Gun control is what the lawful owners of guns are made to abide by.

Gun control has no definition to folks who purchase a gun out of a car trunk.

Gun control disarms legal owners not illegal owners.

Institute stricter penalties for crimes committed with a gun. Not the lawful ownership of a gun for protection/hunting etc.

Correct.

In Canada we have had hand-gun control for as far back as I can remember... at least 60 years, and yet there are more hand-gun shootings today then back when everyone carried a gun in their pocket. The criminals already have the guns and know how to get more. Law abiding citizens don't need the guns.

Trying to ban hand-guns in the USA today is like trying to put milk back in a bottle after you've dropped it on the floor. All the bad guys already have the guns and they aren't giving them up.

The reason why there are few shootings in Hong Kong is they hang you for a first offence if you carry one. It's the same with Singapore. You don't get a fair trial with a fancy lawyer. Commit a crime and the punishment is so severe that there is no thought of doing it again.

Because they don't have public executions in the USA for minor offences there is very little deterent to commiting a crime.

Sorry mate, They do not hang people in Hong Kong.

Handgun offences certainly draw a long sentence, there lies the deterrent. ( and everybody gets a fancy lawyer ....................sadly)

Gun control isn't about guns, it's about control.

...and a quote from a very famous adversary of the US:

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."

- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

(Japanese Navy)

You can also say:

Gun control isn't about guns, it's about crime.

...and a quote from many a regular American citizen:

"You cannot go to the 7-11 after dark in this neighborhood. There's a pistol beneath every gang member's shirt

- Joe Schmoe

(average citizen)

That is exactly why Joe Schmoe needs a gun - to defend himself.

I used to carry a gun in Vietnam. I used to run a bar in Vietnam. I ran a big bar. Everyone in the bar carried an automatic weapon. Some two or three and the special forces guys lord knows how many they had tucked away. The Aussies that came in my bar also carried guns. The Koreans that came in my bar carried guns too, not that they needed them.

Never had many shooting problems. In two years only one guy got killed and that was during a poker game with a revolver. It was an accident.

Doesn’t everyone in Switzerland have an automatic weapon in their house? Army reserve or something like that. Do the Swiss have many gun crime problems?

It is illegal for me to have a gun in Thailand but really guys how tough is it to get a gun here?

The problem is crime. How much crime was there as a percent of the population 100 years ago in America and the UK? Ask yourself what has changed. The biggest change I can think of was suffrage. We all got the results of what our ancestors thought was a good idea.

Over population is the major problem.

The Swiss can have ten guns each and while the majority of them can get a wage to keep up with their youthful expectations they will not have the same problems as inner city LA, Detroit, Manchester etc. ( but it's coming even to them )

The simple fact is uneducated, inner city youth, have no prospects, no hope. Take the guns off them and they'd fight with their teeth to be kings of whatever dung pile they live in. Guns are status symbols and guns give them the feeling of power they crave over people who work to own things they want to take by force as they have no other way of aquisition.

Take the guns off them and have a police force armed with them to provide a buffer, keeping them away from the rest of the populace at night and you have one unequal society, but at least one where mom and pop may feel a little safer.

Give them their " God given right to bear arms " and they will come and get you. Thus you have to arm yourself and if one of you ( normal working folk ) has an odd turn, he has his good old gun to take to work and massacre his/her co-workers. Nasty vicious circle, which as people seem blind to it, they deserve it.

Edited to add I've carried a gun at work for thirty one years and I wish I didn't have to.

After a weekend which saw 29 people shot in Chicago ( 54 the previous weekend, 10 dead ) The Supreme Court votes to limit the controls on gun ownership across the States ( case brought in part by a Chicago suburb ).

Now being a Brit, can someone explain the logic of this ?

Gun ownership in Chicago is restricted to criminals as the workaday citizen aren't allowed to have weapons to protect themselves.

States that have new laws to carry concealed weapons permits, have seen a drop in violent gun crime. The criminals do know that if their intended victim could shoot back it might be hazardous to their own health.

When I lived in Chicago the cops and fire department were afraid to go into Cabrini Green (large housing development). They let the buildings burn.

I agree it is the inner city youth with no job prospects and no education.

They got there during WW II from the rural south in the US to work in the factories.

20 years after the war welfare displaced the fathers from the families and the kids were raised by mothers who got paid more money the more kids they had as long as a father was not in the home.

This led to a generation of messed up boys who had no male role model or male discipline figure in the home. They turned to gangs to replace the home life.

The only answer is to educate the kids and provide employment not welfare. But that’s not going to happen because it is not politically correct to identify the problem.

On the other side of the coin I used to live in the mountains of Arkansas. I taught at an all black college in Little Rock. One weekend a group of my students came to see me at my farm. Stopping for lunch before they got to my place they asked at a gas station where the black folks hung out around there. The gas station attendant pointed to a tree. The kids got scared and went back to Little Rock never getting to my place.

That’s not the answer either. I don’t know what the answer is. But guns in the hands of law abiding citizens is not part of the problem.

That is exactly why Joe Schmoe needs a gun - to defend himself.

My post was in response to chuckd's where he quoted Admiral Yamamoto from 70 years ago. What I was getting at was that Yamamoto was speaking about common citizens using hunting rifles to protect their country from foreign invaders. What we have now is Americans needing guns to protect ourselves from our fellow citizens who would kill us as we simply walk to the corner market to get a loaf of bread and a 6 pack of beer. A sad commentary on the decline of our society. I do not support making handguns illegal just sad that in some places we have to have them in order to feel safe.

Agreed, but, as you know, the criminals are already well armed. 

Agreed, but, as you know, the criminals are already well armed. 

Uhhh yeah, that's what I just said. If the criminals were not well armed and only responsible law abiding citizens owned guns then there wouldn't be any issue about guns or any kind of gun control would there.

'REMEMBER SOME PEOPLE ARE ALIVE SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS ILLEGAL TO SHOOT THEM'

Whilst many more are dead despite it being illegal.