Stephen King on US gun contols.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

Clearly. And because the logic holds that the Second Amendment guarantees gun ownership for the right of self protection, which has been argued ad naseum for six weeks.

The 'founding dudes' included the right to bear arms for numerous purposes; pirmary among them being the right to self-defense. The gun is a weapon. A weapon exists for the purpose of killing and inflicting bodily harm on another person or thing. And so the use of that weapon is practiced in order to ensure that it can be used properly if your life or liberty are threatened. One does not buy silverware for the intention of self-defense. You buy a gun for that purpose. You do not buy it to cook ham, do your laundry or remove hard water stains. It is an item of violence, and it's ownership is used as deterrent against violence by the threat of violence.

How can you (not you specifically, Ducimus -- you're the only one who said it was a weapon) state that the owning a gun is a necessity for the self-preservation of body and right, and then dance around the fact that it is a weapon, designed and practiced for self defense? Why adamantly proclaim that the government wants to take those guns and then shy away from the same fact? If the application of firearms is Olympic and recreational shooting, then clearly this is not an issue. It's not, though, is it?

People learn to use weapons correctly with recreational use, target shooting, etc.. I love to skeet shoot, it's fun, but it teaches me how to aim. Very few people use their gun as a weapon, but partake of numerous recreational activities to learn how to correctly use a weapon if the case should arrive.