Hello Sense. Welcome to the High Road.
You have already seen posts made by Americans who have generally been brought up around guns and believing in the importance of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. You might like to hear from someone (myself) who is neither American, (I'm British) nor has been brought up with guns, but in recent years has come to believe the same as they have (having formerly thought much the same as you).
Firstly, a few factual corrections. You said:
In Ireland and the uk, we have no guns. all guns are banned.
Not true, at least in the UK. I am a member of my university's rifle club, and regularly use a rifle for target shooting. (Normally a .22, but last weekend we went to an outdoor range to use the larger 7.62mm rifles). So, although we have a lot of restrictions on gun ownership, it is still possible to own or use one.
I think you said in a later post that you would be scared to be near a gun (apologies if I misread). But you needn't be. A gun cannot do anything by itself, and as long as the person using it obeys some very simple safety rules, no harm will be done. I'm sure that my cycling through London to get to the rifle club is more dangerous that using the guns there.
As for there being no illegal guns in the UK, that is not true either.
Although it seems to have calmed down recently, a few months ago, there seemed to be a "firearms incident" in my neighborhood at least once a month. (Including an armed robbery literally round the corner from my house, where shots were fired at the police). All these crimes were committed using handguns, which have been totally banned in the UK since 1997. But these laws seem to have little effect on the availability or use of prohibited weapons. In fact, rates of gun crime have actually
increased several fold since the band. Most gun crime is, I believe, related to the drug trade. I.e. by criminals whose entire industry revolves around importing and selling prohibited items.
We are not afraid to walk the streets or feel the need to carry weapons to 'save our families' this is because in the 6 in 1 million chance that some one did break into our homes, we would be safe in the knowlage that they too, would not be armed.
I'm not afraid to walk the streets. But people do get robbed, or worse, by gangs or loan criminals. Last autumn, for example, a man out walking at night in central London, in a popular tourist spot, was beaten to death by a gang of teenagers. And one of my housemates was mugged within about 100 yards of our home (fortunately not injured).
Burglaries are also quite common. Every so often there is a story on the news about (e.g.) an elderly woman being beaten/stabbed, often fatally, in their own home by a burglar. And while I don't have any statistics to hand, I believe burglaries are much more common here than in the US, and the proportion of "hot" burglaries (where the homeowner is in at the time) is much greater. Mostly because in the US, burglary is much more dangerous for the burglar than it is in the UK.
If guns are illegal and also very hard to get then not even petty criminals can get one, so if someone has a gun they are arrested immediatly and there is no harm done.
As I said, not true. More and more criminals, including petty ones, are using guns in the UK.
Now to address some of your other points:
If there are guns lying around the house your children are at a huge risk. kids are curious, if you say 'NEVER touch that' they arnt listening. or at least they eventually stop listening.
True. But there are many, many things in a house that are potentially dangerous. A good parent will keep where a child cannot get them. While you might want to protect children from negligent parents, it is not fair to prevent everybody from owning a device that can be life-saving (or even just enjoyable or useful) simply because some people would not use it properly. (Besides, someone who leaves a loaded gun where a child can get it is likely to leave bleach or medicine where they can reach it).
guns are rarely used for protecting anything. only for killing.
The guns I have used have only ever been used for making holes in paper. There are people who post on this forum who have used a gun for defense. The idea that most guns are used for killing just doesn't fit the statistics.
if you have a gun then your attack will too, it just depends whose fastest, and hes the one with no moral consience. isn't it better to have the time to run or call the police then have blood on your hands or pumping from the fresh hole in your chest?
Did you mean to say "if you have a gun then your attacker will too"?
Legal gun owners and criminal gun users generally get their weapons from different sources. (Respectable shops, with various forms and background checks to work though depending on the State/Country, vs. illegal smugglers and dealers). Preventing normal, law-abiding citizens from owning guns has a negligible effect on criminal ownership.
But even if it did - what then? Criminals by their nature prey on those weaker than them. If no one had a gun, the criminals would attack people who are smaller or weaker than them (or use a kitchen knife or baseball bat or brick or other such deadly weapon). Or attack as a gang. In such a situation, you are at the mercy of the criminals. You cannot easily fight. You might be able to run, assuming you are a good runner. You can call the police, but they take time to arrive. (There was a recent case in the UK where a woman was murdered by her ex partner before the police had time to turn up). And in any case, even if you get away, the criminals are unlikely to have lost anything by threatening you.
As you said – they are the ones with no moral conscience. I would not want to stake my life on the benevolence of a violent criminal, especially one who was trying to rob me (or worse).e
One of the biggest differences that a gun would make is this: it gives the "victim" a chance. It’s not a magic talisman, but it means that a weak person can defend themselves against a strong person, or a gang. It makes it dangerous to be a criminal.
To put it another way:
I believe everyone has a natural right to life, and to freedom.
Unfortunately, some people don't believe that, and are willing to harm or destroy the life of others for their personal gain.
If someone has a right to life, then they must also have a right to defend it from those who would deny them that right. The law agrees - if the only way to defend your life is to kill your attacker, you are entitled to do so.
However, to do so, you must have the means to. Some people can defend themselves with their strength, or martial arts, etc. But some cannot. And some threats cannot be defended against that way either. A gun is merely a tool. But it is a tool that can be used to save your life, or the life of another.
True, most people will never "need" a gun. But if find it morally repugnant that "the powers that be" can say to a person with no criminal record or sign of dangerous behavior "The small risk of you being killed because you cannot defend yourself is a price we are willing to take, to avoid the tiny risk that you will misuse you defensive weapon".
I could say more about history and dictatorships, etc, and why I believe it is important that peoples (not just persons) are well armed, but this has got be quite a long post. If you want to hear more, I'll gladly tell you.
Hope this has been useful for you, or at least interesting.