Thinking about getting...

[monk0nuggets]

a handgun permit. I'm not some gun nut or anything. In fact, I've only shot a gun one time in my life, but I feel like it's the American thing to do (own a gun). Especially with the way our government is behaving, not that we should be overthrowing it anytime soon. Anyone go through the process? It seems like a lot of work, but I think I want to do it. Thoughts?

[defanatic1758]

I've shot a gun before... ?

[hyperinactive]

my old boss has one. you just go through a 3 hour course and then wait for them to mail the certificate to you. its that easy. at least in florida.

[enjoyadrian]

ive held a loaded gun before, but ive never shot one. I've always wanted to though. Must be liberating in a way.

[xjustinxschwierx]

I've been thinking about doing this as well, I have my merit badge from boy scouts somewhere for Riflery. I haven't fired a gun in probably 15 years, but it's a fun hobby.

[lostatsea]

i have shot plenty, own zero. My dad has quite a few..retired sheriff. He also keeps one for me that my grandfather got for me in WWII. All I know about it is its not a lugar. Its some other type used most likely in the pacific.

[mediocore]

I've shot a ton of guns over the years (uzi, AK-47, rifles, shotguns, mossberg, etc.) but don't own any.

[Snaggle Von Swift]

i've been thinking about it too.. but do you have to have an absolute clean record to get a permit? (i got arrested for a [non-violent] misdemeanor like 4 years ago)

[monk0nuggets]

I'm honestly not sure. You may have to. I know you have to get a couple letters of recommendation, so it may not matter. I'm going to call the county clerk this week sometime and get the details.

[keevhren]

felons cant own guns.

not sure about misdemeanors.

[voodooramen]

I think it depends on the state you live in, laws can differ. I don't see why a non violent misdemeanor would really hinder the ability to get one.

[andrew13]

in my room i have a 12 gauge pump, 2 16 gauge (1 bolt that 100+ yrs old, 1 break), 4-10 break, 2 .22's (pump and bolt), .243 bolt, .30-30 lever and break. don't think i've fired any bigger than a .22 in about 6 years, and that i've just used to pick off skunks/groundhogs on the property.

no handguns though. not a big fan of them or semi/full auto rifles. when i was a kid i would hunt a lot, like everyone in the area. after 16 i pretty much stopped. a lot of the guns i have were from my grandpa, and i really wouldn't feel right getting rid of them.

[enjoyadrian]

I'm honestly not sure. You may have to. I know you have to get a couple letters of recommendation, so it may not matter. I'm going to call the county clerk this week sometime and get the details.

from who do you get letters of recommendation from?

[monk0nuggets]

As far as I know, people with long standing gun permits, public figures (cops, judges) and the like. I'm wondering if I can use my grandfather as a reference, as he is an ex-cop and is now a judge.

[kgry]

I have a permit and own a handgun. In Illinois you don't even need to take a test or class. They just do a background check.

[kirbypuckett]

OMFG DON'T VOTE FOR OBAMA HE IS TAKING AWAY YOUR RIGHTS TO DEFEND YOUR COUNTRY!!!111

[mcm1610]

That amendment is completely and 100% taken out of context, and I hate it. Not that I really want to strip everyone's gun collection (well, I wouldn't be upset if that happened) but outside of hunting, what do you need a gun for?

That amendment states that the people have the right to bear arms, but it is the COLLECTIVE people that is being talked about. In other words, you can have caches of firearms for militia use. No one ever implied that everyone should have their own firearms so they can hole up in their house after not paying taxes for years or something like that.

A lot of my friends have guns, my ex's gf's dad always had one on him, so whatever. I just don't see the point, and they don't solve anything.

One of the guys in my teaching classes legitimately thinks that one county or town in Texas that allows teachers to carry firearms in school is onto something good, and I can't help but think he's an idiot. If everyone's running around with guns, problems are only going to get worse.

[rtw88]

That amendment is completely and 100% taken out of context, and I hate it. Not that I really want to strip everyone's gun collection (well, I wouldn't be upset if that happened) but outside of hunting, what do you need a gun for?

That amendment states that the people have the right to bear arms, but it is the COLLECTIVE people that is being talked about. In other words, you can have caches of firearms for militia use. No one ever implied that everyone should have their own firearms so they can hole up in their house after not paying taxes for years or something like that.

A lot of my friends have guns, my ex's gf's dad always had one on him, so whatever. I just don't see the point, and they don't solve anything.

One of the guys in my teaching classes legitimately thinks that one county or town in Texas that allows teachers to carry firearms in school is onto something good, and I can't help but think he's an idiot. If everyone's running around with guns, problems are only going to get worse.

I think you are totally wrong. People who are going to commit crimes with guns are going to do it whether it is legal to carry the guns or not. Take the virginia tech incident for example. The killer was not legally allowed to have the weapon, but did that stop him? But think about if one person there had a legal permit to have a gun in that classroom, it all could have possibly been ended sooner.

I'm against assault rifles. I think it's overboard. But I would say by all means get a handgun for protection, so long as you keep it secured well so no one hurts themselves. Also, learn how to use it well. I'm sure they'll tell you in your class, but learn how to shoot without aiming through the sites, as I would assume you'd only use the weapon in self defense, meaning you wouldn't have time to aim.

[theambulancereview]

I go to a school where most kids have recording/film equipment and MacBook Pros. I also have thought about purchasing a gun because of the expensive audio gear that I own and don't have insurance on.

I thought about that until last week when a bunch of kids got held up leaving class with 2 handguns and a shotgun in their faces. They got their $3,000 laptops stolen and everything else they had on them. As a 20 year old that lives alone in a big city, this scares the living shit out of me.

