Thanks for the info on the constitution, DogDoc. I understand it now.
Feel free to give me a lesson on the British constitution any time.
I still think my point about the word 'arms' is valid. A handgun is a handgun, a grenade is a grenade - they are both 'arms'. One kills one person at a time, the other a few. Why trust people with one and not the other?
The right to bear arms is not all-encompassing. If it were, there'd be NO gun control laws at all on the books (and despite what you may hear, there are plenty of gun laws here in the U.S.- the problem is that they're not enforced). As it is, there are laws that limit ownership of arms - the limitations are constitutional and do not infringe on the Bill of Rights.
I pay a huge chunk of taxes towards the defence of my country.
By the way, what *is* the top tax rate over there?
I do not want it entrusted to a group of gun nuts.
Heh! I just got a mental image of American rednecks with their shotguns and rifles piling into the back of a pickup with an ice chest of beer and heading down to the beach to meet foreign invaders.
Presumably when the UK is attacked again
it will be an army;
Don't be too sure. The Islamoterrorists are rewriting the book on warfare. The Brits and the Americans know this all too well firsthand.
Bottom line - Guns kill thousands of people every year in the US and to me that seems terribly wrong; and not every gun owner is a responsible adult.
And each year thousands of people die in auto wrecks and not every automobile owner is a responsible adult. So maybe we shouldn't allow people to own automobiles?
But I can appreciate that this issue is enshrined in yoru constitution and therefore is embedded in the national psyche in a way I will never really fathom.
It's not just this issue (right to bear arms). It's about ALL of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. If any of these rights are restricted, then precedent will have been set to begin to restrict other freedoms (freedom of the press, due process, etc.). And it might surprise you to know that I, personally, do not own a firearm. Yet I oppose ANY effort to outlaw them for the reasons above.
