[TheVillageChicken]

There are far too many keyboards.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by TheVillageChicken

There are far too many keyboards.

THis is the most profound statement I have heard since my mother told me not to trust some boys.

[PennBF]

I totally agree with the right to carry arms. Our founders knew the risk of disarming everyone. They were right !! One town passed a law that every citizen had to have a firearm and crime took a big dip. I have a right to protect my home and family and discount the "do gooders" as ones who have not been robbed or threatend or naive and want to be politically correct.

[Golfingnut]

Originally Posted by PennBF

I totally agree with the right to carry arms. Our founders knew the risk of disarming everyone. They were right !! One town passed a law that every citizen had to have a firearm and crime took a big dip. I have a right to protect my home and family and discount the "do gooders" as ones who have not been robbed or threatend or naive and want to be politically correct.

So do I and I do. We do however have a problem with how easy it is for convicted felons to buy guns and ammo. I know we will never stop it, but there must be ways to slow it down.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Every year in the U.S., an average of more than 100,000 people are shot

That, by the way, is .000303% of the population. And I would venture to say that the majority of those shot are shot with illegal guns.

The fact is, that laws don't prevent crimes, they only define crimes. If someone gets caught shooting someone with an illegal gun, they are going to be in big trouble for carrying an illegal gun.

I agree. We should make it more difficult or impossible for some people, ie; mentally ill, convicted felons, etc., to obtain a firearm legally. But, we should not do anything to make it difficult for law abiding citizens to exercise their God given rights.

Now, unfortunately, these two objectives are in conflict with one another. In order to prevent the wrong people from getting guns, we need to check to make sure that someone buying a gun doesn't fall into one of those categories. But we really should do what we can to minimize the difficulty for law abiding citizens to get a firearm. I think that Florida does that pretty well. Massachusetts, where I come from originally,takes away people's rights for no good reason.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

A couple of things about some comments that have been posted here. The OP said that the handgun that he found was an automatic. That is simply not true. automatic weapons are illegal and I don't believe that there are any automatic handguns. It was simply a semi automatic 9mm.

Secondly, people like to talk about how easy it is to get firearms today. In fact quite the opposite is true. It was much easier to get guns fifty years ago than it is today. You could order semi automatic guns from the Sear Roebuck catalog in the 1950s. It has never been more difficult to legally get a gun in the history of this country. There have never been more gun laws than there are today. Yet, we are seeing more gun violence than ever before. What we are doing is not working. The answer, obviously, is not to make more gun laws. We have been doing that and the problem is getting worse. More gun laws have not helped.

[Golfingnut]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

A couple of things about some comments that have been posted here. The OP said that the handgun that he found was an automatic. That is simply not true. automatic weapons are illegal and I don't believe that there are any automatic handguns. It was simply a semi automatic 9mm.

Secondly, people like to talk about how easy it is to get firearms today. In fact quite the opposite is true. It was much easier to get guns fifty years ago than it is today. You could order semi automatic guns from the Sear Roebuck catalog in the 1950s. It has never been more difficult to legally get a gun in the history of this country. There have never been more gun laws than there are today. Yet, we are seeing more gun violence than ever before. What we are doing is not working. The answer, obviously, is not to make more gun laws. We have been doing that and the problem is getting worse. More gun laws have not helped.

Good points.

[DDoug]

If you try to remove guns that would be a waist of time , illegal drugs people still get them prohibition people still their booze. People want something bad enough they will get it.Especially the bad guy and then the good guys are left defenseless. No keep the guns for sale because the good guy will go through the process to get them.

[Golfingnut]

LOL. Also good point.

[Steve9930]

Originally Posted by RayinPenn

Finally good weather up north...after dinner took fido and the wife out for a walk...about a block away from the house and I see a gun about a foot off the curb. I think to myself a toy? I pick it up and the weight says otherwise. I recognize it as an automatic and note the hole on the business end is big. Did I say big! This isn't any BB gun ! It says 9MM on it. My sons friends family is 2 doors down i ask her to call the police.. her husband comes home (he knows more then i do) pops the clip out and i see bullets and he says there was one in the chamber.... there was talk of a young fellow dressed in cammo searching the grass...the police take the gun away...

if you say there are not too many guns .. well you are just plain wrong.

I don't believe it has anything to do with the amount of guns. It has a lot to do with people that own guns that are negligent in their ownership. You cannot legislate common sense.

[Steve9930]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

A couple of things about some comments that have been posted here. The OP said that the handgun that he found was an automatic. That is simply not true. automatic weapons are illegal and I don't believe that there are any automatic handguns. It was simply a semi automatic 9mm.

Secondly, people like to talk about how easy it is to get firearms today. In fact quite the opposite is true. It was much easier to get guns fifty years ago than it is today. You could order semi automatic guns from the Sear Roebuck catalog in the 1950s. It has never been more difficult to legally get a gun in the history of this country. There have never been more gun laws than there are today. Yet, we are seeing more gun violence than ever before. What we are doing is not working. The answer, obviously, is not to make more gun laws. We have been doing that and the problem is getting worse. More gun laws have not helped.

Just need to enforce the ones on the books.

[Steve9930]

Originally Posted by RayinPenn

Why there are too many guns...
I work in the what was just rated the most violent small city. I see, read about and have experienced what guns can do every day. I road that LIRR train that Collin Ferguson shot and killed all those people almost every night home. That night I missed it, caught the train behind it but Myself and 2 other commuters jumped off our stalled train and walked to the Merillon Ave. station. I saw the senseless bloody carnage in all 20 something shot 6 killed. Months later I saw the wounded try to resume a normal life.. Walking with limps and struggling to carry on.

Every year in the U.S., an average of more than 100,000 people are shot
Every day in the U.S., an average of 289 people are shot. Eighty-six of them die: 30 are murdered, 53 kill themselves, two die accidentally, and one is shot in a police intervention, the Brady Campaign reports.
Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 335,609 people died from guns -- more than the population of St. Louis, Mo. (318,069), Pittsburgh (307,484), Cincinnati, Ohio (296,223), Newark, N.J. (277,540), and Orlando, Fla. (243,195) (sources: CDF, U.S. Census; CDC)
One person is killed by a firearm every 17 minutes, 87 people are killed during an average day, and 609 are killed every week. (source: CDC)

Too many guns in too many irresponsible and unbalanced hands. As scary a place as Israel can be they have gun control laws that are stricter and more intelligent then here in the states ..ours clearly are not working...

"One mishandled firearm that you have stumbled across in your entire lifetime is statistically irrelevant."
If a child picked it up and killed himself or another child would it be statistically irrelevant? You sound like Scrooge- would be ok because it would lessen the excess population?

If we banded guns today it would not make a difference. What you describe has nothing to do with guns. It has to do with attitude. This is why banning anything never works. People get what they want and do what they have set out to do regardless of the law.

[Steve9930]

I don't believe I would have picked up the weapon as it could have been used in a crime. Also the best thing to do was report it to the police which was done. My advice when you find something like this is, keep people clear, try to get someone to call the police if you do not have cell phone. Only move the item if it has become a danger to others, if you do not know how it works then you could accidently discharge the weapon. Some of these semi-automatics will go off if they are dropped. If it is a toy then no harm done. No one will fault you for doing the correct thing.

As for the debate on to have or not to have there is not enough storage on the website's computer for the debate. AS for my personal opinion, I'll debate controls on hand guns but don't you dare touch my long gun.

[Golfingnut]

Originally Posted by Steve9930

I don't believe I would have picked up the weapon as it could have been used in a crime. Also the best thing to do was report it to the police which was done. My advice when you find something like this is, keep people clear, try to get someone to call the police if you do not have cell phone. Only move the item if it has become a danger to others, if you do not know how it works then you could accidently discharge the weapon. Some of these semi-automatics will go off if they are dropped. If it is a toy then no harm done. No one will fault you for doing the correct thing.

As for the debate on to have or not to have there is not enough storage on the website's computer for the debate. AS for my personal opinion, I'll debate controls on hand guns but don't you dare touch my long gun.

I say don't you dare touch my long or short guns. I was handed my 22 single shot rife at 11 and my 410 break down single shot shotgun at 13. Guns have been a significant part of my life I would be lost without them.

However, I hope everyday someone can put a dent in the criminals acquiring any gun. I admit, I do not hav the solution.

[Steve9930]

Originally Posted by Golfingnut

I say don't you dare touch my long or short guns. I was handed my 22 single shot rife at 11 and my 410 break down single shot shotgun at 13. Guns have been a significant part of my life I would be lost without them.

However, I hope everyday someone can put a dent in the criminals acquiring any gun. I admit, I do not hav the solution.

I've owned guns all my life also. I personally would entertain an argument to make pistols more difficult to obtain but never banned from the average citizen to own. However when it comes to the long gun I draw the line. When the second amendment to the constitution was written it was the long gun that kept the respect of Government versus the people. You would never support a rebellion with a 9 mm pistol. Those that argue that the average citizen should be disarmed should only look at history to see how well that works out. If you think evil men do not plot any more just watch the evening news.