Reply #34: In what way have you answered my question?

[Pert_UK]

I'm not denying that there are "rights", I'm just saying that nobody has shown me that owning a gun is one.

I'm just not prepared to take the (arguably misinterpreted) words of some men who lived years ago as an infallible indication of what are and are not rights. Explain to me why I should?

If owning a gun was a "right" then it ought to be eternal and good in all possible worlds (in the same was as "freedom of speech" is good in itself at all times and in all places). Whilst self-defense might be considered by some a "right", I would claim that it is in fact a means to an end, namely the means to preserving your right to life.

Even if I accept that self-defense is a right, owning a gun is just one means to fulfill that end, and cannot be a true "right" in itself.