Guns, Guns Guns

[philothea]

[quote name='beatty07' date='Nov 3 2005, 11:39 PM']all this gun control stuff sounds awfully strange to us country boys.  I understand a lot better having lived in Chicago for a few years.  Up here, guns are only ever fired at human beings.  That's the only thing they're for as far as Chicagoans are concerned.

Now back home...well we shoot at clay pigeons, real pigeons, woodland creatures, tin cans, whiskey bottles, streetlights, streetsigns, catfish that are big enough to kill you, tv's, jukeboxes......pretty much everything is a potential target EXCEPT people which everybody knows you ain't supposed to shoot.
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Yeah, as a Chicagoan who moved out into the country, it took a bit of getting used to.... what with everyone wanting to tell me about their gun collection!

[annie]

I am a western-suburb-of-Chicagoan and I got a BB gun for Mother's Day last year! Keeps the squirrels off my bird feeder, and keeps the stray cats from using my flower beds as litter boxes!

I shoot to sting, not kill, as I don't want to clean up the messy carcasses!

[beatty07]

you got a gun for mother's day? Are you originally from Southern Illinois?

he he...I'd like to see that. We had a horrible coon problem with our bird feeder....never thought of plinking him in his little thieving butt with a BB!

[annie]

Oh, it works wonders, and develops my aim. I am a good shot, annie get your gun, LOL

I truly don't want to make them suffer---I just want to Pavlovian-train them to associate butt-stinging with gnawing on my bird food. So far it is a lesson learned, and as each new crop of squirrel youths arrive, they get their lesson.

Coons are a different story-- they can get nasty, and no way on earth you can kill a coon with a BB gun. (brain is way too small a target). I hate racoons--rabid, foul vermin that they are. Crack a can of tuna, set it in a bowl of anti-freeze......oh wait, this IS a public forum, ooops, you didn't hear it from me---and yikes, you will kill the neighbor's cat doing that! But at least they leave your property before they croak...

[Guest Rick777]

Yes, for both hunting and home defense be practical no reason to have a freakin nuclear weapon in your home.

[PhillyMatt]

I firmly beleive in the 2nd ammendment and believe that all people have a right to self defense. I even have a Carry permit and I'm glad I have the option to carry if I feel the need.

From the Catechism: The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. "The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one's own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not." C.C.C.

[Guest Rick777]

i agree matt

[Church Punk]

I am shocked by the response for this post. Why do we need guns? What is everyone so afraid of that we must keep weapons with no purpose but to kill, in our homes.

Is this really how we should live as good Catholics? Why do we give into this culture of fear?

Many of you say you need a gun for protection. Protection from whom? If someone wants to rob you or kill you they will do it regardless if you have a gun or not.

Did Christ not say, do not be afraid I am with you always? If we have Christ with us why do need to carry weapons?

[PhillyMatt]

You're kidding me right? So if someone comes into my home and wants to do harm to me and my family, I shouldn't have the right to protect them? Wrong, I'm going to protect them anyway I can. Where I live, home invasion style robberies do happen with some consistence, and I think it's good to be prepared.
Call the cops you say? Maybe the kind criminal will wait before he starts having his way with the family so I can make a quick call. How long does it take police to show up anyway?

Have you seen the social anarchy that can occur during a natural disaster? Most of the New Orleans Police force went AWOL, who protected the citizens? Well, the ones with firearms had to protect themselves from the criminal element.

I know what Christ said, but telling a criminal those things probably won't do very good, but hey, if you wanna take that chance, that's up to you.

BTW, that quote about self-defense in my previous post is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church...

[chickens4life]

[quote name='Church Punk' date='Nov 15 2005, 10:35 AM']I am shocked by the response for this post. Why do we need guns? What is everyone so afraid of that we must keep weapons with no purpose but to kill, in our homes.

Is this really how we should live as good Catholics? Why do we give into this culture of fear?

