...[ ]...And in case you can't read, I'm also against this gun....
Yes we do, about this gun in particular. In the larger issue of gun control in general, we seem to differ.
Keep in mind guns didn't cause Columbine, social factors did. That was an event brought about by social alienation. "Children can be so cruel", and so it begins. This one lisps. That one wears ugly black clothing. To the flip side, we profess to teach "tolerance", but some members of the community may not want, accept, or tolerate it. Thus, nails, bolts, wood screws and fertilizer, become as deadly as hand guns, perhaps more so.
Accordingly, the most unfortunate thing about man, is his "humanity". We alone can transfer knowledge from generation to generation via the written word. This has been studied, and found to lack the most important transfer of all, moral knowledge. Morality.
And that my friend is the root of a wide spectrum of social issues. After a 1,000+ years of advancement in lethal weaponry, we still haven't developed the moral restraint not to use it. That "restraint" goes untaught and unlearned to this day and beyond. What we have now, is 6 billion chimps, armed with nuclear weapons.
"Democracy", and how it attaches to "the rights of the individual", is a pivotal issue at stake. Try and "wrap your head around" this analog. AIDS "began", either by fact or rumour, in the gay community. Accordingly, the affliction was about to be named "GRIDS", (Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome). When one straight individual tuned up with the virus, that's when it would be no longer socially acceptable to call it that.
And so it goes with the sale of hand guns, if one person actually needs one, you can't ban the sale of them for every one. And carry permits are difficult to acquire, very difficult indeed.
If you trace this back to the root of its problem, you'd have to blame the US government for its inability to' "win the war on drugs", people bringing children into the world without much of an opportunity to do anything but sell crack & smack on the corner. When it comes to that, lack of moral virtue being transmitted produces individuals with an inbred unwillingness to grow up and do anything but sell drugs. So, it becomes very difficult, perhaps virtually impossible, to penalize law abiding citizens, with measures intended to control crime and punish criminals.
Nobody seems to think the US has any legislation on the books to control the distribution and sale of firearms. When the simple fact of the matter is, we have reams of it, along with a wing of government dedicated to overseeing it. "ATF"
Alcohol,
Tobacco, and
Firearms. Now if people's greed, stupidity, and lack of moral fiber, puts guns in the hands of criminals, that's a social issue, not a legislative issue.
I've gotten a perverse pleasure out of listening to the stupidity of the wild, perhaps naive claims made in this thread like, "Pakistan is safer than the US". I'm not sure, but it might be illuminating for these individuals to book a tour of the terrorist camps in Pakistan, then go as a proud American, unarmed.
As for you personally, you continually seem to forget you're not from around here. You're from the "great white north". Thus, you grew up and were educated in a different country, under a different propaganda structure.
That's not a fault, but you have to bear in mind, (especially when spouting overly liberal generalizations), that we all drank different Kool-Aids. So, your perception of what "is", based upon your middle class take on morality, may be completely at odds with some petty, self important, completely ego driven, gang banger in the hood. Your perception of, "The Golden Rule", (treat others, blah, blah), will almost certainly be in diametric opposition to his. And if I may be so bold, I suggest if you invite him to one of your cocktail parties, you either search him at the door, or be "packin a gat" yourself.(*)
(*) OTOH, he might be the perfect guest, but with a hidden agenda. The more money he can talk people out of to, "benefit his community", the more "disposable income" the people in his hood will have to buy drugs from him.
CODA: While it makes no sense to you or I, people with no money, no hope of employment, or even a place to live, will end up making highly addictive drugs their "hideout of opportunity". You can't attach any rationality to it, because there is none. The drug trade really is a huge motivating factor for the explosion of issues with illegal firearms,. Thus, believe it or not, I'm still on topic. (more or less).