Poll trend on Handgun possession

[Bono]

It seems that the people who are paranoid about people owning guns (and these are the same people who call those that want to keep guns paranoid about them) are scared of them because they don't own them and others do.

The UK banned handguns, so now most crimes are likely to be committed with knives, doesn't change a thing.

Hey, you're free to think what you want, but the United States still has by far the highest murder rate per capita in the entire Western world.  Something's obviously wrong there.

The murder rate with a firearm per capita in the United States is 28 times what it is in the United Kingdom.  For all the talk I hear of "banning firearms means that only criminals will have them", I sure don't see evidence of that.

The claim is that having an armed society decreases crime in general, not just muders with firearms. Besdies, most of those crimes happen in inner cities, where gun laws are in general stricter.

[Bono]

All I said, all I've argued against (in this thread), is the idea that a gun is of any practicable use against a tyrannical government. Such an idea is tragically misguided and remarkably paranoid.

I think Iraq and Somalia prove you wrong.

[Bono]

All I said, all I've argued against (in this thread), is the idea that a gun is of any practicable use against a tyrannical government. Such an idea is tragically misguided and remarkably paranoid.

I think Iraq and Somalia prove you wrong.

How so?

Well in Iraq insurgents with Ak-47s, RPGs and handmade explosives are proving to be pretty daunting. In Somalia, they were able to drive out toe US Army.

[Bono]

All I said, all I've argued against (in this thread), is the idea that a gun is of any practicable use against a tyrannical government. Such an idea is tragically misguided and remarkably paranoid.

I think Iraq and Somalia prove you wrong.

How so?

Well in Iraq insurgents with Ak-47s, RPGs and handmade explosives are proving to be pretty daunting. In Somalia, they were able to drive out toe US Army.

You're comparing mass organised armed uprisings with significant support in the indiginous community against a foreign occupying power to the case of an individual American with a gun who holds it in the belief he'll need it to protect himself against a hypothetical tyrannical government comes after him?

No, I'm comparing mass organised armed uprisings with significant support in the indiginous community against a foreign occupying power to the hypothetical case of a mass organized armed uprising with significant popular support against a hypothetical domestic tyrannical government.