We have a right to be free from fear of gun violence. We have a right in order to reasonably bring that about, to have fewer guns with more restrictive ownership and transfer regulation.
We do not have life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness when we have to worry about people with guns shooting us. This is true of domestic violence, this is true of crime, this is true of people who are otherwise law abiding but go off their nut committing crimes of passion, like the many - MANY - murder suicides we have seen, or just plain dumb-ass careless accidents, like the school children in Texas who were shot, or the woman walking her dogs, or the the couple of cases of hunters shot BY their dogs.
In contrast to the bad result of people having firearms, we see relatively few constructive uses of firearms for the primary reason cited of self-defense, and many of those defensive uses could equally be accomplished with non-lethal means like pepper spray, or tasers and stun guns.
Our law enforcement officers should be safer in pursuit of their duty than they are. As I noted earlier, in all of 2011, there were NO fatal shootings of law enforcement officers in the entire UK, with a total population of 63 million people. The entire country had a handful of murder suicides, and only one that I could find that involved firearms in all of 2011, compared to multiple occurrences every week here in the U.S., mostly involving firearms. The number of suicides in the UK, in comparison is approximately half that of the suicide rate of the U.S,, where more than half of all suicides involve firearms. Per the National Institute of Mental Health just having firearms in the home is a risk factor for suicides. The use of firearms in crimes are relatively rare in comparison to the U.S., proving the argument that criminals will continue to have lots of guns is false.
Our gun culture is part of our violence problem. Our gun culture is not making us safer or more free; it is making our country more dangerous, and in doing that it is making us less free, it is making us less civil and less civilized.
Or, we could continue to have more of this, with or without grenades (From the New Orleans Times Picayune:
Gunmen shoot 5 inside home in eastern New Orleans; kill 3
Published: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 10:18 AM Updated: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 8:30 PM
By Danny Monteverde, The Times-Picayune
Chaos broke out in eastern New Orleans today when gunmen killed three people and injured two others inside a red-brick ranch house in a quiet residential neighborhood. The violence continued when a gunfight broke out between police and the suspects after a car chase. Cops killed one of the suspects and shot two others.OR, we could tighten up our regulation on guns, and have fewer of them, particularly in the hands of criminals, dangerously mentally ill people, and drug users.
Enlarge Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune Moments after being shot by police, a murder suspect is checked for signs of life by a paramedic with New Orleans EMS as a female suspect lies on the ground at Press Drive and Chef Menteur Highway on Thursday, January 12, 2012. The trio are suspects in the shooting on Devine Avenue that left five people shot, three fatally. 3 killed, 2 injured in eastern New Orleans gallery (16 photos)
Police were called to 7427 Devine Ave. about 9:30 a.m., where they found a man and a woman dead inside the home, and two other women and a man with gunshot wounds, according to Officer Garry Flot, a department spokesman.
The three survivors were transported to a hospital, where one man later died, according to the Orleans Parish coroner's office.
A description of the gunmen, who allegedly escaped in a red Pontiac, was broadcast immediately, Flot said.
Police spotted the vehicle and a chase ensued. It ended when the car crashed into a sign in front of a Goodyear tire shop at the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and Press Drive, according to Deputy Superintendent Kirk Bouyelas.
After the crash, a man got out of the vehicle and fired at the officers. The officers returned fire, killing him and injuring a man and woman who were also in the car.
The injured occupants of the car were taken to a hospital, Bouyelas said. They will be booked with the attempted murder of a policeman and the murders in the east, Bouyelas said. One policeman was also taken to a hospital suffering from what Bouyelas described as a "graze wound" to his leg.
5 shot, 3 fatally in eastern New Orleans; 1 suspect dies in police shootout Chaos broke out in eastern New Orleans today when gunmen killed three people and injured two others. A gunfight broke out between police and the suspects after a car chase. Cops killed one of the suspects and shot two others. Watch video Bouyelas could not say how many shots were fired. However, nearly three dozen evidence cones were placed at the scene. One couple, who did not want to be identified, were in a Walgreens across the street from the tire shop when they heard "a bunch of pops outside." They came outside and saw the dead suspect and police.