...FUCK THE NRA and the GUN NUTS!

times 1,000,000!!!!!!!

hunters can hunt for food with bow and arrow
collectors can hang them on the wall or in cases
shooting galleries can give entrants a gun to shoot with

and no gun should be in the street.

zero

...and these hobbies can be quite consuming, trust me. None of them involve chucking lead at the speed of sound at a target.

Perhaps these "hobbyists" should think about collecting guitars, or antique radios. My guitars and radios have never hurt anyone.

Maybe that's part of the answer?

Save lives.. Kill your guns.

let them play darts.

Same with hunting.

Humanity managed to hunt just fine for thousands of years using bow & arrows.

They have no other use than killing.

I don't even particularly like them. I've never had cause to fire one or use one regularly and it would be a bad idea (for a variety of reasons) for me personally to own one.

That said, I believe they serve a purpose that is more than just killing.

I live in Northern Maine, in a rural area where there are many hunters, some that earn a living this way. I have known people who hunted for food when they couldn't afford to buy it at the grocery store. I have known hunters who shared what they had with many people who might otherwise have gone hungry. This isn't as uncommon as some seem to think, food isn't cheap and in times of economic hardship the ability to hunt can really help save lives.

I believe that all living things have a right to defend their own lives - and some humans use guns for these purposes. To have anything less against an assailant so armed is to be defending yourself with an inferior weapon. I don't have a gun, but in the unlikely event that someone broke down my door and entered my home with the intent of robbing me or even killing me - and that person had a gun.. well, I'd wish I had one then. I don't own one for this purpose because I think a home invasion is pretty unlikely in my small town, in a little apartment with three locks on the door.

Also, I can't help but wonder what sort of situation we would be living in... if citizens could not own guns. We would have an armed police force that did - and certainly a great many criminals would. I do not like the idea of a society being forced to live at the mercy of it's law enforcement officers and crime. It's easy to intimidate someone when you have a gun and they don't.

I believe in 2nd amendment rights - and I would fight for them if I had to, even though I don't own a gun. If you choose not to respect me for this reason, then that is certainly your right.

And you proved the OP's point perfectly. Thanks.

Looks like more absolutism to me, which is in itself, incredibly stupid. As for the apparent stupidity of my post, you're certainly entitled to your opinion, even if it is stupid.

"prove the OP's point". I too live in a poor very rural area where people actually hunt to put food on the table.

in the extreme minority in this country, and B) not a part of the "gun culture" that I describe above. People who use these straw-man arguments to defend gun culture are part of that culture.

So now it is up to the Pale Blue Dot to determine who is part of the gun culture of which you speak? You can determine this from a post that was inspired by the absolutism you demonstrated in your OP about your lack of respect for gun rights and/or those who support them?

You don't want me in your neighborhood? Fair enough, I don't want you in mine either.

hunt for the food because they don't have much money, there is 12000 acres around me and a young boy hunts this land, he doesn't live near here so I keep his guns for him, when he coming to hunt he calls me, a few weeks ago I found four pair of blue jeans in the closet that didn't fit me anymore, one pair was new with the tags, I was surprised at how he acted when I gave them to him. I let this boy clean a deer that he shot, in a tree in my front yard, my dogs loved that. I have guns and like them but I would not own an AR15, I have no use for a .223 caliber weapon, I do hunt deer with a SKS which is a 762x39 cal and is classed as an assualt rifle. My neighbor was mfg meth and is a cop and the cops did nothing about it so purchased one more gun and ammo, I figured with the traffic that we were having due to drug sales that there would be a shoot out one of these days, but I got lucky the Bank foreclosed on him and I now have a good neighbor. There are very few people where I live, to my left my nearest neighbor is one mile to my right I have three neighbors in a mile.

this leaped out at me: They can't help you eat your dinner. They can't create beautiful works of art.

Actually, they can both help you eat your dinner and create works of art. I had a dear friend, diseased now, but he lived in funky log cabin built by hand, no power tools and he hunted for whatever meat he ate. I could never in a million years live like Pete lived, and I've lived without electricity and running water, but I deeply respected his choices. And he built beautiful rocking chairs.

Also, I know an artist who uses guns in creating art. He's not the only one.

http://weburbanist.com/2009/01/05/20-artworks-of-war-bizarre-gun-and-bullet-art/

https://www.google.com/search?q=gun+art&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=twfOUMfXBImR0QGUtICwCA&sqi=2&ved=0CHMQsAQ&biw=1229&bih=553

are for nothing more than killing people. And I find it not surprising that the Christianist pro-life crowd are the biggest fans of gun culture.

These people are sick.

That says it all.

if you're celebrating ignorance and fear and hate.

say, "well, cars kill many more people each year."

