iv been waiting for a 2nd civil war since obama arrived

An armed society is a polite society as people have said.

Now tell me this... how many times have there been violence at a gun show (except the occasional misfire from weapons that have seen existence since the 1800's and the owner can't take care of them), none because everyone is armed and if you try anything then you'll become a bullet sponge.

Your less likely to get mugged if you have a shotgun at the ready or an assault rifle and as such the would-be criminal will be less inclined to try something since his target is not helpless or weak and unarmed.

My immediate area is a good example of such since nearly everyone here is armed and alert for crime.

God this thread is like an NRA meeting, "More guns". I seriously do not understand how you can have events like the recent school massacre in the US and still think that having such lax gun laws is fine, the most effective way to stop something like that from happening is to make sure that the criminals and the crazies don't get they're hands on the weapons. The fact is the US constitution was created in a time of civil war and revolution, where carrying a weapon was a way of physically and symbolically opposing British rule, there is no need for such a widespread array of weapons in a modern democracy. Here's a couple of Interesting links a quick google search turned up

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_the_United_Kingdom
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_the_United_States
http://m.politics.co.uk/reference/gun-crime

From a British citizen who is a firm believer in gun regulation.

I hear it's already working pretty well. Bystanders don't normally get hit by stray fire when two gangsters have a knife fight (unlike what happens in the US when a bunch of idiots pull G18s on each other in a mall).

I understand your point Aztec, it makes sense and it's fair enough that you would want something to protect yourself in an area like that. And you're right, if someone was determined enough they could still get access to a weapon if they wanted to, the point of gun control is not to stop the use of gun's entirely, that'd be difficult even here in the UK, it's to make sure that it's hard for the criminals and the crazies to get their hands on them. Will it stop all of them? No it won't, even countries like the UK and Switzerland which are tight on gun control still have incidents and a couple of spree killings over the decades. But all the law has to accomplish is to make sure that every crazy person who wants to kill themselves and others can't get their hands on the weapons to do it.

And I would point out that weapons used to abound in Europe too, he'll English common law used to allow people to bear arms just like in the states, but the better part of a century of gun laws has reduced that to current day levels. At the very least assault weapons should be banned again, keeping a handgun for self defenses is something that makes sense but there's no need to allow that level of firepower into civilian hands.

aztec brings many valid points. if i may add, first off, if a person was truly determined to get a gun and light up an area filled with people, gun laws wouldn't stop him/her. there are crimelords and smugglers that get millions dealing stolen military tech. second, before anyone starts going on about the boston bombing and the school shootings, keep in mind, like aztec said, we're bigger than the UK, thus a larger population, which means our psychos are harder to spot and stop in time. The UK is smaller in size, and population, making it far easier for you guys to spot the crazies and get them locked up. Third, the gun control law fails to take into account the people who don't own them for self defense, or shooting, but just for collecting. Like it or not, guns played a vital in history, much like the invention of the katana in the muromachi period, it was used in creating history, not a pretty history, mind you, but still history, and they want to preserve it. I'd like to go ahead and close this by saying whoever made the comment about the kitchen knives, i knew what you were referring to, and I think maybe that was bit out of line.