Many of you say you need a gun for protection. Protection from whom? If someone wants to rob you or kill you they will do it regardless if you have a gun or not.

Did Christ not say, do not be afraid I am with you always? If we have Christ with us why do need to carry weapons?
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(I wont speak for others here, it is just from my own experiance that I speak.)

I think that most of us have guns for other reasons to, not just so we can shoot someone that threatens our life. I have them because I hunt, that dosn't mean that I would not use them in self defense.
Also most people that have guns practice with them and enjoy it, I don't know any one that just has guns because they think that they will have to shoot sombody. And even them the guns are just colecting dust, why dose that bother you?

[Church Punk]

I guess, its just a differance in our cultures. Up here I know all of one (1) person who actually has a gun. I have never heard of a home invasion before or one happening around here. I am I weird for not being in touch with this? But it just is not a reality where I live.

We dont lock our door day or night while we are home, we leave possesions out occasionally and they are still here in the morning. And its not that I live in a gated neighbourhood or anything I live in a city of significant size and it does have crime. I also live near what would be called the ghetto of town.

Really the only guns I see is when I cross the border at Detroit and the customs officer or marine has them.

I just dont see how a having a gun will improve my chances of saving my self from some sort of random act of voilance. If someone is going to shoot you what good is it if you have a gun locked up in your room?

However I guess I am just naieve to the fact that home invasions are common in other parts of the world. I am sorry for the previous post, but i just dont like guns.

[Norseman82]

[quote name='Church Punk' date='Nov 15 2005, 08:35 AM']If someone wants to rob you or kill you they will do it regardless if you have a gun or not.
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Not if I fire first!!!!!

[Norseman82]

[quote name='Church Punk' date='Nov 15 2005, 08:35 AM']Did Christ not say, do not be afraid I am with you always? If we have Christ with us why do need to carry weapons?
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Peter had a sword in the garden of Gethsemane, as I recall.......

[PhillyMatt]

[quote name='Church Punk' date='Nov 15 2005, 07:12 PM']I guess, its just a differance in our cultures. Up here I know all of one (1) person who actually has a gun. I have never heard of a home invasion before or one happening around here. I am I weird for not being in touch with this? But it just is not a reality where I live.

We dont lock our door day or night while we are home, we leave possesions out occasionally and they are still here in the morning. And its not that I live in a gated neighbourhood or anything I live in a city of significant size and it does have crime. I also live near what would be called the ghetto of town.

Really the only guns I see is when I cross the border at Detroit and the customs officer or marine has them.

I just dont see how a having a gun will improve my chances of saving my self from some sort of random act of voilance. If someone is going to shoot you what good is it if you have a gun locked up in your room?

However I guess I am just naieve to the fact that home invasions are common in other parts of the world. I am sorry for the previous post, but i just dont like guns.
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Church,

You're right, it is more of a culteral thing. Americans tend to like being prepared and to take care of themselves when things go bad or challenges arise, whereas people with a European/Socialist mentality tend to like the government to take care of them.

I know plenty of people that live out in the country where crime is low, they still have guns. They are prepared to defend themselves in case something happens, civil unrest, crime, natural disaster. It also allows a certain amount of power to be in the citizens hands, not just in the gov't.....gov'ts go bad sometime ya know. I bet some citizens in France wish they were allowed to keep guns during the 17 days and counting of rioting....

[Church Punk]

I guess you have good points on that. But if guns were taken out of the picture period there would be less deaths as a result of crime. Think about it if some comes at you with a club or a knife, you have a much better chance of defending your self than if they shoot your from 15 m away.

I just feel that if you have that power available you may be tempted to shoot first and ask questions later in a spur of a moment, when things are uncomfortable, instead of logically thinking your situation through.

With great power comes great responsiblity.



[quote]Peter had a sword in the garden of Gethsemane, as I recall.......[/quote]

And what did Jesus tell him about using his sword????

"He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword"