In the US, why are guns considered bad? Ain't it people that kill people?
91612
In the US, we don't consider guns bad.  We are one country that has many freedom to own a weapon.
255407
Stop the craziness.  . . end violence.  A regular citizen has no need to own a handgun.  Read the statistics and you'll see what I mean-- regular domestic squabbles turn into murders when there's a handgun available. . . burglars who break in use homeowners' own guns to kill them. . . kids who are shoplifting a candy bar are shot to death by vigilantes (yes, shoplifitng is wrong, but not worthy of MURDER. . .)  Please please rethink your reason for owning a gun.  Until there are psychiatric tests given when people want to buy guns, there will be more and more violence.  You don't need a gun to be a real man.
843012
the guns should be outlawed for normal people, bcuz thats how guns get stolen and people get shot
910399
Do you ever hear stories of the good ole days when every one had a gun? I do and there wasn't much law breaking cuz your neighbor would shoot you. ooooh the good ole days \nMy point is:: there wasn't much crime back in the day so to speak everyone looked out for there family and friends. I feel gun control is a disaster.
262975
In 2002 in the United States, there were a total of  2,443,387 deaths by all causes.  Of these, 29,942 involved firearms.  (This would be 1.23%.)  But, 17,108 of these were suicide; aside from these, there were 12,834 firearm deaths (0.53%).\n\nTo put these numbers in perspective, there were 918,628 deaths from major heart disease (37.60%).  There were 45,380 deaths from motor vehicle accidents (1.86%).  There were 14,095 deaths from HIV disease (0.58%).
284885
Guns dont kill people, People kill people.  if you make hand guns illegal they will just use other things to kill people.  also they will just get them on the black market.  the trick is to make bullets cost $1000 a round because then people will think twice on shooting someone sorry just a little chris rock hummor
111993
Because 99.999% of the people who own guns don't use them to kill other people.  Your connection between gun ownership and murder is nonsensical.  Learn how to properly structure your arguments.  I own a gun and have never used it to murder or harm another person.
95505
I believe it does, because most criminals do not buy there guns legally. Criminals will always find a way to get guns, by gun control you just take them away from the people who are defending their homes. Look at Australia for example, gun related violence as went through the rood since they banned guns!
62581
Well, we can look back in history to see what such things were like.  I'll use the murder rate as the proxy for gun violence.\n\nPrior to 1968 there were no federal controls on most firearms (excepting full auto, suppressed, short barreled, etc).  They were advertised in comic books.  Kids could buy them in many states.  Most states had no background checks.  What was the violence rate?  We're just getting back down to the rates of the 1960s, and that was much higher than the 1950s.\n\nPrior to 1938, there were no federal restrictions on purchasing any firearms.  Even Sears sold full auto guns.  Crime peaked during Prohibition, never to go down to pre-Prohibition levels again.\n\nThis pattern is true in other countries, too.  Here's what a British "bobby" found out when he did some research:\n\n"No matter how one approaches the figures, one is forced to the rather startling conclusion that the use of firearms in crime was very much less when there were no controls of any sort and when anyone, convicted criminal or lunatic, could buy any type of firearm without restriction.  Half a century of strict controls on pistols has ended, perversely, with a far greater use of this weapon in crime than ever before." - Inspector Colin Greenwood, _Firearms Control_, (Routledge and Keegan, London, 1972) p. 243\n\n"At first glance it may seem odd or even perverse to suggest that statutory controls on the private ownership of firearms are irrelevant to the problem of armed crime, yet that is precisely what the evidence shows. Armed crime and violent crime are products of ethnic and social factors unrelated to the availability of a particular type of weapon. The numbers of firearms required to satisfy the 'crime' market is minute, and these are supplied no matter what controls are instituted. Controls have had serious effects on legitimate users of firearms, but there is no case, either in the history of this country or in the experience of other countries in which controls can be shown to have restricted the flow of weapons to criminals or in any way reduced armed crime." - Inspector Colin Greenwood, "Shooting Back," Police Review, 10 November 1978 page 1668\n\nAmerica's foremost researcher on gun violence also feels about the same:\n\n"...Consequently, when medical journal authors report that there is little evidence on a given topic, it may often really mean only that they made no serious effort to find any or chose not to report what they found.  For example, in an article published in 1996 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Douglas Weil (research director of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, affiliated with Handgun Control) and a colleague claimed that "there is little published research on the effectiveness of gun laws" (Weil and Knox 1996:60).  In fact, there were, at the time this article was published, at least forty-five empirical studies of the impact of gun laws on violent crime, suicide, and gun accidents (Tables 8.4 and 11.1).  Weil then proceeded to inaccurately claim that "with little dissent, these studies are generally supportive of the thesis that well-tailored gun laws can have a beneficial impact" (ibid.:60), when in fact the studies have generally indicated that gun laws, whether "well-tailored" or not, have no measurable impact on violence rates (Chapter 11; PB;Chapter 10)...." Page 42, Gary Kleck, _Targeting Guns_, (Aldine de Gruyter, NY, 1997)\n\nOthers have pointed out that the criminals are willing to break the law to further their criminal activities.  Increasing legal availability isn't going to increase the "illegal" availability very much, if any.
