That Yamamoto quote is a favourite line of right-wing internet posters, often cropping up in their signature along with George Orwell's "we sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf".

Unfortunately, like the Orwell quote, it is completely bogus. The man never said such a thing. Ironically, it was the likelihood that there would have been a rifle behind every blade of grass in Japan that in part led to the decision to drop the A-bomb instead of invading.

Untruths on the internet tubes?!

OH NOZ!!1!

:haha:

"The problem with Internet quotations is that many are not genuine." - Abraham Lincoln

Up here in the frigid North it's too damn cold for home invasions :haha:

On a serious note, when I was a kid, I used to always want to go out hunting with my uncle. Just the thought of shooting a rifle, or the thrill of the hunt, had me begging him to go out. Even still, he refused me until I was older.

However, prior to him actually having the will to take me out, I joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets where I made it on to the Marksmanship team of my squadron. Mind you, this was only firing air-soft rifles. However, due to this, I was able to attend a course during the summer for firing actual rifles, mostly .22's. This taught me that, shooting a gun isn't all it's cracked up to be. And most importantly, if you don't hold the damn thing snugly, it'll dislocate your shoulder. Factor #1, but primarily factor #2 meant that when my uncle finally asked me to go hunting I said no :haha:

However, i do own an old .22 Bolt Action Springfield that I received after the death of my great grandfather. Albeit the firing pin has been removed (by him for safety reasons) and I keep the bolt separate from the the rifle itself. I only look at that rifle and think of my grandfather, not of firing it.

Anyways, back on topic...
BRING THE HAMMER DOWN ON THE LITTLE TODDLER.. and all that stuff :shifty:.. Just a case of a student not being paid enough attention if they're able to sneak that stuff into class.

Umm...well why is a gun laying around so easily where a 5 year old can handle it?

Whooo hoo. First time i ever got accused of being on the right wing. All the local right wingers think im a left winger.

I did look up that quote out of curiosity after i hotlinked that picture. It sounded cool, but it sounded too cool, and looked it up finding it for the urban legend that it is. I was wondering if anyone would catch it or not. :rotfl2: Anyway untrue of source or not, the sentence itself is reasonably correct. I'll wager there's at least one firearm in every Home, Apartment, and RV in America. And my point still stands, Firearms, much like car's, are embedded in our culture. Only the cultural roots of firearms in our society go way back to the very founding. Hell, i'm not a Gun nut, far from it, i acutally sit on the fence as far as Assault weapons go, but even I own a couple of guns.

Rumor has it Lincoln first posted that at: sellmeabridge.com ;)

You'll only need a fingerprint reader. My safe has one and even my car's GPS has one. It's no big deal at all and comes at a cheap price. While those things of course always come with a backup key /password you won't need them often and therefore you don't need to go and get them every now and then, making it much more difficult for junior to find out where you are hiding them.;)

Okay, firstly, there are only six degrees of separation. Everyone knows someone who [insert anything here]. Secondly, did he *have* to use a gun? Over the last 7 years I've spend a lot of time in the US in different states (mostly Ohio) and heard many stories in which guns have been used as a deterrent, but not one where it was actually necessary to do so. In every story, the person pointing the gun "in defense" was pointing it at someone unarmed.

I don't know the necessary stats, but it'd be interesting to compare the statistical chance of facing an armed intruder vs, say, winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning.


I don't think fire extinguishers are often the cause of the deaths of innocent bystanders.

I know, but the way some people talk you'd think they need to hold a gun to get it up.

I know this debate is old and I won't convince you, but when Plat made the comment about "responsible" gun ownership in thread where three kids got shot, I couldn't resist the urge to comment.

While i agree on the six degrees of separation comment: 1. I don't question his decision to pull out his firearm. 2. in 3 of those cases, threat was imminent one being an attempted carjacking, one being an attempted mugging by knife, and one being an attempted home invasion. i say attempted because all three were thwarted. 3. I will always prefer to know someone who had to use or threaten to use their firearm rather than be the person to have to do it myself.

What happened in Houston with these kids is tragic. i know there are responsible gun owners... but i also know there are irresponsible gun owners... and i simply pose the question; Which ones make the news?

you simply cannot make a blanket decision that all gun owners are irresponsible, car shooting, beer swilling red necks because a kid gets his hand on pappy's pistol.

In this case, someone was lax with their firearm security and a kid got a hand on it and took it to school and people got hurt.

