The Right to Arm Bears

Lennox was a prime example of laws only affecting those who abide by them. If the Barnes family had not been law abiding, had not licensed him as the local law dictated, how likely is it that he'd have even been on the radar?

It's against the law to walk into someone's home and steal their belongings. The law does a good job of keeping people who aren't likely to break into your home and steal your belongings from doing it.

It's the same principle, dogs, theft, murder or firearms -- or anything else "against the law."

We have guns, I support the right to arm bears.

That is something that need to be better enforced. Law enforcement needs to stop guns from going in and out of the country illegally and being obtained illegally. I think gun laws and law enforcement should focus on barring people with criminal histories and mental issues (gangs as well) from owning guns. Basically working on ways to make it less likely a criminal will be armed and more likely the other person will own a gun or be able defend himself/herself in other ways.

Also, people should not be legally allowed to use lethal force unless there is no other option.

It's already illegal for convicted criminals to own firearms. Short of putting surveilance cameras on every convicted criminal or violent person with a mental illness in the country and monitoring their every move, you can't ensure they won't get their hands on something (or build something), somehow.

Just like there are classes of drugs that are illegal across the board for everybody, we have a drug enforcement agency with an international reach, and yet there is still a massive massive problem with illegal drugs. How is creating the same kind of agency to deal with firearms going to make any kind of impact?

ETA: People already aren't allowed to use lethal force unless there's no other option.

It's already illegal for anyone convicted of any violent crime (including misdemeanor battery, and ANY felony, violent or otherwise) to own guns in the US. You say "law enforcement needs to stop guns from being obtained illegally," as if every time someone makes a deal in a back alleyway, a cop can magically appear and start making arrests. It just doesn't work that way.

Also, who gets to decide what "mental issues" bar people from owning weapons? Are you referring to ALL mental issues, or just some? People with Down Syndrome? Aspergers? Anxiety disorders? Clinical depression?

I sure hope she's comfortable financing those magically appearing officers... Me, I hope my money goes in the "better things to accomplish" bin.

There is already enough fear about using guns and the potential backlash you can get from it...no need to legislate that any further. I'll remember the next time a guy is trying to access my house to ask him to leave politely. I'm sure that'll stop him. If I'm ever in a situation that requires the intervention of a firearm, I'm going to take that ******* out of the gene pool.

I guess it is possible, for those situations, but I should be able to protect myself in any situation, even a 1 on 1 situation where someone may not be going for mass murder, if they have an illegal gun, and I am a law abiding citizen not allowed to have a gun, then I don't even have a possible opportunity of protecting myself or my family.

I have the right to defend my family. And if they take that right away, they are going to turn a lot of honest people into criminals, because we will not give that up. I will not turn our safety solely into the hands our government and I know that I am not the only one. So then our law enforcement will be wasting time and resources on responsible gun owners instead of dealing with the ones who are already doing illegal things.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/okla-woman-shoots-kills-intruder911-operators-shoot/story?id=15285605

This story kind of underlines my feelings on gun control...if she didn't have a gun, her and her baby would have been injured or killed.

My guns have never killed anyone. My APBTs have never killed anyone. Then again, I obey the laws.

Those who are out there shooting, stabbing, murdering, raping, & robbing are already breaking many laws. Do you really think they will all-of-a-sudden see the error of their ways if guns were made illegal?

I remember that story and think of it in this kind of discussion too.

I am glad she had guns and knew how to use them. I do like her comment about "nothing more dangerous than a mom with her baby"

And this thread is not complete without this Family Guy excerpt.

I suppose another question is if anyone has family or friends that have been victims of gun related crime. Wouldn't that change ones thinking greatly, either for or against? My best buds nephew died because he went to work the wrong day. It doesn't really matter if it was a legal or illegal weapon.

My husband has been robbed at gun point, and a good friend of mine was stabbed to death at her FACTORY job. It can happen any where with anything. There were no guns when Cane killed Able, people are very inventive with ways to hurt one another

As pointed out, some places with tough gun laws STILL suffer shooting deaths and lots of murders............Chicago comes to mind since I live close enough to pick up their news channels.

But it does matter, no matter how emotion based your (general you) opinion is... Taking away my legally owned rifle will not stop the kind of violence we are seeing here...

For lack of a better analogy that's like taking away my pit bull because someone else's hurt or killed someone... It won't work...

Yeah, I posted earlier this year about a couple of acquaintances who were murdered in a cafe shooting. Again, if someone in the cafe had been packing there might have been more survivors. And the lady who got carjacked later that day would definitely still be alive.

And my cousin was stabbed to death recently intervening in a domestic dispute. I don't know how that could have come out differently either way, but it's another example of how people will still murder each other no matter what means are available to them.

In Texas, you can walk into any pawn shop and buy a pistol, shotgun, or rifle with just an id. If you have a concealed handgun license, you can carry in your glove box. I honestly can't remember the last shooting we had.

Edit: a few years ago there was a big shooting on ut campus downtown. I don't remember if anyone was hurt.

Besides the obvious RIGHT to defend ourselves against slime who break into our homes or threaten our lives, let's not forget the biggest reason that we were given the right to keep and bear arms. That is to defend ourselves against a tyrannical government, should one ever get out of hand with it's control. That's what sparked the whole thing in the first place. If it weren't for that right, if the early colonists did not own guns when they came to America, there would be no America. We would have been at the mercy of a tyrannical government at that time. That was the whole point of breaking away and creating America. And that is why we have the right to keep and bare arms.

And all those points that were made by Romy, Sparks and others, I totally agree with. It's ridiculous to even dance around the issue whether or not we should have this right. We DO. And that is that. I'd fight to the death to maintain that right.

Indiana gun laws are very similar (if not the same) as Texas. Thanks to the internet, back ground checks take a matter of minutes. Sort of like the improvement on mail order items

I do hold a life time concealed carry license, oddly enough, I don't carry my gun around that often, LOL