For your country, you get to choose between two laws. The first law legalizes weed but puts a ban on guns. The second one does the opposite. Guns get legalized, but pot is illegal.
Which law would you choose?
And no, there aren't any options to legalize both or ban both. You have to choose what you find most important.
Which law would you choose?
And no, there aren't any options to legalize both or ban both. You have to choose what you find most important.
America, is the only country where guns are allowed to the general public.
YET, it's the most unstable and corrupt country in existance. Hell, the US already went to shit.
It's one of those countries you would have to be mentally ill for to actually want to live in.
Back to the topic, theoretically, if America didn't already go to shit, which it did, how would guns keep it in place?
Yeah...
No.
That is simply not true. You must not get out much.
It's one of those countries that has guns allowed to the general public.
...couldn't tell. *eyeroll
A well armed populus is a nation's best defense against tyrrany. If only the military has guns, what's left to protect the citizens from a corrupt government?
Until today, when I did some research to reply to that other comment, I had been under the impression that many countries had much stricter gun control than they do. I was mostly surprised by how many European countries allow private gun ownership. I guess I'd heard that the UK has pretty strict gun control (though I know now that there are guns you can have there, they're just not terribly exciting), and I just kind of assumed that's how all of Europe works? It was a weird thing to assume. I was surprised to find that gun ownership in Scandinavian countries is really common. There are still limitations almost everywhere, and I think it would make sense to be somewhat stricter here about who can own what, but we're not as uniquely gun-loving as I'd thought.
Oh, and in Italy, you can have as many muskets as you want. You don't even have to register them!
At the same time, I kind of wish we had never invented gunpowder. :/ It's kind of sickening how much innovation we've put into killing each other more efficiently. But it exists now, and military and criminals are always going to have guns and explosives and all sorts of fun stuff. Might as well give the law abiding citizens a fighting chance.
The problem I have with the self-defence argument is that guns aren't defensive weapons. You can't block with a gun the way that you can with a sword, for example. You can shoot somebody else who has a gun, but only once you know that you need to defend yourself. Isn't it usually too late by that time?
Plus, with strict gunlaws, James Holmes wouldn't have gotten his gun in the first place.
And that shows how much I try not to get all immersed in the latest tragedy. I didn't even know about the tear gas.
The thing is though, I live in Europe.
And in Europe, we really don't have that much of corruption, so there's no need for citizens having guns here.
But if they were, I guess you're right.
The best solution overal, was to ban guns even from the military.
One of the greatest mistakes of the Occupy protesters is that they fight back. In almost every video I see, there are people throwing things, shouting shit like "fuck the pigs!". That hostility takes away from the power of your movement and undermines, even helps to justify, the violence of the riot squads.
You'd think people who protest to something, would have enough common sense to keep things civil.
Also, riot squads take things too far. WAY too far.
"America, is the only country where guns are allowed to the general public."
Nope. A citizen not in the military or police can own a gun in Afghanistan, Albania, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Micronesia, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Serbia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
Some of those countries are more restrictive than the US, some of them are less restrictive (in Kenya, the minimum age to buy a gun is 12, for instance). This is not a complete list. Those are just the countries I read up on before getting bored.
There are a few countries, such as Macedonia and France, that technically allow civilians to have certain firearms under certain circumstances, but the regulations are strict enough that I left them off the list. Here's a list of the countries I found that explicitly prohibit citizens from having any firearms while I was looking into this: Cambodia, China, Eritrea, Liberia, Libya, Nauru, and Palau.
Let me rephrase that, "IT's one of those countries where guns are legalized to the general public."
Good job!
Or country.
Depends on where you live. There.
You really think people will break into your house just to rape your sister? If someone breaks into your house, it's usually for stealing stuff. If you get a decent alarm system you don't have to worry about that.
What's up with people wanting to take the law into their own hands anyway? The police force is way more responsive than you'd think, and they're trained for that kind of situations. If you take the robbers on yourself, there's a good chance you'll get shot. Criminals are better at that sort of thing.
When did I insinuate that people would break into my house -just- to rape my sister?
Normally if someone is home at the time of breaking and entering, the criminal (as an example of their monkey ways) will get crazy when they realize their plans are ruined. This leads to rape, injury, and/or death. The police cannot drive fast enough to prevent that, but a bullet can.
Also, the criminals who are good at shooting people are dead, in jail, or haven't done it yet.
And when a law is being broken in front of you and there are no police around, the law is being placed in your hands.
-___-
But then again, I'm also anti-guns.
Weed causes - or at least exacerbates - mental health problems in SOME people (I speak from second-hand experience, unfortunately).
SOME people with mental health problems - IF they have what could be thought of as violent tendencies (either for self-defense at an overwhelming world or just because they are nothing more than sick fuckers who like killing things) - would be more likely to want and/or use a gun.
What if someone whose mental illness was caused/exacerbated by weed (legally obtained) were to then legally get a gun and do a Columbine/Bane-style attempt at massacre?!
* * * * *
After some deliberation, I reluctantly say weed is the lesser of the two evils as it doesn't - as far as I'm aware - actually kill anyone itself. HOWEVER, I would segregate varieties of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana. The medical variety would only be legally obtainable through a prescription and the recreational variety would only be allowed in certain bars/cafés and - for want of a better phrase - "high shops", to smoke at home or in outdoor spaces away from children. I would ban both varieties from moshpits and the tokers can have a "toking area", much like smokers do.
And they're called "coffeeshops" here :I.
Revolutions aren't magical cures for a country. Egypt for example is still fucked up. How come Americans fear their government so much anyway? Isn't your country supposed to be democratic?
=)
Guns are necessary. Otherwise we'll start fighting with swords and such. I can't use a sword.
Weed is not a necessity- no matter how much people want it to be.
However, imagine a world without guns and weaponary.
The world would be a much more peaceful place.
OP's scenario of military use of guns only-
The government would overtake us completely. The only reason they don't is because of fear. If we can't make them scared of us we're screwed. It would be a Nazi Germany that would never end. The government and it's citizens need to have an equal amount of fear for one another.
Scenario 2, Nobody has guns-
Here, we have criminals and cops playing with swords and arrows... Now we're reverting back to the dark ages. People killed people in grotesque ways when there were no guns, on a regular basis. I'll take gunshot wound over dirty arrow any day.
We don't live in a world where pleasure is of most importance. Death trumps love, just ask Romeo and Juliet.
Horrible, yet logical.
You think the government would overtake you if you didn't have guns? Wow... that's just... wow.
You're not the first one to say something like this though. I'm not an American myself, and I hope you're not offended by this question, but... why do so many Americans feel like the government is their enemy?
Our government is taking away our freedoms, little by little. We need everything we can get to defend ourselves. This is a great country to live in if you're a respected citizen- but if you're sick, homeless, low incomed, a minority, or any of those combined, you're the unspoken target. And when something happens to you there's nothing you can do. Nobody will listen. Once you're a target, you can't dig your way back out.
Remember the patriot act? They said they wouldn't tap civilian phones- now they use it to capture petty drug dealers.
Now we can't exercise our free speech on the internet. Now they're "allowed" to walk into our homes, call us a terrorist, and take us away from our families for an indefinite amount of time- no contact. It already happened to a f*cking high school student.
Everyone has this "Couldn't happen to me" attitude- even though this crap happens every day.
We reserve the right to be scared.
They don't fear you, there's just no purpose.
I really hope you realize that I'm not stating they -are- afraid of our guns, let alone me. The problem is precisely that our government doesn't fear us but we fear them. Everyone is going nuts here. I need my safety. Even if it's a small dent in a shitty car, I don't want to go down in silence no matter how I'm afflicted. Apparently a shitload of Americans feel the same.
Right now I'm kinda disgusted that the US is constantly invading the countries they call 'tyrannic'. Maybe they should fix their own problems first.
Do you know why so little people vote for third parties? I know the odds are small that they win anything, but if everyone does it... we might be able to fix this broken system. In my opinion, choosing between two similar special interest groups isn't really a democracy.