Aussies, Hide Your Steak Knives

Well, speaking for meself, it is that so many people feel a NEED to own a gun...

What the heck is your problem dlowan? You're supposed to be a benefit to this site. Why don't you act like it?

dlowan wrote:

Well, speaking for meself, it is that so many people feel a NEED to own a gun...

I would feel no need to own a gun if it weren't for the fact that I have no way to determine which other people feel the need to harm me or take my stuff, and I want to be able to stop them, if necessary.

Of course, since the state I live in began allowing concealed carry permits again, crime rates have been falling. I believe this has to do with the fact that those people who feel the need to harm others or take their stuff have no way to determine which of the rest of us might be armed and therefor not make a very good target for their predatory intentions.

It seems to me that those who "don't get" the desire to own a gun for self-protection operate under the assumption that nobody out there intends any of us any harm, or that if they do, there is nothing we can do to dissuade them from acting on those intentions. I would not throw a punch at a guy twice my size, nor at a guy half my size who had a gun. I suspect that most criminals are rational enough creatures to make similar choices.

If you had any grasp on reality we wouldn't be arguing.

dlowan wrote:

Or is the right to have a sword sacred, too?

Certainly - it a relic re Holy War and thus highest honoured and as highly adored as the guns.

Problem was, he would sometimes think himself a musketeer, or some such nonsense, in his cups - and wave the thing around wildly. I once hid it in the garden!

My point all along is that here in the states, as long as you keep your nose clean, you have a CHOICE of whether or not you want to own guns.

Having that choice is precious.

What facts am I missing? Swords and laser pointers are banned in Austrailia.