"I'd like to express my views on why this is an unanswerable question."
What I was aiming for was to see if people here could think a little bit out of the box.. Of course I realize that you can't just add and subtract and divide and come up with the absolute average gun owner, I was more interested how you would answer the question. That would tell me a little bit more about you than all of the gun owners in the US.
"Oh? And who protected the five (5) people who were murdered in 1999? I guess they didn't need any personal protection either, did they? By the way, that would be 5,000 murders if you were the size of the United States.
And who protected the 73 people raped in the year 2000?
And how do your people commit suicide? If you don't have guns it must be very difficult to kill yourselves (you were no. 41 in this category, only a little ways behind us)."
If you would know the facts of these 5 murders you wouldn't be asking that question. Furthermore if these people involved in these murders would have had guns my guess is that the death toll would have been greater that year. The people that were raped in the year 2000? If they would have had guns the death toll again would have risen.
For your information I do believe that most people here that commit suicide hang themselves, slit their wrists or swallow mass amount of pills.
"You feel perfectly safe in Iceland; yet I'd be willing to bet that you have more 'a wild animal killed somebody I knew' stories than me."
Hehehe
I don't even know anyone that knows anyone that has been killed by a wild animal. Contrary to popular belief, Icelanders do not live in igloos, hunt wild animals for food nor is Iceland covered in snow the year around. Winters in New York are much harsher than the winters here.
"As was stated before this is a private forum and I don't see how the 1st Amendment can be applied to a non-citizen anyway. Does that mean I have access to all the "rights" of your various nations?"
Just because I'm not an American citizen I do not have the right to free speech? My country's constitution guarantees me free speech, the idea that I don't have the right to say what I wish (as long it is in accordance to the rules of this forum
) here is preposterous.
As all of you realize, the whole debate isn't regarding the guns themselves. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. IMHO I think that most people that really cherish their rights to have guns and think it is vital to have a gun (or several) to insure their protection, I think those people are, for the most part, overly paranoid. It all goes to their state of mind. If someone were to burgle my home, I wouldn't shoot the person or even try to shoot them. I wouldn't take it lying down either, I would make the cops do the dirty work. I think using a gun in this situation (commonly referred to here) isn't the solution. Someone steals from me and I return the favor by ending his life or crippling him? Doesn't look like the punishment meets the crime. On a whole, do I think that burglers intend to kill their victims? For the most part, no.
I'm sorry, I do realize you must have a lot of people come in here, thinking they're the first and start lecturing you on what you should do. Not my intention. Don't want to lecture you good people, I'd like you to get an idea of my perspective on things.
This forum I find more sane than I expected to be honest and most of the people I've read posts from seem very intelligent. Just to finish this post on a good note.
