Guns, what sort of response

[firetech]

Just my simple logic... while the criminals still have a means to do harm, I want the right to protect myself, family
and the innocent.

[stroguy]

I have been to Chicago with no problems. Been to Houston with no problems. Been to a lot of cities with no problems. But the violence figures for Chicago are not made up. Are there certain areas of Chicago you will not go near? Cause there are points in Houston I would not go near with a Sherman tank and air cover. It's even hard for the police to stray into. My point was towards your inference that there lies some responsibility on the gunshow vendors. Are there any guns confiscated that were purchased in Detroit? Or how many of the confiscated guns were stolen after sale at the gunshow in Indiana. There is a large anti-gunshow agenda in this country and it wouldn't surprise me if WGN has a nickel in that kitty. Has WGN ever studied on the book gun laws and how they are failing? Why there is a culture of having the gun for those 3824 gangsters? I find it scary that they classified 3824 as gang bangers. Must be some cultural high for being a gang banger.

[Navvet]

Why are the media (and this forum) not talking about the real problem ?????

Two things all mass shootings in the US over the last 30 years have had in common;

1) Gun free zones, they only happen in areas where the common person is not able to defend themselves.

2) Mood altering drugs .... The solution with most parents and doctors seems to be to give the kids anti-depressants.

Let's have a discussion about those .....

[jaygollner]

I have been to Chicago with no problems. Been to Houston with no problems. Been to a lot of cities with no problems. But the violence figures for Chicago are not made up. Are there certain areas of Chicago you will not go near? Cause there are points in Houston I would not go near with a Sherman tank and air cover. It's even hard for the police to stray into. My point was towards your inference that there lies some responsibility on the gunshow vendors. Are there any guns confiscated that were purchased in Detroit? Or how many of the confiscated guns were stolen after sale at the gunshow in Indiana. There is a large anti-gunshow agenda in this country and it wouldn't surprise me if WGN has a nickel in that kitty. Has WGN ever studied on the book gun laws and how they are failing? Why there is a culture of having the gun for those 3824 gangsters? I find it scary that they classified 3824 as gang bangers. Must be some cultural high for being a gang banger.

They are really just small businessmen protecting their market share, If drugs were legalized the would not see the profit margin that makes so many of them willing to gamble their lives for it.
We kind of have that whole gun violence history going on here stretching back to at least the days of prohibition.

The most important thing to remember is that I am not in favor of giving our guns back, all I would propose would be stronger laws and enforcement on gun sales.
I wouldn't mind seeing all private sales with the exception of transfers within a family go through the process.

If you consider that Indiana allows unlimited non documented private sales and that thousands of those guns end up with the gang bangers in Chicago, I would hope that reasonable people would agree that the more we can degrade their ability to access weapons the less people they will be able to kill.

[stroguy]

I concur to some extent, whether they go to Indiana or the Ukraine, narcotics and gang bangin are occupations and they are going to get their weapons to kill one another. Shoot, even eric holder might get them a few firearms.

[BIGLRY]

I concur to some extent, whether they go to Indiana or the Ukraine, narcotics and gang bangin are occupations and they are going to get their weapons to kill one another. Shoot, even eric holder might get them a few firearms.

[fxdl2051]

It's a fine line here in the States. On the one hand our Constitution allows it,on the other hand they were referring to the right to own and bare flintlocks. As a NRA member I am justifiably suspicious of any attempts to control firearms (Nazi Germany is the perfect example of why this is a bad idea), on the other hand the continuing increasing lethality of small arms exceeds any common sense need by an individual owner. When I worked in Hawaii I never saw gunshot victems where guns were rare, most assualts were knives or baseball bats, on the other hand in Phoenix where they were hyperabundant, gunshot traumas were very common, heck I even got shot at myself.
There is something else that cannot be proved directly, many of these high profile cases in the media, I believe result from the gov' t itself. Operation Fast and Furious was only one example where the gov't itself was the gun runner and instigator of violence. As far back as the 50's the CiA's, MKUltra research was involved in converting ordinary people into assassins. Much of what passes as domestic terrorism looks like a latter version of these experiements in psy ops. So whether many of these events are manufactured events employeed to sway public opinion till the gullible public clamors for the remedy of a more totalitarian state, I have no clear idea. In this same vein, the rampent violence depicted daily in the media I believe to be a form of social enginnering creating many of the same effects, at the very least, it creates the percursors of social violence. For that matter, DOD subcontractors have been creating on line personeas for various purposes which honestly make me look slightly askew at these kinds of discussions in general, but what the heck, for the record I maintain a horde of ninja treefrogs for my own personal self protection.

[cosborn]

I recognise that you all have valid points and I'm not condemning anyone for that.

Randy, you made a good point about having my house broken into, and i guess i would do what i have to, to protect my family but that would not extend to the use of a firearm. This is just the way we have been conditioned to live here.

The chances of having my house broken into, unless i'm into drugs or a criminal are pretty low, however, having said that, I have had my house broken into while i was asleep inside. I woke up at about 01:00 hours one morning (my wife was at work Nursing) and my boys were asleep in their rooms, I noticed a figure standing by my bedroom door shining a small torch around the room, obviously looking for stuff. I lied there watching until i was well awake and trying to determine if it was one of my boys and then i hit the floor running, took about 4 steps and thought to myself, what are you doing, you're 63 he is probably fairly young so i stopped. He took off the way he had come through the backyard window never to be seen again.

I never once considered that he may be armed and in fact i have quite an extensive collection of swords and never gave a thought to picking one up.
I called the local Police who arrived about two hours later and i said to them that the only reason i called them was for their statistics, anyway, nothing was taken.
Suffice to say something like that tends to rattle you a bit, and from then on i have actually locked the doors before going to bed, never did in the past though.

Chris

[jm21ddd15]

I recognise that you all have valid points and I'm not condemning anyone for that.

Randy, you made a good point about having my house broken into, and i guess i would do what i have to, to protect my family but that would not extend to the use of a firearm. This is just the way we have been conditioned to live here.

The chances of having my house broken into, unless i'm into drugs or a criminal are pretty low, however, having said that, I have had my house broken into while i was asleep inside. I woke up at about 01:00 hours one morning (my wife was at work Nursing) and my boys were asleep in their rooms, I noticed a figure standing by my bedroom door shining a small torch around the room, obviously looking for stuff. I lied there watching until i was well awake and trying to determine if it was one of my boys and then i hit the floor running, took about 4 steps and thought to myself, what are you doing, you're 63 he is probably fairly young so i stopped. He took off the way he had come through the backyard window never to be seen again.

I never once considered that he may be armed and in fact i have quite an extensive collection of swords and never gave a thought to picking one up.
I called the local Police who arrived about two hours later and i said to them that the only reason i called them was for their statistics, anyway, nothing was taken.
Suffice to say something like that tends to rattle you a bit, and from then on i have actually locked the doors before going to bed, never did in the past though.

Chris

Never locked the doors before? Wow, you are lucky! Do you lock your car when you park it, or your cycle? Most places in the US, well your asking for trouble if you don't lock up. Some insurance companies don't like claims of stolen vehicles, or unlawful entry, if your stuff wasn't locked. Just a heads-up, if you travel over here.

[jaygollner]

Never locked the doors before? Wow, you are lucky! Do you lock your car when you park it, or your cycle? Most places in the US, well your asking for trouble if you don't lock up. Some insurance companies don't like claims of stolen vehicles, or unlawful entry, if your stuff wasn't locked. Just a heads-up, if you travel over here.

Locks don't stop real criminals, but they sure do keep the amateurs honest.