That is unfortunate, but i wonder how many kids didn't bring a gun to school that day and shoot people?

I also know - as an educator - that good judgment is not a teachable skill. Good judgment is something that a person acquires (hopefully) through years of experience and psychological development.

some people acquire more than others. and other people still seem to acquire none. In this case, someone exercised poor judgment and we see the result.

fortunately nobody was killed, hopefully the gun owners of the world can learn something from the incident.

not that you are guilty of making this a case for taking people's guns away from them... but here in the states - its a constant issue.

every time something like this happens, it causes some folks to jump up on the soap box and shout and stomp their feet about how nobody should even be allowed to own guns.

and you have a very large segment of society in the United States that is very adamant about defending that right. Its a culture thing. Its ingrained in our national psyche. many view it as a right. many view it as a duty. and a few consider it absurd NOT to own one.

my fire extinguisher comment was not meant to illustrate that fire extinguishers kill people - im not sure where you picked that out.

i just think that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. thats why i carry a fire extinguisher in my car, its why i have a snake bite kit with my camp gear (even though i camp in colder months) and its why there is a firearm at my bedside.

i do these things because i've been in positions without such things when it would have been nice to have it.

I pray to God the only thing that me and my firearms ever shoot are paper targets. But im certainly not going to leave my wife at home for the weekend armed to the teeth with a cell phone and harsh language.

I used to be very anti-gun-ownership. Then I got to be good friends with a guy from the south who's introduced me to the gun culture personally. After hanging around, doing some shooting and meeting these so-called right-wing gun-nuts that come to shooting ranges etc., you know what, I honestly realized that contrary to the crazed unreasonable people that everyone paints them as, they're actually some of the more reasonable, civil, and above all safety-conscious (as in, gun handling/storage safety) people I've met. I'd be doing them a disservice if I said they shouldn't own guns.

I still support strict gun registration and licensing, which they obviously don't, but I'd honestly be lying if I said that gun owners in the American general public don't deserve to have things their way.

I've always seen home defense as thus:

If you're prepared for the worst case, the worst that can happen is you end up dead.

If you're not prepared for the worst case, the best than can happen is you end up dead.

How an individual chooses to define "prepared" is up to the individual. Some live in houses with bars on the windows and doors. Others own guns, or bright outside lighting. Some do less, others do more.

I've trained lots of kids to shoot - some as young as seven or eight. I've also taught them how to handle firearms safely and responsibly. And to this date, not one of those kids I taught - and there were hundreds - has ever blasted one of his mates, accidentally or intentionally.

So, like it our not, there ARE responsible gun owners. Just like there are irresponsible car owners... and irresponsible parents.

I'm going to buy a lightning-proof coat and wear it at all times. Actually, better make it meteor-proof as well. One should always be prepared for the worst.

Yup. Better look into the armor-plated vehicles, too, unless you plan on hiding inside the rest of your days in your impregnable fortress of attitude.

Hit a nerve, did I? Funny how often my arguments with pro-gun folk result in them promising (and sometimes outright threatening) physical violence, either from themselves or others. I'm almost given to thinking it's all they understand.

Excuse me? How in any way did I threaten you?

All I did was suggest that, if you're going to take my words to ridiculous extremes, perhaps you would like to extend your protection to your home and/or means of conveyance, as those things are also susceptible to lightning and/or atmospheric anomalies.

Funny how anti-gun people immediately assume it's all about them.

Let me restate, since you clearly tripped right on over the main point of my earlier statement in your rush prove your intellectual and moral superiority to the rest of us.

"How an individual chooses to define "prepared" is up to the individual. Some live in houses with bars on the windows and doors. Others own guns, or bright outside lighting. Some do less, others do more."

You were suggesting an armoured vehicle as a way to defend my home from lightning and meteor strikes? And how would that work exactly? Would I park my house inside my car at night instead of the other way around?

Definitely hit a nerve. Sorry about that. Go shoot something, you'll feel better.

I understood it as a means of being safe outside your house.;)

Yeah, that's exactly how I understood it as well. :up:

I guess this is why here in the United States our citizens, for the most part, have a choice concerning whether they choose to own a handgun.

Those that choose not to own one have the freedom not to have one
Those that choose to own one, with in some limitations, have the freedom to own one.

Win win situation

I have never heard of a gun owner trying to force non gun owners to own a gun. :nope: