Thanks CAP . I get sort of fed up of Knee jerk reactions when people suggest that maybe some things need to be looked at in the way the USA handles firearm procedures . Canada is a very good example they have as many weapons per house hold as the USA yet gun crime is less , fatalities are less ect. Maybe it's due to some way that they view firearms and ownership . Instead of a right maybe more of a privilege.
to me the ability to own a firearm is both a right and a privilege. it's a right guaranteed to us by our constitution. but it's also a privilege, because if you eff up......as in you go rob a gas station, and get prison time.....or beat your wife.....or anything that shows you to be incompetent to own a firearm, then you give up that right. that's why i view it as both.
i think our crime stats may(or may not) be sqewed thanks to the poverty level in a lot of the inner cities, and due to the presence of drugs in inner cities. i'm not sure about that though.
i would fully support training/testing in order to earn a firearms permit, much as we do for drivers license, and pilots license. it would even be worth the extra cost. i don't necessarily think it's needed, but i would still support it, as it just seems like an overall good idea.
as much as i think we don't need any new laws, as most already have proven ineffective, i DO however feel that the owner of a weapon should in most instances be held accountable for any damage/harm caused with their weapon. there will be times when that isn't applicable, but.......if my weapon is stored properly, then it would be impossible for someone in my family to gain access to it, and go do harm. it would be overly difficult for "joe the badguy" to gain access to it. if he does, and it's not reported stolen......then the owner is responsible just as if they pulled the trigger. and there can't be any loopholes, or plea bargains. people need to know that they will be held accountable. that goes for lots of other stuff too. it truly isn't a gun problem here, as you seem to realize. it's a crime problem. we could spend another 30 pages going into why there's such a crime problem here.
the problem with how you guys over there see this.....and with how we all get inundated with this stuff is a couple reasons. first off, the media's job is to sell their stuff. to sell their stuff, they have to take something that's bad, and make it look gruesome. they take something gruesome, and make it look ungodly horribly gruesome. i suspect your media over there does the same thing. i mean really......how many people would read about poodles pooping on the boardwalk in atlantic city? or the multi-million dollar winner at harrah's casino? heck, they even do it with the weather. right now, they've got a "winter weather advisory" till 6am tomorrow morning. WHY?? it snowed a little this morning. that turned to rain. it's going down to 29F tonight. tomorrow in the mid 30's. there is no friggin abnormal weather! loilolol. they do it so that people will watch their stupid shows.
i best stop.....kind of rambling now. and hopefully i didn't overstep any bounds here. if i did, it was not intentional.