRkZVSUMwXzEEc2VjA3Nj

theres alot of statistics that are conveniently left out of that article though harmony.

Ok, so lets break this down further, so we can see the real significance:

of the 8,342 criminal homicides:
how many were committed by a legal, responsible gun owner?
how many were committed with guns sold/purchased illegally?
how many were committed with stolen guns?
how many were committed with legally owned/purchased guns?
how many were committed by known criminals?
how many were committed by first time criminals?
how many were committed by people that were known to have mental issues?


they of course leave these statistics out, because their point might get weakened by facts. The truth is that guns are mostly used for shooting paper targets by the vast majority of legal gun owners. Also, self defense related gun events are rarely reported to authorities or the media unless someone is actually shot.

If you go to Mexico, become a member of a drug gang, our justice department will give you as many as you want.

those questions dont weaken the facts at all

it doesnt matter the status of the owner, its the point of 'more guns' allegedly making us safer

of all these people committing gun crime,, how many times was someone else able to successfully defend themselves with their own gun?

yes, but if you are an american citizen they will tell you that you shouldnt own guns or your a racist right wing nut case.

go look at the DOJ's statistics of gun violence over the past 20 years, its been going down consistently. people always try to detract from the reason we have the 2A, ITS TO PROTECT US FROM THE GOVERNMENT! but yet the very people we have this right to protect us from, are the ones saying "no you guys dont need guns". yea phuck you government.

hey politicians,

Oh...come on; you won't have to drive that far.
Just do some simple 'Breaking & Entering' and most of those NRA - GUN NUTS won't/don't own a GUN SAFE to keep their plethora of weapons in --- easy-peasy and there no cost to the Thieving Thug either!

keeping your guns for self defense locked in a safe is stupid, suppose you actually need it, you think the person who invades your home is going to stand there and wait while you put the combination to the safe in? "hold on mr home invader, let me just put this combination in real quick" "sure go ahead mr homeowner, ill just ransack your house and rape your wife while you do that" "thanx mr home invader for being so understanding"

Well here's one two headed son of a biscuit who ain't lettin' Cerberus just take it.

Oh...come on; you won't have to drive that far.
Just do some simple 'Breaking & Entering' and most of those NRA - GUN NUTS won't/don't own a GUN SAFE to keep their plethora of weapons in --- easy-peasy and there no cost to the Thieving Thug either!


The 'MYTH' and the reality; my hand gun has a trigger lock - it's right beside my bed in my night stand - all my other (22 rifle & 410) are in the gun safe! I do not need my weapons laying around like I'm going to be invaded by a thundering-hoard of Mongols!
To live any other way is foolish and irresponsible and children get killed exactly by those 'foolish & irresponsible' methods!

BTW - before you say anything about my 'trigger lock'; I've got 3 of the noisiest - light sleeper medium sized ankle biters that are 'sound activated'...they do their job very well.

I suggest you try that and report back here how "easy-peasy" that is......if your able to, that is.


Youre only listing justifiable homicides.....not how often firearms are used in self defense.....and Im sure articles can be found to support both sides argument. Heres about as close to an unbiased one Ive seen. But it really doesnt matter if theyre only used for self defense 5 times a year.... Better to have and not need, than need and not have......and there is no logical reason to not allow a law abiding American citizen to own a firearm....as a matter of fact, the Supreme Court has upheld that. Now, that article:

