We do NOT need more gun control

@chodebalm, That’s what it is.

Ahh yes I’ve been doing that for quite some time, many just think I’m very weird for it haha but I truly do hope this brings about a positive change in humans.

I don’t think it is realistic to expect people to change, there is not just one culture out there, there are hundreds, each with varying degrees of commitment by their following. Culture is a choice, a freedom you emphasise, so restricting culture and uniforming it is simply just another measure of control.
I don’t think it is people with culture who are a problem anyway, I think it is a culture of apathy, an anti-culture that has no values.
You cannot blame inanimate objects for humanities failings, this is classic deflection of liability that weak people prey on. If you enforce the idea that people can blame things for their own choices, other than themselves, then no dishonest person can be held responsible for anything. Money is a tool that is misused and it is a motivator of greedy and destructive behaviour, by without humans to abuse it it is nothing at all.
You are worried about the battle between freedom versus control, control is not a bad thing when applied appropriately, just as freedom can be a bad thing when misappropriated. Things are not black and white, otherwise we would have sorted our shit out long ago, it is the resistance we put up against appropriate measures of freedom and control that are holding us back, and people need to see where those lines should exist.@chodebalm,

Freedom and control are applied to general areas, not on specific individuals. An area may be better to liberate and then work on controlling more specific aspects, or the opposite of controlling the entire area then working on liberating specific areas. But even this system is seldom absolute, you may have a blend of each principle at work in an area.
I think that once you objectively weigh up the consequences of not controlling an area, all you can do is support measures that are appropriate and then go about liberating the aspects that you believe are worthy of freedom.
I am personally for guns, I think people should be allowed to carry their licensed handgun for protection, just as bolt action rifles have their place in rural areas, but as for assault rifles and smg’s, I don’t see how these should be floating around the public, these are things you check at the gun range.
The thing is, people find their way around gun laws anyway, I think people should be able to keep the big guns on their property, fully licensed with psych tests routinely provided, but access to it is what needs the most regulation, a person not authorized to access it should never get their hands on it and that would be a criminal offense on the part of the responsible owner.
But other than recreation, I don’t see why a person would need such weapons, unless the Commies invade, or a riot breaks out, or you cross the wrong gang or organized crime syndicate, or you want to stop S.W.A.T from arresting you on gun charges.

First of all, in this particular China stabbing incident involving 22 children, NO child had died… many were hospitalized, but there were no deaths… a clear contrast between the two school tragedies this weekend… one with high powered assault weapon, and one without… the aftermaths speak for itself.

a person can be stabbed ten times and still has a chance to live through the ordeal… the same can not be said of a person pierced by ten bullets…

a panicking crowd could disperse to a safer distance from the fiery of a knife-slashing psychopath, but not even Usain Bolt can outrun bullets fired semi-automatically.

as a Chinese living in China for many years, I can tell you that there are many violent incidences involving knives in underdeveloped, rural areas… mind you that 90% of 1.3 billion Chinese are rural villagers… a dismal handful of which are unhappy thugs who wouldn’t hesitate to gut you on the open streets at night if you make them lose face in front of their peers, more so when they’re intoxicated… this sort of violent brutality is commonplace in the Wild Wild West of the Mainland… like many others, I’ve seen first hand victims lying on a puddle of blood with multiple stab wounds with guts hanging while curious bystanders surround the gory scene waiting for an ambulance that never seem to come… in general, human life is just not as valued here compared to western civilization.

that said, if handguns were widely accessible to the general Chinese public, violent crime fatalities would surge at least 10-fold… incidences of massacres of high body counts would be unprecedented…

fortunately, guns are extremely rare and hard to come by… with some exception of bank robbers and drug/prostitution/extortion gangs that display them when battling rivals over territories… guns in the hands of the mentally ill as a percentage of population is extremely low.

it is no coincidence that knives are the weapon of choice here in China, and that’s a big relief.

I will never understand why Americans are so desperate to be free to own something that can only kill. It’s very strange. I cannot think what good can come from having a gun.

@johnkorvac, Agreed. This is the United States of America that we are talking about here. This is the country with the most gun-related deaths in the whole world that doesn’t involve some kind of war. There is no war within the country. These are individual acts of violence, and gang related acts of violence. How about the inner cities, where there are gang related shootings and deaths almost every day. New York city has had one day this year in which no single person has died. Granted that the events that have taken place in China are terrible. There is no excuse for the media to deny any tragic evens that have taken place around the globe, but the contrast speaks for itself, as you have said. And, being from China, you have direct experience with your argument. This argument is yet another example of the divide the America between conservatives and liberals. There is either a lack of gun control or too much gun control. Can we not just accept that there needs to be a shift in leadership, and that more money should be invested into mental health research? The children would want us not to argue with one another, but come up with a way in which we don’t have to fear being alive.

@chodebalm, I agree very much with @savmot. Although a lot of what you said makes perfect sense. People do need to change the way they think and view themselves and society, however this kind of change in ideology takes serious time. Let’s be fair, these ideas are not new, Karl Marx said a lot of the same things, as did Nietzsche, and more recently John Lennon, to name but a few . Things haven’t changed all that much since these people tried to change things, in fact have gotten worse in some cases.

Guns in America need to be legislated. It is just common sense. Don’t let a man buy an assault rifle and he isn’t going to shoot the fuck out of a school with an assault rifle. I don’t blame guns, I blame people and society, but that is exactly why guns need to be legislated. If assault rifle’s are okay why not a nuclear warhead or a Javelin missile. Where does it end?

Just look at other countries with strict gun laws, for instance, I live in Ireland, very few people have guns, and if they do they are heavily legislated. I’m not saying no one gets shot here, but it is only ever gangland shootings not public massacres. No one should have the right to bare arms, that is an out dated sentiment.

I think guns should be banned they are nothing but trouble, i’m sorry I do not see a good reason to own a gun, I do not kill animals and I’m not scared of intruders, it’s all about the ego from my viewpoint, I agree with @savmot, and in place of those killing machines we can have pellet guns. Simple fix no one dies.

@chodebalm, I see your point of view, and I do agree at some points. We do need to change the people. I do believe though, that guns should be illegal. The main purpose with a gun is not to “protect yourself from thieves and murders”. Fuck all that “guns don’t kill people”-bullshit. A gun has one purpose, and one purpose only, to kill.
I don’t care if you wan’t to hunt and shoot birds or whatever, you should be able to with a certificate or something like that. But to buy a gun for protecting yourself from strangers is like signing a document saying “I am willing to kill someone”, and that is, in my opinion, not the right message to spread. There is no reason to live your life in fear. I think it’s silly to be honest.
We need to illuminate each other for a better world! But your are certainly right in your opinions on building a new society with space for a creative soul! That’s my opinion on this subject…