Where should I even begin?
A career felon could walk out of prison, and purchase a full-auto AK-47 from Walmart
If the justice system was not loaded with liberal judges and politicians pandering to a liberal base then, these "career" criminals would never see the outside of a prison wall again. Those who commit the more egregious crimes would receive the ultimate punishment and would be removed as both a blight and burden on society. Additionally they would not sit on death row for 20 years or get appeal after appeal. You get your trial, you get your appeal. If by that time you are not acquitted then the sentence is carried out in a timely fashion. There would be no such thing as life without parole. If someone is too dangerous to ever consider releasing back out into society that should automatically be commuted to a death sentence. Why keep someone around who you don't have any intention of ever letting out? Also prison shouldn't be 3 hots and a cot for your entire incarceration. You shouldn't get all the time you want in a weight room or the ability to set up your own little drug enterprise inside the prison walls. There would be no TV, no A/C. It should be a hateful place that is both physically and mentally exhausting. It should be horrible enough that any human being who has ever been on the inside should never want to go back....ever. If prisons were more like this you wouldn't have nearly as high a rate of recidivism.
Your psycho ex could buy a sniper rifle and silencer from “some guy” for $100
Yup, you are correct, she might, but how would your idea prevent this? Just because you say someone is psycho does not mean they have been adjudicated as mentally unstable. Once you start drawing "mental health" into the issue now you are on that slippery slope again. What is the definition of mentally unstable? How is it quantitatively defined? If you can't define it in purely logical terms then you are allowing the opinion of someone to determine whether another's rights may be stripped of them. Maybe a new political administration would view your liberal views as a mental illness and strip you of your right to vote without due process. Ahhhh, that pesky double edged sword again.
A mentally handicapped child could get a pistol from a vending machine
Is that supposed to be a remotely serious answer?
Knives are perfectly legal yet we don't see vending machines filled with knives. Hell you don't see vending machines filled with fishing lures and there isn't a single law anywhere in this country that regulates that.
Known terrorists and those with terrorist affiliations could easily purchase Stinger missile launchers to shoot down airliners
Known terrorists should be scooped up as soon as they enter our country. If you are not a citizen and have ties to terror groups, or even if the intelligence suggests you might, we don't want you in the country at all. No visa, no entry. Period.
Get caught inside the country as a known terrorist, then get treated like an enemy combatant. That ties into the illegal immigration. That shit needs to stop pronto. No visa, no entry. Get caught here illegally (i.e. sneaking over the border, see the first answer).
Any nutjob could walk out of the asylum, buy a grenade launcher and flamethrower, and visit your kids at school.
Well, flamethrowers are already legal so that could happen today but I digress. I am sure that all of those "Gun Free Zone" signs would stop them right in their tracks....oh wait....
Let me put it this way. There is evil in this world. There always has been, and there always will be. That evil does not care whether the means to the end is a gun, or a machete, or a baseball bat. It favors the physically larger, younger, and faster. A firearm gives a 105lb woman or your 75 year old father a more even chance at surviving than being beaten to death by a 19 year old punk.
I have a little experiment I'd like you to try.
You and a friend of mine are going to come to my backyard. You two are going to stand ten yards apart. Then, when I give the signal, he is going to point his hand in the shape of a gun. He is going to point his hand at you and by the mere act of pointing at you, try to kill you. He will not be allowed to send any physical object of any sort in your general direction, nor will he be permitted any sort of explosives with area-of-effect damage or anything else that could physically harm you. His only weapon will be his bare hand, which will not be allowed to come anywhere near you. You will not be allowed to move or hide.
In part two of this experiment, everything will be done exactly as before, with one single change: He will be given a loaded .45, and he will be allowed to shoot at you. You will not be given body armor, a firearm, or any other way to defend yourself. Again, you will not be allowed to move or hide.
If you truly and sincerely believe that "guns don't kill people," then you should have no problem participating in this experiment.
This may be the most retarded statement I have ever heard made in the entire firearms debate....ever.
A gun is an inanimate object. A simple machine. It has no will, desire, malice , intent. It is not evil, it has no feelings. It is merely the instrument of the person pulling the trigger.
If you were to beat your friend in the head with a chunk of cinder block would it be the cinder block that killed your friend or would it have been you?
In closing, this argument will continue to rage on. I don't see the chasm between your view and my view getting any smaller so I will leave you with the words of someone much more eloquent than myself.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin
