Do You Like Guns?

[Sherminator]

SO!

 

Do you like guns?

 

Vote! note that you can make more than one vote...

 

Also, any comments welcome!

[Kasey]

I don't particularly like guns and I think the world would be a better place if there weren't so many guns. 

 

I believe it's fair to let people own guns and I believe it's fair to ask for background checks and/or waiting periods.  I also think that some guns should not be allowed to be purchased mostly because they can fall into the wrong hands..

[vasu]

I play a lot of counter-strike.... I love the guns in them especially maverick and ak47

[Miss Kitka]

I've never handled any weapons.

I like the Star Trek ones though.

[Sherminator]

I like guns in video games, the bigger the gun the better!

-But I would not want a real gun in the house. Too tempting to use it...

[gaqo]

Arms dealers should be thrown out of Humanity. It's long been my opinion that they arm Middle Eastern, African,and Eastern countries, and then start wars, so that the West can test out its latest hardware. Which of course they also supplied. As long as people are killing each other, it's win-win, in terms of profits for them. They are a disgrace to Humanity! Make them live in stagnant ponds!(sorry frogs!)

[Sherminator]

Arms dealers should be thrown out of Humanity. It's long been my opinion that they arm Middle Eastern, African,and Eastern countries, and then start wars, so that the West can test out its latest hardware. Which of course they also supplied. As long as people are killing each other, it's win-win, in terms of profits for them. They are a disgrace to Humanity! Make them live in stagnant ponds!(sorry frogs!)

 

I'm sorry but I cannot agree with that.

-In africa mainland, the tribes have been massacring each other before whites showed on the shores.

 

they would do their wars even without guns we sell them. If not guns, they would use spears and knives and stones and so on.

 

In fact, it might be better they have guns, for two reasons.

-Killing with gun is a bit more merciful than being hacked apart with a blunt stone knife. And

-Even the weaker men (and women) can use guns, whereas with melee weaponry, the strongest would always win. So guns even the odds, and give weaklings a change to survive.

 

Now, I do not like killing and war, but it does happen no matter what I like or not. And note that we do try sell our guns to the underdogs, apart from uscrupulous arms dealers.

[gaqo]

You can easily extend your observation 'tribes have been massacring each other', to 'people have been killing each other', and I take your point, that guns are relatively 'merciful', but actually the range of techniques are unlimited. Even your 'weaker people', could use poison, or simply pay, persuade, or seduce someone else into doing it! It's interesting that despite centuries of moralising by religions, what seems to hold most people back, is only the fear of being caught. I'm sure most of us have fantisized about retribution. Maybe it's a cultural phenomena. Last night they held an audio/visual event, in Manchester. They showed alot of films, and footage depicting attacks on American cities. It transpired that they had all been created prior to 9/11. The premise being that culture had willed the World Trade Center attacks. So it follows that if we wish to stop genocide, then we need to re-programme culture. I once did an sound art piece, showing how the culture of disregard for human life and retribution, facilitated the 'going postal' phenomena. 

[Sherminator]

You can easily extend your observation 'tribes have been massacring each other', to 'people have been killing each other', and I take your point, that guns are relatively 'merciful', but actually the range of techniques are unlimited. Even your 'weaker people', could use poison, or simply pay, persuade, or seduce someone else into doing it! It's interesting that despite centuries of moralising by religions, what seems to hold most people back, is only the fear of being caught. I'm sure most of us have fantisized about retribution. Maybe it's a cultural phenomena. Last night they held an audio/visual event, in Manchester. They showed alot of films, and footage depicting attacks on American cities. It transpired that they had all been created prior to 9/11. The premise being that culture had willed the World Trade Center attacks. So it follows that if we wish to stop genocide, then we need to re-programme culture. I once did an sound art piece, showing how the culture of disregard for human life and retribution, facilitated the 'going postal' phenomena. 

 

Yes, gettin revenge seems a strong mover for us humans.

-and I agree, most people are good just because they fear getting caught in the act and thus losing their reputation. Peer pressure, more than laws, thus keep us in line.

[gaqo]

I like guns in video games, the bigger the gun the better!

-But I would not want a real gun in the house. Too tempting to use it...

'When I was a baby, my momma told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with gun, but I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die'.(Johnny Cash: Folsom Prison Blues)

[Sherminator]

Interesting:

I know blokes who love playing super wiolent videogames, the likes that would make me puke.

-but these same blokes are very gentle and nonviolent in their real lives. Even more pacifist than me!

 

I find it quite strange that in some people there seems to be two personalities like that. One violent avatar, and one peaceful person...

[gaqo]

Well I believe Humans are in a transitional phase, but we haven't wholly left all our animal instincts behind us yet. And lets face it some are more evolved than others! I think that's what gaming allows us to do, let out some of our hunter/killer instincts in a harmless way(although I've tired of gaming, at present!). We've talked about Zen Buddhism, and that allows us to transcend the 'duality thinking', that restricts our thinking. No one is wholly good or evil, but both. Even SS troops went home and kissed their children. After seeing all the macho avatars on the gaming forums, I opted for the contemplative Zen monk, and a name that sounds like the noise a demented duck would make!

