The topic of gun ownership is re-occurring in the American media. Since we have a broad consensus in Germany that guns should be only owned by people who have to use them - Hunters, Police and Military - it is always baffling to see how many Americans justify or even argue for more private gun ownership. Personally I do like weapons, so I think I can understand where the gun love is coming from and I will try to make this one a little less ranty than my past posts.
As a child I loved action movies and my favorite game up until this day is Jagged Alliance 2, a mercenary management game where looting good weapons is very important. The funny and even somewhat educational description of the weapons is a really neat detail and I am pretty sure I read all of them.
In my short visit to the military I also had a gun in my hand and even though I did not shoot it, feeling it in my hand, disassembling, reassembling it, the thought out design of the H&K P9 made me wet my panties a little.
On the other hand I was threatened with a gun twice in my youth, a very discomforting feeling.
With all this said I do think that in a peaceful society there is no need for private gun ownership, because in a place in which everyone can potentially kill me within seconds, is not a society I want to live in. I will try to counter the most common Pro-Gun arguments in the following.
The 2nd Amendment
Appeal to authority. Unless you believe the founding fathers were flawless perfect beings you should not take anything written by them as God's word.
Guns are just a tool
Maybe the most valid of all the pro-Gun arguments because it is true. Weapons are tools. The responsibility for a crime should be blamed on the culprit and not the tool. However do you want to grant access to every tool to everyone? If you do then you should be in support of North Korea obtaining nuclear power. A nuclear missle is also a tool or is there any difference between rockets and hand guns?
Hand Guns are in my opinion a rather bad tool for violent conflict. With my hands and melee weapons I am much more in control of the damage I do, thus I am much less likely to kill a person unless necessary. Being right next to the potential victim makes you also much more aware of the monstrosity that is the act of killing another human being.
Guns are needed for self defense
Pepperspray, martial arts, knives... there are a lot of alternatives when it comes to protecting yourself. Giving the people more access to weapons for self defense ends in an arms race. While you rarely see guns in the German crime scene, in America they try to get their hands on the illegal automatic guns, while normal hand guns are considered common equipment for a ground level American criminal (I guess).
America is a different country than Germany and according to the principle of "andere Länder, andere Sitten" I don't think I can really convince you guys to get rid of your guns, but I want to give one final emotional comment on how I see you guys use guns:
You should not aim at someone unless you want to shoot him. Having looked through the barrel of a gun before let me tell you that you will instantly have somebody that wants to kill you for threatening his life.
You can shoot someone in a none-lethal spot once, if you are threatened. Learn to aim for body parts like hands, arms and legs. If you are incapable of performing a clean none-lethal shot under pressure, maybe you should not be granted access to a gun.