Yeah, I think my support of gun rights is largely a result of my libertarian past, but I don't fool myself into thinking that it's logical in the sense of statistics on gun violence. Basically I would rather live in a permissive society that doesn't decide rights by statistics and pie charts. But I still believe in background checks and "common sense" regulations.

A gun should be no different than a car. In order to legally drive a car it has to be registered, you need insurance, it has to pass emission tests, it's headlights and blinkers need to be working, and your windshield can't be all cracked up.

Also, if you mess up a few times behind the wheel they can take away your license.

In order to purchase a gun you should have to pass a federal background check, have a 3-5 day wait (cooling down) period, pass a safety test, and purchase only from a FFL who will register your gun with authorities. And if you want to sell your gun to anyone (even a family member) you should have to transfer the registration via the FFL dealer.

And if you are convicted of a violent crime your registration can be revoked and you have to turn your gun in to the FFL for however long the court decides. Failure to do so should result in an arrest.

Gun control is much harder to do though because it's really only effective at the federal level.

Iirc, most of the guns used to commit homicides in Chicago are brought in from out-of-state. Firearm laws in Illinois are super strict so like the gangs there have built a gun trade where firearms from all the surrounding states (which have weak gun laws), are transported in.

Yeah basically. I'm not a dunderhead who thinks that the gubment is trying to take our guns, I just would like to have the option to defend my home if I so choose.

I live in California, one of the strictest anti-gun states in the country. I was able to purchase a gun pretty easily. I had to wait 5 days, fill out a federal form that included a thumb print, had to pass a safety test, and had to demonstrate to the FFL dealer that I had the fundamentals of how to operate the gun.

It sits loaded (but not chambered) in a safe that I could have open in 3 seconds.

Did you know that the US is the only country in the world that has more guns than people (112 guns for every 100 people). The next closest are Serbia and Yemen who are in the 50s. After that there's not another country that's over 40.

Yeah that's fine by me. The idea of keeping a gun unloaded and in a safe sounds like it defeats the purpose of having a gun, but whatever people who actually have a gun think works I guess.

I don't keep a bullet in the chamber per Linda's request plus I figure the sound of me racking the slide would be a bit of a deterrent. It's quite an intimidating sound - especially if it was the middle of the night.

He said it was loaded, just not chambered, whatever that means. I guess it means you can't fire it accidentally without taking the safety off? ****ed if I know. In a safe, presumably, to ensure it doesn't accidentally fall into little hands? Or be used against him?

I say if I'm going that route then I might as well just get a shotgun. If the sound is the deterrent than you can't get much more deterring than a ****ing shotgun.

Troll, if the gun is 100% empty then just inserting a clip doesn't put the gun in "ready" mode. To have to pull back the slide and then release it to pull a bullet from the clip and place it in the chamber in front of the firing pin.

In order to insure the gun is completely unloaded you first have to remove the clip and then rack the slide to remove the bullet that's in the chamber.

Terry Kath killed himself by not doing the 2nd step. He removed the clip, told his buddy "see it's not loaded", and then put it to his head and pulled the trigger.