*rises from chair*

*applauds*

Jaded cynics like to have fun, too. In fact, I think we sometimes have more fun.

Living in the UK, I have wondered if I might own a gun or 2 if I lived in the US. Here, i have no right to do so. There, I would. Here, I feel no need (but have still used them, out hunting with shotguns, or playing with powerful air rifles when growing up (i was a kid. felt powerful to me, and i respected them), or on a shooting range). I possibly would.

Which is all an aside to saying I concur with the above.

Life is about context. peoples contexts are different. The context of death is for respect.

You have the biggest shotgun in the world? Wow. I'm impressed.

Yes, it takes up quite a bit of closet space

Isn't it the basset hound behind the gun instead of the size of the gun?!?!?

I have the biggest damn vacuum cleaner in my friggin apartment in my closet damnit!!!!

Jeebus! That's a freaking cannon.

>> ^blankfist:
You have the biggest shotgun in the world? Wow. I'm impressed.

don't sweat it, swampgirl-The generation after X, and this next (Eris save us), tend to be fueled by the cynicism created from having grown up in a time when the world is transitioning from creativity and burgeoning self-awareness, to a form of regurgitated pseudo-entertainment and unconscious, ineffectual de-evolution...

America will soon become dick-less and powerless like Great Britain, and her culture consumed by flavor-of-the-week ideals, and abandonment of her language and culture as well.....people in so-called first-world countries, who regard guns as something unnecessary in a paradigm which is still ruled and shaped by them, have self-preservation issues, and would justify a world of total control, as being ..."necessary"-

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I fall on the gun control side- but man I do like me some Soylent Green. Such a prescient movie- I forgive his NRA stuff for that picture alone.

yeah but folks, dag falls on the gun control side, because he's like the creature I described in the last sentence above....and with all the media available consumed tells him, "It's time to drop your guns off at collection centers"....he'll follow the herd.
The same person who feeeeeels, Obama would make a great president(for a country he doesn't even fucking live in)-looking only at the surface of the package, and the instructions on the box, is enough for some with such foundation-free sensibilities, to make an "informed" and "intelligent" decision.....HORSESHIT!!!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

My gun control feelings come more from my unfortunate negative views about humanity

This is really harsh- but I feel that a large percentage of any human population is either batshit insane and/or borderline retarded- I don't want this segment pointing guns at me or my family.

>> ^dag:
I feel that a large percentage of any human population is either batshit insane and/or borderline retarded

It's like Kesey said, "In any given situation, there's likely to be more dumb people than smart people." And yet you feel it appropriate to allow this community to self regulate? What part of authoritarianism are you not comfortable with?

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

This community is an exception- the members and culture of this place make it unappealing to the YouTube set.

I hope that doesn't sound too elitist, but if anyone's spent much time in YouTube comment threads - you know what I mean.

I was just teasing. It is elitist, but also correct. Having spent more time in the old usenet groups than youtube, I can definitely say this community is more "enlightened". But we're still very human, and I think we fire our weapons without thinking too often.

Freedom and equality are sworn enemies, as are liberty and safety. If people want to be completely safe, they can live in a totalitarian police state and toe the party line. It provides security in its context, but we all know it sucks. For instance, if people want the liberty of never having to pass through security checks, they do so at increased risk to themselves.

I have nothing against owning guns. I'd probably own one and hunt with it if I could just figure out a way to practice "catch and release." However, the liberty to possess guns lessens citizen's security rather than enhancing it, unless you happen to be spending most of your time in Grizzly country where the bears aren't packin'. It's always a trade-off, safety/liberty.

The one absolute caveat, DO NOT LET THE CITIZENS WITH ALL THE MONEY BE THE SAME ONES THAT OWN ALL THE GUNS, unless you want to live in that totalitarian police state I mentioned above.

i like guns. but as we can see from the example of america, they do not protect you from a bad government. the "citizens" are more likely to fight for the propagandameisters in the whitehouse than for their own freedom. and if you kill someone for freedom, you've kinda lost the argument. and the freedom.

unarmed mass protest is more powerful than seven rival "militias" fighting for control of the freedom. do the gun owning iraqis all form a polite society and restrict their oppresive government in a selfless act of citizenry? No.

if more americans could spend a while walking around a city where only the police and the criminals have guns, they might see the benefits of restricting gun ownership to those two groups.

To quote a famous song from a gun culture: "Every day when we get up hear a gunshot, that's the sound of an armed citizenry protecting us from an oppresive government"... err... no wait, i misquoted that somehow...

No, I wouldn't consider myself part of "gun culture"... I do believe I have the right to defend my family in my own home. My rant here was from a day of reading nasty comments towards Heston during a tribute for him I was attempting.

My shotgun? It actually belonged to my Dad. Growing up in a rural southern area (SC USA), it was always loaded with buckshot to take out rattlesnakes around the yard.

My dad gave most of his guns to my brothers when he was sick, but still held onto the shotgun.

On his deathbed a week before he passed, he gave the shotgun to my husband. It meant a lot to him... to both of us.

It it always unloaded, with no shells near by for curious ones to find

defending your family is a different thing, and i am not questioning the desire to do that, or the concept of inheriting gifts, that's a nice story.

but nobody uses guns to overthrow the government, even if they steal your money in front of you, kill babies, and laugh about it. Well, evil people use guns to overthrow the government, but that's bad, right?
And plenty of people are in perpetual misery because of guns. And I don't need a gun to defend my family, I live in a safe town and I have a very solid door. Anyway at some point I have to leave the flat, and I am not gonna carry a gun around everywhere because the chances of tragic accident are higher than the chances of actually needing the gun and using it successfully.

And I don't need a gun to overthrow the government, I live in a country that rejected the Soviet Union with mass unarmed protest. Sadly, people died, but compared to the number of people that would have died in an "armed citizenry vs drunk russian tank formation" battle...

Just sayin.