Yeah, but cars transport way many more people and material across vast distances each year as well. Guns don't do that. Knives cut up food or help open boxes or remove unnecessary parts to a wall paper. Guns don't do that. A baseball bat is essential for the game of baseball. Guns aren't.

Indeed, a gun is the sole instrument that if used correctly or incorrectly, can lead to death. It can't even prevent getting hit. A sword, for example, can be used correctly (against another sword) by deflecting the on-coming sword or spear, without hitting or hurting the attacker. A gun can't even do that. A threat of a gun against a person with a gun only escalates so that both shoot.

Hiding behind the 2nd Amendment is not a defense.

As such, it was only meant to reinforce your preconceived opinion that no one should own one. Many guns have a specific value that rises and falls depending on tastes and availability, therefore many people use them as an investment.

People buy antique cars. If someone saw a '58 Chevy as a death trap because of it's lack of modern safety features, they may demand "clunker laws" that send them to the crusher, but others find beauty in the car's lines and buy them, both because they're fun to use, and as an investment. You could argue that such an antique can be used for transportation, but realistically speaking, no one really counts on them for that.

I grew up with a rifle in my parent's rural home. There was always a brick of .22 ammo in the cupboard, and my dad bought a new one every time it ran low. As a teen, I often went through a thousand rounds a week with that old Mossberg, and I became quite good. I never used it to kill anything because I can't bring myself to do that, but I really enjoyed plinking tin cans or shooting targets at long range. I'm certain I could have been a marksman had I been drafted into the Vietnam war, but I'm glad I didn't because I don't think I could possibly kill anyone on demand.

When I got older and on my own, I began collecting Colt single action revolvers. Most of these old west guns were rare and expensive even then, and a few were gold, nickel, or silver plated and in their own display boxes. Most of these guns were never meant to fire because that would destroy the collector value. I sold all but a few at a decent profit during bad times back in the '80s and '90s, but now I wish I'd held on to them. They're worth a lot more now.

I kept just a couple of those old guns, including the one I keep in my bedroom for self protection, a Colt pocket model hammerless .360 auto manufactured in 1923. I seldom shoot it anymore, so it remains in immaculate condition and is worth about five times what I paid 30 years ago. I also hope I never have to use it, because I don't know what I'd do. Needless to say, I don't carry it outside the home.

My youngest son took up collecting soon after he graduated HS. He shrewdly bought guns that he felt would increase in value and has amassed quite a collection. He's hoping right along with you that the ban on new assault rifles is passed because it means he bought low and can sell high, Most of his guns are WWII relics. Both my sons share my anti violence views and neither one hunt or pose a threat to society.

A lot of blue collar liberal democrats own firearms and enjoy using them, It's not a partisan issue, and never was.

Does this look like the face of a stone cold killer? I doubt Rachel would agree that the 150 year old antique octagon barrel Henry Rifle she owns is only an "instrument of death, period":

Especially hand guns and the machine gun like assault rifles. Neither are for hunting game. They are weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh's daily screeds through, Faux Snooze. These opinion editorializing commentators, creating and making news, to fit an agenda, set by capitalist think tanks. It is advertising and marketing ideology of the right wing to influence the masses. They are propagandizing a vulnerable segment of the population who are paranoid enough to keep a lot of guns. It should be illegal to work them up. If they are found to be the source of fomenting this current malcontent or even in, exploiting the fear to drive more gun and ammo sales, Fox should be driven out of the hard news business. It should be labeled entertainment like Jon Stewart.. It is capitalism at it's worst, justifying instruments of death and control, as necessary to life and liberty. All to promote the sales and profits, of a greed driven industry of death and destruction.

Killing and practicing killing.

Some people say a gun is just a device designed to throw lead through a piece of paper, but that sanitizes their purpose. Most if not all civilian arms today started out as weapons of war. Weapons of war were certainly designed to kill. But every time I hear the phrase "guns are designed to kill" I never hear the obvious follow up question: designed to kill who?

There are 200-300 million guns circulating in the USA today. If each gun was only used for killing, as you say--even used to kill ONCE--there wouldn't be very many Americans around.

You're simply letting your irrational fear turn into equally irrational hatred. Guns are not exclusively made to kill. They're made to hit targets, and they're made for hunting. Yes, they can kill, but very few people go out and buy a gun because they plan on killing someone. Nor do they "worship death".

I don't understand the mindset of people who get drunk, smoke weed, or use drugs for "recreation", but I don't go around hating them. In reality, there's a far greater chance that you'll be killed by a drunk driver than by a gun. But I don't go around accusing social drinkers of worshiping death, just because other drinkers ignore the risks and get behind the wheel.