Why No Gun Control? Why do people make the choice to opt for such ridiculous measures of crime control? It is usually for the same reasons, they think emotionaly and they honestly do think what they are doing will help us. Sometimes the person had a friend or memeber of the family that has been hurt or even killed by a firearm. That reason would most likely spark outrage from any of us, but not thinking logically is what these people are doing. Sure, thousands of people are killed both intentionaly and accidentally every year by firearms, and in countried that have total bans on all firearms have little to almost no deaths by firearms. These much smaller countries have had these laws for decades and their needs and wants for firearms have nearly vanished. Our large country full of hunting and unfortunately, crime, has a definite need and want for firearms. In countries like Russia in which freedom was not a right or even a privelige, these people did not know what they were missing until they had these things given to them. Then soon after a not so long ago military coup was set forth trying to stop the spread of capitalism. The people immediately put a stop to this by fighting back. Admittedly through limited use of firearms, (but in this instance much of the military was swayed and the whole coup was disorganized thinly spread and a general clusterfuck). The people stopped this because they had a taste of something they wanted and realized they could not live without. We who have become independant only through firearms have tasted the freedom and know we need it, but with freedom comes respnsibilities and taking away our rights will never make life better, and we will never learn responsibility. An anti-freedom coup is what happened in Russia, a country without armed citizens. The people would have been crushed if not for the fact that the military was split and eventualy won over by the fact that they wanted freedom. The Russian peoiple were lucky. Can we honestly trust a militia, a government, and a police force all armed? If this is a democracy and we the people govern the nation, then what would happen to our country if our already too powerful government decides to remove out rights giving themselves more power. Who would stop them? A question could be raised, would a handgun or an AK-47 stop a tank? the answer? YES! Of course none of us are Rambo and could stop a tank with a .38 snub nose, but you would have a chance. An AK-47 on the othe hand you would have a much easier time trying to put a dent in it, but the point is, you can't descriminate aimlessly just because you feel a certain firearm has been involved in too many crimes. Or a certain firearm is too wicked or militaristic looking. These are decisions that are made by uninformed biased dinosaurs, decisions that unfortunatly, are being made for us everyday. WHo would stop our countries powers from taking over? Two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf War all in the same century. I think our allies would sit this one out. I am not any way saying our military and police are crooked, what I am saying is they are public servants and that's exactly what they do, serve the public through the government's order and discretion. Besides your common thief, average homocidal maniac or occasional coup, what else could the public need to defend themselves against? Not too long ago there were the worst riots in America since the ones in Watts of 1966. There were too many looters and protesters using guns. I felt for those people caught in the cross-fire without protection for themselves their homes or family. I understand all too well why there was such a rush in yet unaffected regions to buy ammunition. I had a friend who took his wife and two of his daughters to see Disneyland. Not yet knowing of the riots in L.A. and Hollywood, he was very relieved to know he had brought a handgun and extras ammunition. I also was very proud of merchants in Korea town within L.A., who during martial law took a paramilitary/vigilante stance and banded together to protect thier property from looters. A few weeks ago no one could comprehend the destruction and violence that took two full day of horror before the National Guard was able to give assistance. Two full days of making it on your own, in a disaster situation such as earthquakes, we are given up to three days maximum until we are assured aid. We should be prepared for at least 72 hours, being able to protect ourselves is an extremely large part of that. Soon after the earthquake we had in 1989 many people were trapped or unable to get help for over three day. There was suddenly also a new class of have and have-nots. If you are prepared those without will try anything to remove the stabilities and life essentials that you may have created for you and your family. An earthquake is only a fluke thing? Scientists have been predicting an earthquake of immense proportions for years, but in the past two weeks within a space of a few days our West Coast has experienced earthquakes almost comparable to the one a few years ago. Those living in other parts of the nation have experienced many other disasters, this year the East Coast is plagued by the largest freeze in memory, affecting a huge area. We must behave like Boy Scouts and "be prepared." A firearm used as was designed, to hunt and for self defense is a very essential part of our life. I believe very strongly that our founding fathers knew exactly what they were doing when they created the Second Amendment. Words cannot always express fully the feeling of national pride and civic duty I feel when discussing the Constitution and our right to bear arms. We should never think of our first Congress as outdated men. People are people and morals are morals. They did not have the technology but they had the same maybe better, understanding of people. Our right to bear arms didn't say that its our countries right to have a military, it said we the people have a right when we are born thatwe as citizens can protect ourselves. In these recent years the youth of my generation have been hit with so much violence that the human life has little value, we have become so desensitized to murder that children are killing each other in classrooms. Firearms are looked upon as toys that make you a man in today's world, and Hollywood paints a picture saying you're a hero and you are the better man when settling conflicts with violence. There are so many different and better alternatives than gun control. Gun control is just an infringement on our rights, and is taking the power from the people. Ezra Child