why did you jump that big with that bad con already if you don't have any targets...

why do you need a gun? A sense of danger or insecurity.

Why do you sense danger and what makes you insecure? In this situation, probably fear of people you do not trust.

Why do you not trust these people? You think they'll commit crimes on you. You are afraid of them. You have heard about crime rates being sky high or know people who have dealt with crime or have been traumatized by crime yourself, bringing you into a state of near-paranoia.

In a safe community you shouldn't have to be scared into owning a gun.

tbh gun ownership is fine, being able to shoot a loaded gun on the other hand... what reasons, other than self defense, do you have for that?

Because It's Cool - weak and makes you a sad, easily manipulated person.
Family Legacy (Because my Parents Owned Guns) - family traditions are cool, except traditions do not count as the best arguments.
Just For Hunting - only good argument I can find for gun ownership.
Target Shooting Only - this may be fun, challenging, and give you a rewarding feeling, but it's not hard to find yourself a less expensive hobby.
For Social Reasons - same as above.
Because the Founding Fathers Wanted me to - the situation your founding fathers were in has changed. face it, (almost) all of their arguments are now out of context.
As an Investment - right... put you in the same category as the action figure  and stamp collectors. plus you don't need ammo for this and shooting would probably lower the actual value.
Historical Reasons - Same as above.
Interest in The Mechanics of Firearms - Do not necessarily need to shoot it, although it does help and may be quite interesting.
(reasons for owning guns taken from: http://hunting.about.com/od/guns/a/whyownagun.htm)

So the only reasons left that justify having a loaded gun are:
Just For Hunting
Interest in The Mechanics of Firearms

now, do these 2 apply to you? well good on you. I doubt they do for most gun owners.

well if stealthkid is PoV it doesn't give him any bragging rights either...

neither did my performance but that's aside the point

RisingDown

Cardboard Robot! please .

i'm so early haha

to be honest, I believe the scientific approach would be for the person with the theory to come up with credible proof, or in this case a credible source.
as long as the source in question is anything that has to do with fox news, i doubt a good discussion with opponents who are willing to post their sources is ever going to be taking place here.

however, this is not a very easy debate even with credible arguments: there plainly are too many factors that can influence crime rates that the source did not provide data on. examples may be (but are not limited to): highier penalties, subsidies for education, and other factors that would bring down crime rates. You might be seeing the effects of more (effective) police activity for all we know.
I do not know whether there was any other legislation put into effect in Chicago and Washington D.C. that may have influenced the rates, nor do i have time to look them up, but that may be interesting to research before blindly claiming that lifting gun bans lowers gun violence/crime rates, or, even worse, that gun bans promote gun violence/highten crime rates.

"In 1993 a Swiss professor, Martin Killias, published a study of 18 countries concerning gun ownership, homicide and suicide. He in part concluded there was a weak correlation between total homicide and gun ownership."
"Using homicide and suicide data from a larger sample of countries, 35, (International Journal of Epidemiology 1998:27:216), Kleck found "no significant (at the 5% level) association between gun ownership levels and the total homicide rate in the largest sample of nations available to study this topic. (Associations with the total suicide rate were even weaker.)" (Targeting Guns, p 254.)"
"A more recent study, by Killias, concludes "no significant correlations with total suicide or homicide rates were found, leaving open the question of possible substitution effects.""
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvintl.html#intl

And about sweden having almost universal guns: in 2007 Sweden was ranked 9th in guns per 100 residents at 31.6 guns which is far from universal compared to America's 88.8 (ranked first in guns per 100 residents, obviously). A country with more guns per 100 residents in Europe is Switzerland (not a part of the EU though), being ranked 3rd in guns per 100 residents at 45.7, and having a higher rate of firearm homicide than Sweden (0.58 per 100,000 in 1994 in Switzerland versus 0.18 in 1993 Sweden, I doubt the 1 year difference makes much of a difference but that remains an assumption) even though it has a slightly smaller population (7.0 million in 1994 in switzerland vs 8.7 million in 1993 in sweden).
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_gun_own_gun_per_100_res_2007-guns-per-100-residents-2007
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html

A large part of the UK crime rate may be in corrolation with drinking habits or British culture in general, not as much gun laws. Furthermore the UK has a low murder rate compared to the US, even if it is increasing. The UK does have high rates for other crimes and a high overal crime rate, however, but these do not necessarily involve guns.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1541699/Britain-tops-European-crime-league.html

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68:
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8. RisingDown
9. Gwynedd

i vote for... arsy to just hurry up and write the damn story!

neither.

i meant to ask for advice because as i said in chat i wasn't satisfied with my vote.

can i go to bed soon D:?