I'm all for people owning guns for the sole purpose of hunting, it is a way of life for some, and a tradition for others, but I can never support buying a gun just to own one.

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[mcm1610]

That amendment is completely and 100% taken out of context, and I hate it. Not that I really want to strip everyone's gun collection (well, I wouldn't be upset if that happened) but outside of hunting, what do you need a gun for?

That amendment states that the people have the right to bear arms, but it is the COLLECTIVE people that is being talked about. In other words, you can have caches of firearms for militia use. No one ever implied that everyone should have their own firearms so they can hole up in their house after not paying taxes for years or something like that.

A lot of my friends have guns, my ex's gf's dad always had one on him, so whatever. I just don't see the point, and they don't solve anything.

One of the guys in my teaching classes legitimately thinks that one county or town in Texas that allows teachers to carry firearms in school is onto something good, and I can't help but think he's an idiot. If everyone's running around with guns, problems are only going to get worse.

I think you are totally wrong. People who are going to commit crimes with guns are going to do it whether it is legal to carry the guns or not. Take the virginia tech incident for example. The killer was not legally allowed to have the weapon, but did that stop him? But think about if one person there had a legal permit to have a gun in that classroom, it all could have possibly been ended sooner.

I'm against assault rifles. I think it's overboard. But I would say by all means get a handgun for protection, so long as you keep it secured well so no one hurts themselves. Also, learn how to use it well. I'm sure they'll tell you in your class, but learn how to shoot without aiming through the sites, as I would assume you'd only use the weapon in self defense, meaning you wouldn't have time to aim.

That's because there's so many that are easy to gain access to. It'd be a long process (ie - long enough process where the existing guns wear out and don't work anymore somehow) but I really think we need to phase out weapons whose sole purpose is killing another person for everyone outside of on-duty law enforcement.

[mcm1610]

I go to a school where most kids have recording/film equipment and MacBook Pros. I also have thought about purchasing a gun because of the expensive audio gear that I own and don't have insurance on.

I thought about that until last week when a bunch of kids got held up leaving class with 2 handguns and a shotgun in their faces. They got their $3,000 laptops stolen and everything else they had on them. As a 20 year old that lives alone in a big city, this scares the living shit out of me.

I'm all for people owning guns for the sole purpose of hunting, it is a way of life for some, and a tradition for others, but I can never support buying a gun just to own one.

This is kind of my point. If you have a gun on you, what are you going to do when someone else with a gun catches you by surprise? Are you really going to have a shootout with them, risking your life, or are you going to let your possessions go?

[desensitizedbyu]

If you have a permit to own a gun, does that mean you can carry it around with you? I remember when I was born in Arizona my neighbor would carry his .45 with him to the mailbox every morning. That guy was awesome.

[mcm1610]

If you have a permit to own a gun, does that mean you can carry it around with you? I remember when I was born in Arizona my neighbor would carry his .45 with him to the mailbox every morning. That guy was awesome.

I believe there's different permits. You need something, at least in NYS, that allows you to carry a concealed weapon which is different than a regular gun permit.

[Guest baseball]

If everyone's running around with guns, problems are only going to get worse.

Sure, that seems like a logical conclusion, but it's really just a causal one that isn't backed up by facts.

Let's compare the US to England. US has relatively lax gun control, England has the most stringent of any western democracy. Particuarly in the past 20 years or so, including a handgun ban.

London's Evening Standard reported that armed crime, with banned handguns the weapon of choice, was "rocketing." In the two years following the 1997 handgun ban, the use of handguns in crime rose by 40 percent, and the upward trend has continued. From April to November 2001, the number of people robbed at gunpoint in London rose 53 percent.

From 1991 to 1995, crimes against the person in England's inner cities increased 91 percent. And in the four years from 1997 to 2001, the rate of violent crime more than doubled. Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York. England's rates of assault, robbery, and burglary are far higher than America's, and 53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S., where burglars admit to fearing armed homeowners more than the police. In a United Nations study of crime in 18 developed nations published in July, England and Wales led the Western world's crime league, with nearly 55 crimes per 100 people.

I don't own a gun and I've only shot one a handful of times. I am considering getting one though at some point and going through some kind of training. The building I live next to was broken into a couple months ago and one of the residents was assaulted. I live in one of the nicest and safest neighborhoods in Baltimore, which just goes to show it can happen anywhere. Now it was likely an abberation, but it is still worthy of consideration. So now I'm faced with a choice of defending my home myself or I guess relying on an untrustworthy, at best, police force in my city. I think I'll take the former. Supporting gun "control" is an easy stance to take when you are not faced with a real possibility of violent crime.

The fact of the matter is that guns aren't causing the crime. Criminals are. It's the USA's terrible social policies creating high levels of poverty, particuarly in inner cities, that is contributing to gun violence.

The London-based Office of Health Economics, after a careful international study, found that while "one reason often given for the high numbers of murders and manslaughters in the United States is the easy availability of firearms...the strong correlation with racial and socio-economic variables suggests that the underlying determinants of the homicide rate are related to particular cultural factors."

Cultural differences and more-permissive legal standards notwithstanding, the English rate of violent crime has been soaring since 1991. Over the same period, America's has been falling dramatically. In 1999 The Boston Globe reported that the American murder rate, which had fluctuated by about 20 percent between 1974 and 1991, was "in startling free-fall." We have had nine consecutive years of sharply declining violent crime. As a result the English and American murder rates are converging. In 1981 the American rate was 8.7 times the English rate, in 1995 it was 5.7 times the English rate, and the latest study puts it at 3.5 times.