Chivalry died the day humanity learned to kill at a distance.
Of course our diet improved immensely. Well at least some will agree all that added protein went to a good cause; larger brains.
Now all we can hope is that everyone will use all that added neural material before it atrophies.
The issue of guns in the US is remarkably like guns in Afghanistan. Don't expect the idea of taking them away to be popular or even practical. There are many reasons to have guns but the idea that they make things safer in the city is a myth, the cities with the strictest gun laws also do have safer streets. NYC for example is a lot safer in per capita terms than Phoenix or Dallas.
Check out the actual per capita death rate per state:
http://www.statemast...ate-per-100-000Most of the states (not all) with strict gun control laws are near the bottom. However the ones near the top all have the most liberal laws. Dig deeper and it looks even worse when comparing specific cities. The one clear exception is Washington DC that has both some of the stricter laws and the worst rates but DC may be a case study in how to do everything wrong too.
Another myth is that the 2nd Amendment was explicitly to protect the citizens from the government. Only a bad reading of history supports that notion. The right to a gun was for defense of your frontier farm field from vermin and the ability to hunt. The vermin came in multiple forms, mostly four legged but occasionally on 2. The implicit idea of defense was not the explicit threat from government ever, hence the second part (actually the first) of the second amendment, "
A well REGULATED militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,.."
Along with the rights of gun ownership came a RESPONSIBILITY to the state for participation in the militia and a well regulated one at that. The Swiss actually do operate in principle more true to this ideal than we do.
Now this matter will require a considerable amount of discussion but a right to ownership is not carte blanche either and regulation may also be a part of such ownership.
Oh and BTW don't everyone start getting partisan on me, I had venison for dinner last week (bow hunted) and I am looking forward to some more and wild turkey too. I own guns and I hunt so this is not a simplistic dichotomy and I wish everyone would take the time to think it all through before jumping on one bandwagon or another.
While they could use a few good shots hunting rats in the city I am afraid most rounds would take out innocent bystanders. Consider how lousy most of them are as shots. People don't *hunt* in the cities except other people. Many also do not have responsible practices with respect to the guns they have. They are lousy shots and the weapons are subject more to theft than proper use when examined statistically.
Having been an expert rated shot in the military I have to laugh at most TV representations of shoot outs, hell even the news. Did you know that when the NYC police shot the unarmed guy after his wedding they fired almost 50 rounds?
They only hit the passengers with a few rounds going through 3 unarmed people, killing one, at a range of about 25 feet. One officer unloaded over 30 high powered rounds alone from multiple clips in about 10 seconds. The rest of the rounds went all over the place and these are guys that get paid to practice. If we had shot like that in my unit we would have been court martialed for wasting government property.
I am unconvinced that guns belong in the cities and I am unconvinced that the right to own is without an obligation of service to the state accompanying it. I certainly would prefer guaranteeing that a few of the yayhoos I have seen on You Tube putting 50 cal handguns in drunken women's hands would have seen a little more discipline inservice before someone gave them a license to possess a beer let alone a high powered hand gun. More than one of the women in those Youtube clips almost ended up shooting herself in an uncontrolled recoil, just like that kid at the Connecticut gun show last week that killed himself the same way.
You want guns?
Then realize it comes with the well regulated disciplined use part.
Hell I am not against hand guns in principle, I am against the irresponsible use of them, treating them like toys.