[Sherminator]

I believe that humans are genetically violent, a sort of warrior breed.

-If you look at history, wars and violence is the word through millenia.

And because peacefull humans have been slaughtered, the violent is what remain.

 

To back it up, look how even little kids play with toy weapons and play war in the woods.

-even kids that have not seen or heard about wars. So it is instinct. It's in the genes.

 

So, to cleanse humans from violence will take millenia at least.

[gaqo]

I believe that humans are genetically violent, a sort of warrior breed.

-If you look at history, wars and violence is the word through millenia.

And because peacefull humans have been slaughtered, the violent is what remain.

 

To back it up, look how even little kids play with toy weapons and play war in the woods.

-even kids that have not seen or heard about wars. So it is instinct. It's in the genes.

 

So, to cleanse humans from violence will take millenia at least.

I'm never quite sure if you're being; spuriously authentic, seriously facetious,sardonic, or all three simultaneously? You could also argue that if all the violent ones annihiliate each other, only the sensible ones will be left, 'survival of the smartest'! I think culture needs to be rebooted, but if you think how many violent films and games are being produced, maybe they are trying to promote slaughter, before we reach seven billion.

[BBTfan]

Love is an odd choice to describe it. I respect them. As long as my government is armed with them, then I believe we (civilians) should as well. 
If I had the option of making ALL guns disappear, would I? Very tempting...

 

Got my first one this year.

[Sherminator]

I'm never quite sure if you're being; spuriously authentic, seriously facetious,sardonic, or all three simultaneously? You could also argue that if all the violent ones annihiliate each other, only the sensible ones will be left, 'survival of the smartest'! I think culture needs to be rebooted, but if you think how many violent films and games are being produced, maybe they are trying to promote slaughter, before we reach seven billion.

I'm serious about the genetics of violence in humans. And note that some monkeys have been observing making war on neighbouring monkey tribes (true!!!)

 

Sad thing is that our warrior genes cannot go to sleep any time soon, because:

-In most countries, men are required to go to military seivice for a short time. (year in most countries)

 

So, in most countries, young men are trained to kill!

-and this training will reinforce, and keep active, our warrior genes.

 

So, only when all militaries are disbanded and all wars ended, can human change really start taking place, in genetic level.

[gaqo]

I'm serious about the genetics of violence in humans. And note that some monkeys have been observing making war on neighbouring monkey tribes (true!!!)

 

Sad thing is that our warrior genes cannot go to sleep any time soon, because:

-In most countries, men are required to go to military seivice for a short time. (year in most countries)

 

So, in most countries, young men are trained to kill!

-and this training will reinforce, and keep active, our warrior genes.

 

So, only when all militaries are disbanded and all wars ended, can human change really start taking place, in genetic level.

I know what you're saying. I've seen the footage of chimpanzees, ganging up against weaker members, and other gangs. And I see it in our cities, where we get tribal, gang violence and territoriality. It shows how much we retain old patterns of behaviour. Our cities are essentially millions of individuals(and family units), but we still form tribal allegiances. Maybe it's true what people have predicted, this would only stop if an alien species, or planetary catastrophe threatened us as a whole, and we all had to pull together(except the French, who would be off somewhere cooking garlic!). Or maybe geneticists will change the 'violent gene' code. I think that's also been the subject of sci fi.

[wannamaker]

Wilfred Owen quote:

 

"What passing bells for those who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons."

[Sherminator]

still, without wars the earth would be even more overpopulated as it is now.

-so something good.

 

And wars have given us advances in tech and engineering.

 

and why is it that it is all right to kill animals, but not all right to kill humans???

[gaqo]

What's your view on euthanasia? Because I imagine in the future, there may be special 'euthanasia boxes', like the public toilets, on high streets(or have high streets been euthanised, I can't keep up!). Imagine some poor souls may go in the wrong cubicle by accident, and flush their lives away! Do you think cows(and all other animals) think we are waging war on them?

[Sherminator]

Internet will bring us world peace!

 

TOday, young people all over the world are connected via internet.

-they know each other, and know that people are the same all over the world.

 

There in no jingoism or patriotism in the young. Not the way their parents have them.

 

So, in the future all mankind will be connected into a single whole, via internet. And nobody will want to wage war, unless it is virtual war in world of warcraft!

 

Hooray for internet!

 

Euthanasia?

-well, people get extended life spans these days, and therefore, they stay old geezers longer. Dying at the age of 90, and not 70, means 20 more miserable years of being old.

So, euthanasia will become commonplace, because more and more people will not want to linger, but will want to pass on before the miserly life between years 70-100 starts.

What religion says about this is another matter, but hey, who cares about those dumbskulls?

[No Regrets]

Interesting topic. 

I don't have anything against guns per se, but I've never felt the need to own one. I've always felt perfectly safe even when I would walk home alone at 3 am. I also trust our police very much.