I can't believe this discussion is being had. While I am not going to judge people based on their personal choices... wait screw that! I AM going to judge. The simple fact is, if there are no guns, people cannot die from a gunshot wound. If there are guns, then people can die from a gunshot wound. Look at gun deaths in America compared to anywhere else in the world. We blow everyone else away. Literally. Skynard said it best "they ain't good for nothin' baby... cept to put a man six feet in a hole."

Hunting is a totally different subject. I personally think that hunting with a gun is cheating, and would use a bow if I hunted. Either way though, if you are using a gun to feed yourself, then that is a warranted use. Anything else is ridiculous.

The choices that other people make affect us all. The idiot (not all gun-carriers are idiots) carrying a gun is just as bad as the guy doubling the speed limit in a school zone. They both are having a negative impact on society.

SVOboy, you can count that there are two sensible people on these boards.

I live to own guns! **** free speech, I shoot my story onto the front page!

I'm kind of embarassed to admit it, but I love shooting. Not killing, thats reserved for necessity, but targets and skeets and such. I get a lot of enjoyment out of a cheezy bb gun even or a blowgun for that matter. Heck, the kids rubber dart crossbow keeps me entertained. :)

Guns are fer killin' things. Since I prefer a hands on approach to self defense and don't wanna kill anything, they ain't my cup of tea.

This could turn out to be a long thread. Maybe we should add abortion on here as well.

I can understand your stance that not having guns would make life in America safer. And I believe you would be correct if there had always been tough anti gun laws that were enforced. The truth is, there are millions of them in the country that are not going away. I also would imagine that statistics would show that the death rate is considerably lower for the ones legally owned. This does not take into account for the idiots you hear of that leave loaded weapons under their mattresses that kids end up playing with and killing someone. For these and the ones who manage to shoot themselves while cleaning their guns, I have no problems with 21 day waiting periods and forcing people to take safety classes.

I choose to own a 9mm to protect myself and my family. I've been trained how to use it and it is in a quick opening safe that only I can get to. I don't see any negative impact on society as you see it. The fact is, we live in a violent society where people can break into your house with little regard for you or ones you care about. If you want to be passive and hope they don't harm anyone or try to chase them out with a baseball bat, that's your choice. If someone breaks into my house and tries to harm my wife or daughter, I'm going to shoot them.

Guns don't kill people, bullets do.

bowtieguy, For home defense I would go with a revolver. It is hard to beat a revolver for reliability. Other choice is a shotgun. If you want something cheap to shoot 9mm or 22

Coyote X, but do you have one of these 8mm Nambu

I want to point out one very important thing to the members participating in this thread.

We, as a community, are generally in favor of smart driving. I would like to assume that most members on gassavers.org are not fans of huge hulking trucks being used by mothers to tote their kids around, and do the shopping in. The thinking however, is that your family is more important than anything else, so you want to protect them. Buying a huge car is one to way to do this. However, it at the same time endangers other people. The size of cars has become an arms race of sorts, not unlike the Cold War. The person with the bigger car is only safe until his neighbor gets an even bigger car. I know that I do not agree with this thinking, and believe that the average member on this site would have an opinion similar to mine.

Why then do the pro-gun users cite safety and protection as their reason for owning a gun? Coyote X pretty much says that he owns guns because everyone else does, and with this thinking as a basis, his entire community is composed mainly of gun-owners. This kind of thinking scares me, as it shows that Americans are untrusting of eachother, and worried only about their own well-being.

Looking at Japan, almost no one is killed by guns. The only people with guns are police, and gangsters. Gangsters only fight other gangsters, and sometimes, VERY RARELY, police. You have no chance of ever getting killed by a gun in Japan unless you get involved with the mob. My fiance's father, a police officer of 40 years, has never once even taken his gun out of its holster.

Even so, there is no denying that in America, there is the chance that a gun might save your life. I just believe that that chance is too small to warrant bringing these devices into our societies.

To sum up the above attempt at a rational look at this matter, I can arrive at no other conclusion but that the gun owners on this site are suffering from severe hypocritical thinking, or cognitive disshonance. Think of the arms race and car size race to understand this issue better. I urge you all to evaluate your opinions on these two related matters.

I recently purchased a Beretta Neos in .22 LR with a six inch barrel and a red dot sight. It's quite a fun gun to plink with. I'm looking at buying a S&W M&P in either 9mm or .40 S&W. Does anyone have any experience with this pistol? I handled one at my local Sportsman's Warehouse and it fit my hand like a glove.

Below is the Neos in INOX (stainless steel)

https://products.berettausa.com/image...60X_S_maxi.jpg

This is the M&P

https://www.smith-wesson.com/wcsstore...9000_large.jpg

I never said i own guns only because everyone else does. Actually for personal protection I gave up carrying a gun because I got tired of having to keep it cleaned and maintained(this is a very safe area). I pretty much figure someone near me will come to my aid if I need some firepower. I figure being 6'3 285lbs with a 525lb deadlift should be good enough to turn any object within reach of me into a deadly weapon to be used against someone bothering me. The thing most people miss talking about guns though is a criminal intent on robbing someone is always going to use a gun regardless of legality, the difference is nobody ever gets robbed here because a gun doesn't elevate a criminal's power above the average honest person. It is hard to be a robber/rapist when half the population is armed :) If nobody had guns then things would be different but even in england with insane gun control laws criminals use guns pretty regular and also lets not forget the huge increase in stabbing/blunt object killings. So banning/regulating guns just keeps them out of the hands of the honest people but doesn't really make people want to kill each other less.

The main reason I think everyone should have a gun though really is to make sure the government stays afraid of it's citizens. All the rest of this stuff is a secondary issue to the fact that a govt that has to be afraid of an armed revolt will act a lot nicer than a govt that just has to kill/jail protesters.