"" If you had to sum up the National Rifle
Association’s response to the Newtown
(Conn.) school massacre, and to any
proposal for tougher gun-control laws, that
one sentence from the NRA’s Dec. 21 press
conference pretty much does the trick.
The gun owners’ lobby opposes restrictions
on civilian acquisition and possession of
firearms because, it contends, law-abiding
people need guns to defend themselves.
Millions of people also use guns for hunting
and target-shooting. But at the core of the
NRA’s argument is self-defense: the ultimate
right to protect one’s ability to remain
upright and breathing.
So how often do Americans use guns to
defend themselves? If it almost never
happens, then the NRA argument is based
on a fallacy and deserves little respect in
the fashioning of public policy. If, on the
other hand, defensive gun use (DGU) is
relatively common, then even a diehard
gun-control advocate with any principles
and common sense would admit that this
fact must be given some weight.
Criminologists concur that the unusual
prevalence of guns in America—some 300
million in private hands—makes our violent
crime more lethal than that of other
countries. (See, for example, the excellent
When Brute Force Fails , by UCLA’s Mark
Kleiman.) That’s the cost of allowing
widespread civilian gun ownership: In this
country, when someone is inclined to
commit a mugging, shoot up a movie
theater, or kill their spouse (or themselves),
firearms are readily available.
One reason the gun debate seems so
radioactive is that gun-control proponents
refer almost exclusively to the cost of
widespread gun ownership, while the NRA
and its allies focus on guns as instruments
and symbols of self-reliance. Very few, if
any, participants in the conflict
acknowledge that guns are both bad and
good, depending on how they’re used.
Robbers use them to stick up convenience
stores, and convenience store owners use
them to stop armed robbers.
If guns have a countervailing benefit—that
lawful firearm owners frequently or even
occasionally use guns to defend themselves
and their loved ones—then determining how
aggressively to curb private possession
becomes a more complicated proposition.
As with everything else concerning guns in
this country, the DGU question prompts
divergent answers. At one end of the
spectrum, the NRA cites research by Gary
Kleck, an accomplished criminologist at
Florida State University. Based on self-
reporting by survey respondents, Kleck has
extrapolated that DGU occurs more than 2
million times a year. Kleck doesn’t suggest
that gun owners shoot potential antagonists
that often. DGU covers various scenarios,
including merely brandishing a weapon and
scaring off an aggressor.
At the other end of the spectrum, gun
skeptics prefer to cite the work of David
Hemenway, an eminent public-health
scholar at Harvard University. Hemenway,
who analogizes gun violence to an epidemic
and guns to the contagion, argues that
Kleck’s research significantly overestimates
the frequency of DGU.
The carping back and forth gets pretty
technical, but the brief version is that
Hemenway believes Kleck includes too
many “false positives”: respondents who
claim they’ve chased off burglars or rapists
with guns but probably are boasting or,
worse, categorizing unlawful aggressive
conduct as legitimate DGU. Hemenway finds
more reliable an annual federal government
research project, called the National Crime
Victimization Survey, which yields
estimates in the neighborhood of 100,000
defensive gun uses per year. Making various
reasonable-sounding adjustments, other
social scientists have suggested that perhaps
a figure somewhere between 250,000 and
370,000 might be more accurate.
What’s the upshot?
1. We don’t know exactly how frequently
defensive gun use occurs.
2. A conservative estimate of the order of
magnitude is tens of thousands of times a
year; 100,000 is not a wild gun-nut fantasy.
3. Many gun owners (I am not one, but I
know plenty) focus not on statistical
probabilities, but on a worst-case scenario:
They’re in trouble, and they want a fighting
chance.
4. DGU does not answer any questions in
this debate, but it’s a factor that deserves
attention.""
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-12-27/how-often-do-we-use-guns-in-self-defense

The 'MYTH' and the reality; my hand gun has a trigger lock - it's right beside my bed in my night stand - all my other (22 rifle & 410) are in the gun safe! I do not need my weapons laying around like I'm going to be invaded by a thundering-hoard of Mongols!
To live any other way is foolish and irresponsible and children get killed exactly by those 'foolish & irresponsible' methods!

BTW - before you say anything about my 'trigger lock'; I've got 3 of the noisiest - light sleeper medium sized ankle biters that are 'sound activated'...they do their job very well.

trigger lock is a bit different, but also if your a responsible adult gun owner, your kids shouldnt know where your guns are, or be able to access them. im just saying, keeping a home defense weapon in a gun safe defeats the whole purpose of having a gun for home safety.

Wow we get find maybe jail time for carrying a knife because it is classed as a dangerous weapon.
Is it safe to walk the streets during the day or night? Are you guys safe?

Wow we get find maybe jail time for carrying a knife because it is classed as a dangerous weapon.
Is it safe to walk the streets during the day or night? Are you guys safe?