Why do Americans value the ability to own a gun so much?

Same place they would be if every law abiding citizen turned theirs in....still in criminals hands. Don'tcha think?

 

sort of like arguing that guns ought to be restricted for the 99% who own them responsibly because of the 1% who don't?

 

I'm guessing you're one of those that can't change a tire.

Unless a police officer happens to be standing there when it happens, they won't be there until it's over. You've never called the police have you? I'm not saying they're incompetent, they're just not able to magically appear.

You can ask any country in Africa or South America where the criminals got their guns. They didn't get them from civilians.

If guns were outlawed in the US, they'd flow over the borders just like drugs and illegal immigrants.

 

Yeah four good looking girls in a cab that know how to shoot ask you to pull over and change a tire for some crying limo driver. Yeah that sounds so very abhorrent and immoral.

The biggest problem she probably had with that story was that they were attractive.

 

Why should there be traffic laws? Environmental safety laws? Homicide?

After all why should the rest of us be restricted for the 1% LCDs

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IT was the demeaning of the person involved = for all they knew he was on his way to his children's funeral

What? You mean men can NEVER cry?

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No but in America the majority of guns ARE sourced from 'citizens'

 

Right. All he said was that he was visibly crying. What is demeaning about stating the facts? You did notice they pulled over to help. Read too much into it maybe?

Wrong.

Stolen guns account for only 10-15% of traced weapons.

Straw purchases and corrupt sellers are the primary means of gun acquisition.

 

A study was done awhile back asking those detained where they got their guns. This was before the NICS background check system was in place. Most were either stolen or from a relative. Very few were from straw purchase or corrupt sellers (unless you mean other criminals).

 

I don't have a reference handy but I've read in several places that straw purchases represent up to half of the illegal guns out there. Most of those purchasers were related, or friends, that themselves had misdemeanors (ones that didn't prevent a gun purchase). There was also a section that it's common to have guns reported as stolen that end up in the hands of relatives or friends. False reports? I dunno.

Also I don't put it past the government to be out there intentionally selling guns to criminals, I mean how many times have we caught the government doing illegal domestic and foreign weapon sales?

 

You wouldn't understand. It's an American thing.

 

For you, our German friend (I was born in Augsburg, BTW), another story of Americans who value the ability to own a gun.
I used to run with a guy who was a former U.S. Marine recon sniper. We were walking around in a gravel pit one fine day. He was carrying his favorite AR-15 carbine, and I had my stainless Ruger P-85. It was "normal" for us to go out 2 or more nights a week in the Utah desert with those same guns, killing rabbits, stray cats, or whatever caused the bushes to wiggle. It was "normal" for us to do the same thing here, in daylight.
Suddenly, bullets started striking all around us. We looked up in the direction of the fire, and saw several latino gang bangers, firing pistols at us. These are the bad guys, shooting at the Traditional American good guys.
My friend pretty much instinctively raised his carbine, and strafed a full magazine into the bank of the pit, just below the bad guys. I followed his example. They disappeared.
We walked up to where they had been. We remained quiet, looking at the upset gravel that indicated their hasty retreat. My friend busted out laughing, and pointing at the ground. Two of the "bad" guys had wet themselves.
So OK. Let these wannabe tough guys challenge us. We are far better trained, far better armed, and entirely more likely to have the last laugh.

 

do you know why its really stupid to use traffic laws as an analogy?

because those are USE laws and you want possession laws

I have a car that can go more than TWICE the legal speed limit of any jurisdiction in my state

Its illegal to DRIVE 160 MPH in Ohio on any public street. However its PERFECTLY LEGAL to own a Maserati that can go 170. Homicide is wrong period. Owning a gun is not-another stupid analogy.

 

So far so good ... That I (as Ex German Sniper) want to be armed in current situation of the US too is out of any question. But honestly ... why have these lationo gang boys guns? Where did they get from, when for sure not legal bought somewhere?
This is the core problem, because if nearly everyone is armed or is able to become armed and this including the criminal persons, then you have still Wild West ... and this is not a pleasing situation.
Look ... you and your mate were well armed at this situation. Next time these criminals have not only pistols, but AR-15, AK-47 or whatever too and then you are in trouble.

 

Possibly, but not probably. That's why I included the part about us going out at least twice a week at night to hunt, as well as our daytime treks. This amounts to superior training. My partner had already been a Marine recon sniper for 8 years in 'Nam. The hardest part for him was to keep from killing those funny guys.
As for 9mm auto pistol vs. AR...
I was messing with my varmint rifle one day at 100 yards in a semi-secluded place. I went down range to hang new targets. Right after I stopped walking, a bullet struck, just a few inches from me. Gawd, I hate that.
So I dropped down behind a bit of a berm. Some guy had backed his van up at the firing line, opened the rear doors, and just started shooting at me with his AR-15. He fired twice more. All I had with me was my regular old blue Ruger P-85, and 9 magazines of my good hand loads. There was a concrete shooting bench just behind his van, between us. I dumped an 18 round magazine into that bench, pretty fast. That convinced him. He did a lot of damage to his van, charging through the ruts and mud holes as he tried really hard to be somewhere else.
It's one thing to have a scary gun. It's quite another when someone shoots back with scary speed and accuracy.

 

My first gun was a Ruger P-85 Mk II in stainless. It shoots pretty good.

 

That was my pet pistol for a good while. Mine had larger Pachmayer grips, and a host of 18 round Ramline mags.
I ended up giving it to a nephew who had a job where he had to do a lot of driving over popular drug routes.
It was with that gun that I developed my first "major 9" hand loads, along with a few trials that may well have destroyed a lesser gun. I hope you still have that one.

 

I agree about the Ruger P series pistols. It made my list of used/no longer in manufacture pistols. A truly unappreciated weapon. I still have a P 95 series pistol.

 

I still have it. I put on a Hogue Handall grip.

 

That is one beautiful handgun. Clean and well built.

 

I still have a P-95 as well, but only because I haven't found anyone I hate enough to sell it to. This dirty rotten thing keeps making the extractor go soft, so it won't eject. I've replaced that thing 5 times, and if I leave it loaded,, the extractor soon loses temper, and quits working. It's absolutely aggravating! You're supposed to leave a round chambered in a decocker!

 

I have this gun. Never had a single issue with it.

 

Back then, it was Rugers' bid for the contract that was awarded to Beretta. I bought the blue steel model before this one came out. Guns and Ammo had done a torture test, where they cut away the portion of the slide below the ejection port, and then fired 20,000 rounds with no dimensional changes. I think they were $270 at the time.
The only thing I can thank the P-95 for is that it led me to Glock.

 

In an unscientific poll, gun range owners who rented pistols rated Sig and the P series Ruger's as the most durable.

 

actually, the all time durability champ is a gun whose company went belly up. STAR 30. STAR built a bunch of these modular all steel "wonder nines" about 30 or so years ago for a NATO contract that was cancelled. INTERTERMS (the former CIA front company) sold them on the US market for under 300-back when a Beretta was 350. They didn't sell all that well because people thought they were cheap. I had two I sold during the Clinton idiocy because I made lots of money on them. But a range in CT had put several hundred thousand rounds through one-replacing only the barrel since that range required FMJ (no lead) bullets only. The Israeli intelligence serve used that weapon since it was rather untraceable since Spain sold to anyone. It was too heavy for a carry gun for most people but it was super durable

 

You remind me of the little Star Firestar I had for only awhile, until it was stolen. It too was a bit heavy, or I might have been packing it. Times change, and now I've found another girl, in the G-26.