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Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout
First off I agree with gun control (hence thanking your post).
But I do want to point out you can't directly compare rights. They are different by nature. I can't compare the right to free speech with the right against improper search and seizure.
If you think I'm directly comparing the right against improper search & seizure to the right to bear and keep arms you're missing the point.
I as a Canadian citizen born in the post-Charter era have never had one of my rights taken away. I've never had something that I was entitled to and enjoyed just because I could be denied.
The comparison isn't on how many gun deaths there are, it's imagine having a fundamental right of yours taken away from you because of something someone else has done. Don't look at it as a broad overarching macro decision, but as an individual person who hasn't broken the law and suddenly told if you do what you've always done you're now a criminal.
In order to win the debate on Gun Control in America you need to understand the other side. Unless you can understand that losing a right, not a priveledge but a right, is a big deal and one that is unfathomable to both a Canadian and American, then you'll miss a fundamental piece to the gun control debate.
The rights issue really needs to be tackled at a personal level. National statistics won't work on the average American gun owner the same way that saying 50% of marriages end up in divorce. People still get married because "I'm not part of the bad statistic".
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There's just a really big difference between taking away a right, i.e. banning guns, which I'm not suggesting, and requiring more extensive restrictions on it, including a registry of those who own them, taking that right from people who have abused it in the past, ensuring that those who insist on their right to own firearms are educated in the use of them and emotionally stable enough to know when to use them.
I wouldn't recommend banning all weapons, not at all. But the move toward lifting restrictions on gun ownership/conceal carry laws, etc is bothersome, and it isn't even being led by voters, it's being led by special interest lobbies that are forcing their will on politicians.