Reply #111: One at a time.

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1) A gun that doesn't fire properly is more dangerous to THE SHOOTER, but infinitely less dangerous to society at large. A gun that rapidly fires high-powered ammo is the most dangerous to society at large.

2) Governments of other countries successfully control guns. Not 100% perhaps, but a big improvement on the situation in the U.S.

3) The Consitutional right refers to state and local militias. We don't have those any more - we have a professional military. And in the 1780s, they were talking about muzzle-loading muskets, not the modern death-machines.

4) Think about the military resources available to the government and what your entire collection of personal firearms would do pitted against them. Then remember Jim Crow, McCarthyism, the Great Depression, slavery, the Mexican War, the holocaust against Native Americans, and other horrors from American history, and ask yourself if we are REALLY getting close to the point when an uprising of armed citizens is called for. Also remember that the most effective protests have always been peaceful ones, e.g. King's march on Washington.

5) Whole classes of killings depend on guns and would not be possible otherwise. For three obvious ones, consider drive-by shootings, long-distance sniping, and shooting up a Luby's or a post office. And knives, unlike guns, have other important uses (shooting paper targets is NOT an important use).

6) You're probably right about the politics of it, but that doesn't make the NRA right or gun control wrong.