If guns were made illegal everywhere.

Post Reply New Topic

I'd like to bring a unique perspective to this discussion, perhaps. I grew up in the states until I was 17, and I've lived in New Zealand since.

There's a lot more guns in the US than there are here in NZ. I don't really understand why, but it's how it is. Gun-related crime in this country is practically unheard of. I've never known anyone that's had a gun pulled on them in this country, and it seems like each and every time it DOES happen it makes big news, cause it's that uncommon. But, I've also gone hunting several times in this country with shotties, rifles, and pistols. The guys who need the guns don't seem to have major problems getting them, yet you also don't have psychos wasting dozens of people in our theatres guns-blazing either.

But, growing up in my hometown of Lawton, Oklahoma, I can still remember listening to that police shootout that was occuring somewhere nearby, and I remember the "popopopopop" of a modified TEC-9 going off against the cops' glocks. I've had a gun PERSONALLY pulled on me, and I wasn't the only one who's had that privilege. In the US, I have memories of lots of gun, and lots of gun-related s**t going down. In NZ, I have memories of few guns, and practically zero gun-related crime.

Somehow, getting mugged by some criminal with a gun, or getting shot up in a theatre by some psycho, seems to be a largely AMERICAN problem. Here in New Zealand, the gun count is low, the people that want them for hunting and stuff still have them, and the criminals just can't seem to get a hold of any.

What is it, exactly, that we in New Zealand are doing so much better than the US, to keep the guns where they belong without outlawing them? Personally, I've come to believe that American culture is simply unable to handle the responsibility of having guns as part of their society, at least in modern times. Give guns to Americans? You've got criminals using them to mug and shoot up theatres. Give guns to some Kiwis? And we have ourselves a nice hunt and a good feed from the meat later.

Shau - no no we don't want to hear it, it is our sacred right to have as many guns as we need for feeding our paranoia and exterminate theaters, schools or just someone on the street

[quote="Dox47weapons if guns were not available, our level of violence would still be very high comparatively speaking (IIRC 3X that of Japan). What we, the gun people, have been trying to get across is that violence is violence, the victim of an assault is usually not relieved to have been stabbed or bludgeoned rather than shot, and that focusing on the implement used rather than the systemic conditions which fuel the violence is foolish. [/quote]

Yse and no. People will still try to kill each other, but there is a problem with how easy and sucessful a particular method is. I bet the murder rate would be more like Iraq if explosive laws were more lax. I have no with people shooting in a range but what is the difference between carrying a loaded gun in the public and driving a truckload of explosive or nerve gas in a city center?

Someone else posted this link in the News forum, but I think it offers an interesting glimpse of the future futility of gun regulations:

A Working Assault Rifle Made With a 3-D Printer



Get ready. It's now possible to print weapons at home.

An amateur gunsmith, operating under the handle of "HaveBlue" (incidentally, "Have Blue" is the codename that was used for the prototype stealth fighter that became the Lockheed F-117), announced recently in online forums that he had successfully printed a serviceable .22 caliber pistol.

Despite predictions of disaster, the pistol worked. It successfully fired 200 rounds in testing.

HaveBlue then decided to push the limits of what was possible and use his printer to make an AR-15 rifle. To do this, he downloaded plans for an AR-15 receiver in the Solidworks file format from a site called CNCGunsmith.com. After some small modifications to the design, he fed about $30 of ABS plastic feedstock into his late-model Stratasys printer. The result was a functional AR-15 rifle. Early testing shows that it works, although it still has some minor feed and extraction problems to be worked out.

HaveBlue has also been testing the "marketplace" for 3-D printing weapons. To do this he asked Thingiverse, the 3-D design sharing site run by Makerbot Industries, whether it was permissible to post weapons designs or not. According to HaveBlue, Makerbot's senior leadership decided to not disallow, but to discourage, the posting of weapons designs. Haveblue then posted a design for an AR-15 part on Thingiverse, but in the intensive legal discussion that followed Haveblue's posting, Thingiverse decided to ban weapons designs outright. However, since Haveblue's design is still on the site, it's unclear whether Thingiverse is enforcing a ban or not.

While there are still some details to sort out, it's pretty clear that making weapons at home using 3-D printers from commonly available materials is going to become much more commonplace in the near future. In fact, as 3-D printing technology matures, materials feedstock improves, and designs for weapons proliferate, we might soon see the day when nearly everyone will be able to print the weapons of their choice in the numbers they desire, all within the privacy of their own homes.

aSKperger wrote:

Well, we'd have different types of crime. Like with the prohibition, there would become a black market for guns, but that would mostly be contained to the people connected with the black market since guns tend not to be an addiction or as popular of a social thing. And many of the people who buy guns live in more rural areas, whereas during the prohibition bootlegging was more common in large cities.

However, I see absolutely no reason why automatic weapons should be available for civilian use. You don't need a freaking machine gun for self-defense or hunting, which are the only reasons anyone should ever use their gun.