523938
YES\n\nHonorable everyday people with gun are not a problem. As a matter of fact, it gives criminals something to think about. Legally obtained weaponry is not the problem. It is the criminal THUGS who illegally obtain weapons for the purpose of commiting crimes that is a problem.\n\nI am all for background checks and all for gun owners. But you do not take the weapons away from the law abiding to give the criminal element an advantage, because the criminals will ALWAYS find a way to get them.
764800
indeed it is weird, and schocking\n\nwhy?\n\nwell first of all, firearms are readily available in the U.S., can be bought pretty much by anyone.  This is certainly not the case in most other richer nations.  So when a teenager gets mad / frustrated (as any teenager should, from time to time), they unfortunately have the option to get hold of a rifle.\n\nsecondly, the level of public schools in the U.S. is quite poor.  I'm not saying that public schools in the rest of the rich Western world are not decadent - but they're still far better than what can be found in the U.S., to the point that most people who can afford it, put their kids in private schools.  As a result, whatever is left in public schools, is (way) below average.\n\nthe U.S. has a higher amount of working poor, a (much) higher proportion of teenage pregnancies, all is probably inter-related (working poor parents have no free time to spend on educating children, uneducated children don't know you can get pregnant by having unprotected sex, nor do they know it is NOT ok to shoot down people because they were nasty to you once).\n\nquite sad because the U.S. has so many good sides
898813
i say that only law enformcment should own guns....not like typical people. thats how guns get stolen and ppl get shot
396034
Just because I'm in high school people (especially on this site) think I don't know anything about these kind of issues. I known alot about guns(I'm on several youth marksmanship programs, along with the NRA) and am aware of the affects of guns yet I'm a huge gun enthusist because believe it or not, not all gun oweners are crazy assassins. I don't see why people especially congressmen have a hard time seeing why people might find an assault rifle or military rifle fun? Any way, most criminals and gangsters usually have records making their guns illegal as it is. So banning guns won't effect them at all, just hurt law abiding citizens. \n*** my point- do you want to live in a country/world where the only people with guns are criminals leaving you to defend yourself with sticks and stones.\n\np.s. gun lovers have a duty to stand up to the anti-gun lawmakers, because allowing them to chip away at the 2nd amendment little by little(i.e. assault rifles and .50cals) will eventually lead to the 2nd amendment saying I have the right to bear .22 rifles.
326362
In my personal opinion, guns are bad.  They should be used only by law enforcement officials and not ordinary citizens.\n\nI lost my brother due to an accident involving a gun, and knowing that just anyone nowadays (depending on where you live) can purchase a firearm without even obtaining a license in some cases, makes me cringe with frustration and disbelief!\n\nI've just recently seen a report on the TV news that claims that even owning a fake gun such as the now-famous 'paint-ball guns' can lead to serious violence and even death.  \n\nIn some cases, people were accidentally killed or seriously injured while playing among themselves.  In other cases, they were mistakenly shot by police who believed they had pointed a real gun at them...\n\nLet's leave guns in the hands of those who know how to use them in order to protect law-abiding citizens everywhere!
377176
it all depends on the states rules and regulation and the cities regulations and the type of crime committed. for instance, if you were convicted of a violent crime, you might not be allowed to own any kinds of guns. however, that is rare to never allow someone to own a gun, but there may be limits as to what kind of guns you are allowed to own. usually, shot guns are allowed because they are highly recongized guns, where as a pistol can be hidden in a pocket. what ever you do, make sure you are not breaking the laws. double check with the state, and city before even purchasing any kind of gun.
761860
Agree.  Criminials like for their victims to be unarmed.  The only thing a gun law ever did was cause crime rates to go up, because criminals are no longer afraid they might get shot.
900614
becouse the guns dont kill people, if you ask a gun to kill someone they would dont do anything but if you ask a ams to kill another  if he has a reason maybe he would kill the person