Tuesday:

> Hold the person accountable for their actions, not the means they chose to utilize

Then why restrict any weapons at all? We hold the person accountable, but not the automatic assault rifle, or the company that makes a profit manufacturing it, or the retailer that makes a profit selling it.

By your logic, people should be free to buy fully automatic machine guns. A person should be able to buy an Uzi at Walmart, then it is OK, because it is not the gun the problem, but the killer behind the gun.

Not only that, but a person should be able to buy dynamite freely, because it is not dynamite the problem, but the insane idiot who buys it.

If that is the case, a person should be able to buy a nuclear bomb. If a person blows up a city, it is not nuclear weapons the problem, but the insane idiots who use them.

So a person should be free to open a business and sell machine guns, explosives and even WMDs. The logic is that the problem is not the availability of weapons, but the people who use them.

Tuesday:

> That's extreme.

That is my point. It is extreme to believe that somehow people have the right to own a weapon that could kill somebody. But then, a handgun is acceptable, but not an automatic assault rifle. I suppose killing 1 person with a handgun is an acceptable risk, but killing 100 with a machine gun is not.

In the World there are more guns than people. I think that is extreme too. Nobody wants to accept the truth. People kill people, and guns just make it easier to do so.

"In sharp contrast to most other developed nations, firearms laws in the United States are permissive and private gun ownership is common, with about 40% of households containing at least one firearm. In fact, there are more privately owned firearms in the United States than in any other nation, both per capita and in total."

Now, just based on pure statistics, if you live in the USA, 4 out of every 10 houses in your neighborhood probably has a firearm. 40% is a big number. If 0.01 % of the population has some mental defect, there are enough firearms to make sure that a lot of people will get killed.

Then we look at the problems of Mexico and Central America with gun running, drug traficking and organized crime. Violence is being fuelled by easy availability.

If manufacturing and selling guns were illegal, who would make the guns? Criminals would have to resort to the old cloak and dagger. It is a lot harder to kill 10 people with a knife. But then, guns are OK.

Übergeek 바둑이: some people can't/won't see common sense.

Übergeek 바둑이:I come from a family of hunters.I was taught responsibility. There are some major nut jobs out there. what you suggest is to disarm the people, so only the nutjobs will have weapons,because where theres a will...theres a way!
last year a teenager accidentally shot another teenager. We also lost 6 more in motor vehicle accidents.
it happens.we still drive.

Bwild: No need to disarm, just the need to weed out nut jobs. In the UK it was a case of a showing you can keep the guns responsibly to the police, and a interview to make sure you are not a psycho.