Hello every body,
This is my first post on these forums (though I enter others).
I’m all for legalised gun ownership but isn’t this a little extreme? Somehow I can imagine that people who ride on busses have a social obligation to respect the wishes of others (i.e. those who do not feel secure around firearms). One would not smoke on a public bus service for similar reasons…
Welcome aboard. You may want to study the history of this topic in the United States to gain a better understanding of why so many Americans consider stories such as this a good thing.
Or, if you prefer, you could ignore the background of the topic and ask questions such as these. Your call.
But speaking as someone who has seen this issue go round and round for decades, I strongly recommend the option that involves study first.
In my opinion, you will find the result of doing that more productive than rehashing the same old arguments again and again and again and again...
Either way, good luck.
Welcome to FR. This is the wrong target to pick for your first post.......pun intended.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
See, if you do try any of those activities, then you'll find out who's armed.
Thats because you are British, and come from a culture of Sheep, you are bred to obey and have no means of protection.
Crime is rampant in England and getting worse.
I think if you track the Crime rate in Houston for a year or two you might feel more comfortable around Honest Law abiding Folk who happen to be "Strapped"
Especially when one of them "Gut Shoots a Mugger attacking you"
It's the American way!
This is TEXAS, where self-defense IS LEGAL.
I’m all for legalised gun ownership but isn’t this a little extreme? Somehow I can imagine that people who ride on busses have a social obligation to respect the wishes of others (i.e. those who do not feel secure around firearms).I used to work a late shift, in a not very good neighborhood, at a job that didn't pay enough for me to own a car.
Same argument goes with banning CHL inside stores.
One would not smoke on a public bus service for similar reasons…Sure, but you don't see the city banning people from carrying a concealed pack of Marlboro's while riding the bus.
Depends in what state, but not really. Those who are licensed to carry have the lowest crime rate of any group of citizens.
In fact, I would not know which of those on the bus are carrying or not. That's they whole point of concealed carry. The criminals don't know who is or is not carrying.
Not at all. They require that safeties be kept on while boarding or debusing. Children under the age of five are not permitted to handle weapons without an adult supervising. And no weapon may be allowed to intrude into the personal space of other passengers.
I don't feel secure on a train when someone is reading a book by Michael Moore. But, I feel no social obligation to have the book forcibly removed from him. If you don't like guns, don't own one.
No it isn't extreme, the gun must be concealed, those who do not feel comfortable around firearms won't know it is there.
The difference is, were someone to smoke on a public bus, it would be obvious to everyone in the bus.
Should people who ride buses be required to leave their rights at the curb? Worse, they'd be defenseless walking to and from the bus stop. Many who ride buses do so because they can't afford to drive, so I favor not only this change, but also the availability of inexpensive handguns because a person's rights should not be contingent on their ability to afford a $500-1,000 pistol. And, for the most part, armed citizens only need a gun that will go "bang" that one time they need it.
You say you're "for legalised gun ownership". That could mean you favor you and your friends being able to have them for your own reasons, but maybe not "the masses"? Maybe you're also "for legalised free speech" as long as it doesn't become too extreme?
Any non-felon has the right to carry a firearm anywhere he damn well pleases. I have a permit and I follow the laws because I don't want the hassle of not doing so, but the laws are still wrong.
Wake up and smell the blood. The biggest problem with public transit is lingering in a "target zone" waiting for the vehicle to arrive. Likewise when you get off.
The people most likely to "be offended" are the criminals (people who don't obey the law) who like their victims unarmed.
And one should clean the drunks off their streets in residential neighborhoods so the children could play in their yards!!
Busy yourself in the UK.
Note that these are *concealed* weapons. Your people (the insecure) would not know that the weapons were there unless they were feeling up the other passengers.
Actually, statistics will show that armed citizens will make the other riders safer. If the others don't feel safe, let them get a permit to carry for themselves. Here in Mississippi, it is very easy, you go to a gun store, hand over a drivers license, they run a background check, sell you the gun and the carry permit (good for three years at a cost of $100, it is called a "gunslinger's license" believe it or not!) at the same time, and you are on your merry way....
Oh and the government in England is after your big bad BB guns. Can you carry a wood toothpick over there?
Friend:
If you ever lived in Houston, and rode a bus there, you would KNOW why persons should be allowed to carry weapons :)
This especially coming from the UK, where the entire citizenry is unarmed, except for the criminals and has rapidly become the poster child for "ban guns, crime goes through roof".
I ran across this little bit of fact elsewhere on the net, and decided that it maybe would be a good factual counterpoint to your ignorance of the realities of the world:
Today I want to set the record straight and dispel a few of the more common myths with some hard facts.
First, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, there is an interesting correlation between accidental deaths caused by guns and by doctors.
Doctors: (A) There are 700,000 physicians in the U.S. (B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians total 120,000 per year. © Accidental death percentage per physician is 0.171. Guns: (A) There are 80 million gun owners in the U.S. (B) There are 1,500 accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups. © The percentage of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.0000188.
Statistically, then, doctors are 9,000 times more dangerous to the public health than gun owners. Fact: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR. Following the logic of liberals, we should all be warned: ‘Guns don’t kill people. Doctors do.’
More seriously, Dr. Glen Otero of the Claremont Institute has published an enlightening article entitled “Ten Myths About Gun Control.” (This entire article can be found at the website of Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws http://www.dsgl.org.) Here are just a few of his well-documented findings.
Approximately 80 percent of all adult American citizens own firearms, and a gun can be found in nearly half of American households.
Between 1974 and 1995, the total number of privately owned firearms in America increased by 75 percent, to 236 million. During the same period, national homicide and robbery rates did NOT significantly increase.
Less than 1 percent of all guns are involved in any type of crime, which means that 99 percent of all guns are NOT used to commit any crime.
In 1987, the National Crime Victimization Survey estimated that about 83 percent of Americans would become the victims of violent crime during the course of their lifetime. The National Self-Defense Survey found that between 1988 and 1993, American civilians used firearms in self-defense almost 2.5 million times per year, saving up to 400,000 lives per year in the process.
Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens deter crime. Where U.S. counties have enacted concealed-carry laws, murder rates fell by 8 percent, rape by 5 percent, and aggravated assault by 7 percent. Urban counties recorded the largest decreases demographically.
You get the picture: Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. But sometimes law-abiding citizens with guns can save the lives of other innocent people.
It’s time to restore some common sense to the hysterical debate over gun control. When Cain killed Abel with a rock, God didn’t ban all rocks. He dealt with Cain personally. We need to enforce our criminal laws against murder, robbery, and assault.
I will cite the testimony of just one more expert witness. No, it’s not another politician or media pundit. Here’s what former Mafia underboss, self-confessed hit man, and government informant Sammy “The Bull” Gravano had to say:
“Gun control? It’s the best thing you can do for crooks and gangsters. I want you to have nothing. If I’m a bad guy, I’m always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.”
So after you have gone out and done some factual research, you can come back and maybe... just maybe, you might have enough information and education to carry on a debate with the memebers of this forum. Until that point is reached, it would be a good idea to remember the old maxim:
"It is better to keep silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".
You see, you are entering into a battle of wits here, and you, my British friend, are completely unarmed. (pun definitely intended)