Gun Control Question

[seldear]

As I understand it, Australia has relatively strict gun control laws. I'm not sure exactly what those laws are, never having required the use of a firearm. (Any of the Aussies know?)

US Constitution's Second Amendment? Gun registration?

And where do you stand on the matter of "the right to bear arms" and why? Would love to hear from all sides of the fence and the pond.

Comments

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

I guess the argument for 'guns out of the hands of the general public' is that the killer at VT might have killed himself without the access to guns, but wouldn't have caused a carnage in the process.

Remind me of the first five Amendments to the Constitution?

1. free speech, 2. arms, 3. ???, 4. ???, 5. silence in the face of incrimination?

So the 2nd Amendment was put in place so that an overbearing government could be removed if it failed to serve the needs of the people? And has turned more into an 'inalienable right'?

I'm a little curious about another thing too: do Americans see the possible removal of the 2nd Amendment as perilous to the other Amendments? The idea being that once they remove the right to a weapon (perceived self-defence) then they can remove free speech and so on?

[skydiver119.livejournal.com]

So the 2nd Amendment was put in place so that an overbearing government could be removed if it failed to serve the needs of the people? And has turned more into an 'inalienable right'?

in some ways, i think it's less the issue of taking away guns than it is starting down that slippery slope of control.

ok, so guns are bad, no one is allowd to have guns. so...it would be enforcing the constitution to allow the police to search your home whenever they want to make sure you don't have any guns. and to search your car and to surveil you to make sure that you're not trying to get guns and...what next?

guns are bad. so are knives. so maybe knives shoudl be registered. you can kill people with crowbars and baseball bats too. and poisons, so chemicals need to be controlled. and drugs, so better be able to justify how many aspirin you need cause you can hurt yourself with them. and pipes, cause you can use those to make pipe bombs.

and thus could beging hte avalanche of us being 'protected' into imprisonment.

extreme i know. But i think the issue with gun control is less about the guns itself but what repealing one of those amendments could mean in the long run.

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

and thus could beging hte avalanche of us being 'protected' into imprisonment.

True. But most of the methods you've referenced here require up-close-and-personal killing - blood on the hands, spattering on the clothes, one person at a time, not a dozen in a few seconds.

i think the issue with gun control is less about the guns itself but what repealing one of those amendments could mean in the long run.

Yeah, that was what I was asking and wondering about a bit.