Latter Days Guy

What I find truly ironic is that I'm a gamer and I love FPS's! But I can't stand the idea of actually owning a gun!

Happy Pancake day, anyone else whipping up a batch of pancakes for pancake day?

Traveller, I would agree with 99% of what you say in your last post.

I think ISIS is doing a great job for their political masters in the CIA, creating a new enemy for the citizens of the US to go to war against yet again. And talking about terrorists and British pubs, I lived through the Northern Ireland troubles with its bombs and shootings in mainland Britain. How many millions of dollars and armalite rifles were given to the IRA by concerned American citizens? To much and very little done to stop it.

Not in the least, I'm sorry if you disagree that one needless gun death is a death too far. I don't agree with private gun ownership as a right and am fortunate to live in a country that agree's with that. I firmly believe that someone's right to life is far more important than someone right to own a firearm. I also firmly believe that only the military and the police should have access to firearms, the military as they are the protectors of the nation and the police as they are the protectors of the public.

Yes I believe that people in the US put their right to own guns before the rights of others to live. If that wasn't the case then the first time a school shooting happened and children died the result would have been such a public outcry that said weapons would be banned. The problem as I see it is that gun ownership in the US is the norm and any attempt to ban would not work due to the high proliferation of weapons in the country. That it was allowed to get to such a state in the first place is scandalous.

This has been a bit confusing for me! When I first joined the church way back in 1987 it was we don't smoke, drink alcoholic beverages or tea/coffee. Caffeinated drinks were also a no go. Fast forwards to after my time away from the church and its now ok to drink the cokes etc that were previously banned! Maybe they were just being over zealous back in the day but who knows!!

I've backed down on nothing, the fact remains that nothing is done, even after repeated shooting spree's. Why is that? From what I see its simply the majority of people put gun ownership first over the life of others, which is the opposite of what happened in the UK. As for doing a news search, I did, and after a brief public outcry the NRA swoops in brandishing its "you have the right to own guns" line and it all goes quiet. Shooting to kill, shooting to stop? The end result is the same, someone dies. Now your getting into the chicken and the egg scenario, the bad guys have guns so we need guns argument, which of course can be reversed to the good guys have guns so the bad guys need guns to catch up. I can only talk from my own experience and knowledge. I see low gun ownership and low gun crime/deaths in the UK, I see large gun ownership and large gun crime/deaths in the US. From that I reason that living in a country with strong gun laws and relatively low gun ownership is far safer than living in a country where gun ownership is a legal right. There will probably always be gun crime, but when its as plain as the nose on my face that where there are fewer weapons there are lower deaths, which is the point at the end of the day, the ending of needless death.

Will never happen, the police don't want it and the public don't either.

Nope but I do have 35 years martial art training in armed and unarmed combat, fought full contact for much of that time too.

Hunting in the UK: https://www.gov.uk/hunting/overview

Nope, because I would disarm him and restrain him until the police arrive, and if in that disarm he became hurt from the beating he got or his arm broke when I disarmed him, this would be perfectly within my legal rights as I would be using reasonable force. However if I did have a shotgun it would be difficult for me to get to it if it was secured in the legally required gun cabinet in a secure room which is a requirement of owning said weapon in the UK.

Oh and I almost forgot, if you put on your application for a firearms certificate that you want to have a gun for self defence then you ain't got a cat in hells chance of getting the certificate. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/363016/Guidance_on_Firearms_Licensing_Law_v10_-_Oct_2014.pdf

Because that would be seen as using deadly force instead of reasonable force. The minute you introduce a weapon the stakes are upped. If for example you are attacked and picked up something lying around and defended yourself with it, then you could argue that it was reasonable because you hadn't intentionally placed said item there to use to defend yourself. If however you have a baseball bat at the side of your bed with the sole purpose of using it to whack someone then that would be viewed as unreasonable force as it was premeditated and you prepared in advance to use a weapon to cause harm. As for life imprisonment, it depends on the case and the crime, you could get a life sentence with a minimum term to be served, which could be mean you would die in prison if your older. Or you could be held at her Majesties pleasure, which for all intents and purposes means you'll never get out.

This outlines reasonable force in a self defence situation: http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/self_defence/

Actually that is not the case, you can defend yourself with reasonable force and that could mean the taking of life. But the onus is on you to prove that it was reasonable force you used. If you used deadly force it would be a straight murder conviction and life imprisonment.

And that is great to hear! I guess that is where the US and the UK are in legal terms so far apart. It would be illegal to use a gun in self defence in the UK, even legally owned ones. There have been several high profile cases where people have used guns in what they believe to be self defence and they have ended up in jail.

Not really, nothing changes the fact that guns were designed with one particular purpose and that is to kill. whether intended or not, the threat of death is always there.

I just cannot get enthusiastic about something that's sole purpose in life is to kill. Guns were designed for one purpose and that purpose is to take life. Swimming pools and cars can cause death but they are not designed as a gun is with the intended purpose of killing.

So going by your logic, nuclear weapons are great, lets give everyone the bomb! This however is not the case and we see that in all the effort the US uses to stop other nations from gaining nuclear weapons. And those people with the automatic weapons were not civilians, they would have been the SO19 which is the armed units of the police who are (along side certain military units) the only people legally allowed to have firearms in public in the UK.

Ephraims Rescue, just watching now, finding it to be a fantastic and spiritually uplifting movie. The guy playing Ephraim is just fantastic!

And you see more weapons in circulation as a good thing?

That is just label that is attached to any activity that results in the death of an animal in the UK, even fishing is classed as a blood sport in the UK.

Who's standards? The standards of the the individual of course.

Well in the UK the use of weapons for self defense is prohibited by law so no they wouldn't.