NationStates Jolt Archive


Should countries allow their citizens automatic weapons

06-01-2003, 03:57
I Ambassador His Excellency Billy Joe Bubba III ask this question of all of our esteemed world neighbors. Our citizens all possess any weapon that they can prove to handle and yet most countries fear their people to own even simple weapons. This leaves me confused. We feel that all world citizens should have the right to fill full of holes any yahoo who invades their home. Of course they should not allow such things at bars and highly emotional sports events but we are talking about home here. Just asking. Our folks can own anything they want as long as they have the training. Besides, all of our citizens are in the Militia and take their military weapons home with them.
06-01-2003, 04:21
Indeed they should. Then their depressed teenage son can pick up Daddy's automatic, take it into school and massacre the classmates who've made his life a misery.

It happened in the US. No gun ban was introduced.

A similar thing happened across the channel. A right royal nutter walked into a primary school with an automatic and murdered almost every child in the hall. That was in the UK, and there was an immediate and lasting ban on all handguns.

Since that time, the UK has had no school shootings. America has had 3.

Unless you particularly like teenage genocide, allowing civilians (militia or no) to possess automatic weapons is a poor idea.
06-01-2003, 07:59
Grated Cheese,

Sure you've got less shootings over there. You've also got a heck of alot more home invasions, where the victim is in the house at the time of the break-in. Almost unheard of here, where the potential perpetrator could expect to be ventilated upon entry into another mans' house.
06-01-2003, 23:05
You think?

I can't say I've ever heard of many, if any, times when the burglar has confronted someone in their own home, while they're there. By nature, people who go around breaking into other people's houses do so when they're 99% sure that no-one's in. Whether the homeowner is armed makes little difference when they're not around.

Which is why, one would assume, that burglars in the US do not simply turn up and expect to be shot. Perhaps the UK break-in rate is higher than the US (seems unlikely to me, though), but I'll be willing to be that the ratio of break-ins while people are in the house is exactly the same for both - ie, that it's coincidence and poor timing on behalf of the burglar.

Guns only make you *think* that you can defend your home better. They don't actually make your house any more secure at all...and I think the problems of mass gun ownership speak for themselves.
06-01-2003, 23:41
The Grand Poohbah of the Confederacy of Diddly Squat is in full aggreement with Ambassador His Excellency Billy Joe Bubba III. In the Confederacy of Diddly Squat the fiddle gummint grants generous tax rebates for owners of such weapons.Ownership of a weapon, any weapon, carries with it a very moral responsibility. The denizens of Diddly Squat understand this well.
07-01-2003, 00:07
Lord Mathias, President of Upper Semmlerova has put legislation (The Kingsbury Law) into effect that allows all persons over the age of 18, without a felony record, and completion of the Firearms Safety and Maintenance course (at grades 6-12) carry firearms. Violent crime has dropped 23% since this bill was signed into law. This attributed mainly to educating the populace to the proper use and consequences of firearm use.

As an additional bonus, the government of Upper Semmlerova has one of the most competent militia forces in the world.
07-01-2003, 04:01
Consider the following scenario: you have a gun in your house, a burglar comes in. The burglar finds the gun. The burglar takes the gun, then, when you get up to see what that noise was, the burglar shoots YOU. It happens, guys. Or how about this: you hear someone creeping around downstairs in the night, go and shoot them - oops! It was just your kid getting themselves a glass of water. Gun owners are twenty times as likely to shoot a member of their own family by mistake than to take out a bad guy.

Plus, who wants an armed populace, who can rise up and overthrow the Sultan? :twisted:
07-01-2003, 04:01
Consider the following scenario: you have a gun in your house, a burglar comes in. The burglar finds the gun. The burglar takes the gun, then, when you get up to see what that noise was, the burglar shoots YOU. It happens, guys. Or how about this: you hear someone creeping around downstairs in the night, go and shoot them - oops! It was just your kid getting themselves a glass of water. Gun owners are twenty times as likely to shoot a member of their own family by mistake than to take out a bad guy.

Plus, who wants an armed populace, who can rise up and overthrow the Sultan? :twisted: