Reply #36: My wife and I, and 80 million others, strongly disagree with you...

[benEzra]

The fact stands that the 2nd amendment doesn't state where we are allowed to keep them and everyone should agree that firearms would be better if they were regulated and stored at an armory.

Define "everyone."

There are 80 million of us who CHOOSE to own firearms and store them at home, constituting approximately 40% of U.S. households. There are many more who don't personally own guns but support the right of others to choose to do so.

The percentage of the population that supports gun prohibition as you describe is around 20%, the same percentage that supports bringing back the 18th Amendment, the Volstead Act, and Prohibition. Neither is going to happen.

It isn't 1776 anymore. If the time comes that the guard needs to be armed they can hop in their cars and go get their issued weapon. Nobody needs a gun in their own home, while risking the life of their children, for some excuse that is not feasible.

"Risking the life of their children." No, we're not. Our guns are stored in a safe, thanks. If you're not a criminal or substance abuser (who can't legally own a gun anyway) and store your guns as we do, the risk is negligible at worst. We take safety seriously.

BTW, on a per-owning-household basis, swimming pool accidents kill 10 to 100 times more children than gun accidents, which are EXTREMELY rare. Would you support a blanket ban on swimming pools?

National Safety Council gun accidents page. Note also that the gun accident rate has fallen another 40% since that article was written, even as the number of lawfully owned guns (particularly handguns and nonhunting style rifles and shotguns) increased substantially.

I am sorry but that's the way it is. Just wait a few years and as more restrictive gun control takes hold we will be safer if we can get all the Republicans out of office and some more sensible Democrats in office.

No, that's NOT the way it is. And some people's obsession with taking guns away from their law-abiding, responsible owners is why there's NOT a Dem in the White House right now. Gore lost his own home state of Tennessee, as well as West Virginia, largely on the gun issue; had he won those two states, he'd have carried the election even without Florida (and don't think the gun issue wasn't a major factor in Florida as well). Kerry and Edwards' misinformed support for S.1431 (2004 session) hurt the 2004 ticket badly in states with high rates of gun ownership.

At LEAST 1 in 4 registered Democrats nationwide own guns. Around a third of independents own guns. Promising to take some or all of their guns away is going to cost you a lot of those votes.

Alienated Rural Democrat

Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What?