[quote name='Koggit']There's absolutely no reason for handguns to be legal. Rifles or whatever, fine, but not handguns. If handguns were illegal it's possible this guy would've been carrying brass knuckes or a knife or something, but at least then the other innocent folks in the theatre would've been safe when he lost his temper.
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Handguns exist for personal protection where a long rifle or shotgun would be impractical. They can also be used for nefarious reasons, like murder. Guess what...my car is a transportation device, and it can also be used for nefarious purposes too.
If you waved your magic wand and made handguns illegal tomorrow, here's what would happen:
Every handgun that was legally registered would be gathered up and destroyed. Since no criminal registers his (most likely illegally obtained) weapon, the population of people owning handguns would largely be made up of thugs. Thugs would now be pretty sure that every well-dressed businessman they intend to mug or rob would likely NOT be carrying an illegal pistol......and so crime would increase. there would be a run on shotguns for home protection.
Now, you'll of course say
"but where to criminals GET their weapons? Huh? HUH?"...right...usually stolen from legal places/homes/etc. So that means thugs wouldn't get guns anymore......since they wouldn't be able to steal them IF we ban them!!!
Wrong.
The same underground shipping industry that keeps the world flowing in Extacy, Pot, Cocaine, Crack and Herion would add "pistols" to their list and guess what....Thugs would have access to handguns again, while Joe Q. Public would not.
Simply put, unless you ban the production of handguns all over the earth,a nd hire a billion new police officers to enforce it (everyone gets manditory pat-downs every day and if you have a handgun you immediately get sent to prison for 10 years)......then no ban of handguns will work, because the overwhelming odds are that criminals carrying them would never get caught, and honest civillians carrying them illegally would be too afraid to use them in self defence for fear of incarceration.
Bans don't work.
prevent extreme government oppression. They didn't intend on douchebags with concealed lethal weapons losing their tempers in public places. This sort of shit is disgustingly common in bars. Hell, it even happened in a Toys R Us back on Black Friday, it happened in a children's toy store, it's terrifying that some nuts want to defend handguns as a right.
omfg.....
40,000,000 gun owners in the USA and 3 of them went batshit crazy, so lets ban em all!
There's 500,000,000,000 porno movies out there...but ONE dude watched one and then snatched a kid, lets ban them too! OH OH...fatties are killing our health care providers, lets ban Potato Chips! OH OH! Did you see that guy get drunk and run over an entire pre-school? LETS BAN BOOZE, ITS EVIL! Because you know, if YOU dont like it, it should be banned.
Personally if I had the magic wand I'd ban religions, but thats just me.
You know if we used the lowest common denominator to guide this countries' direction we'd still be living in
ing caves....
And PS: I dont know what redneck wonderland you live in, but I haven't heard of anyone getting shot in a bar in like 20 years where I am (North East)...
(WHICH I may add....is an illegal place to carry a firearm, even if it IS registered and you have a valid concealed-carry permit...in several NE states you can't have a weapon near a school, in a bar or restaurant that serves alcohol...its pretty stupid actually but whatever...its the law).