"Report: Nearly 400 Million Civilian-Owned Guns in America"

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Welcome to America!

Report: Nearly 400 Million Civilian-Owned Guns in America
Civilians own 100 times as many guns as the military, 400 times as many as police

A report published this month found civilians in the United States own almost 400 million guns, outpacing every other civilian population, police, or military force in the world.

The Small Arms Survey estimates there are 393,300,000 civilian-owned firearms in the United States. The survey, performed by the Graduate Institute of Geneva, estimated the United States military has about 4.5 million firearms. It put the number of firearms owned by police throughout the United States at just over 1 million.

That means American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly 400 times as many as law enforcement.

http://freebeacon.com/culture/report-ne ... s-america/

A small arms survey? A small population of people actually own a firearm, therefore the population that owns guns owns more than one. Of course I do not give any stock in that survey.

And if true, this means that a microscopic percentage are used nefarious deeds.

Or they can be just gun collectors.

Like me.

Yeah! The American masses are packin some srs heat! The US government will never implement anything that tramples on American liberty ... like the Patriot Act!

Oh … wait.

It seems to me that, if the population has been fed propaganda, guns are effectively worthless at protecting liberty. A firearm can only protect you if you know who the biggest threat to your personal safety is.

Police brutality is surprisingly common in America, even though the population is packing heat. America also has a disturbingly large prison population. See what I mean? The government can easily oppress an uninformed population, even if they happen to be armed.

The more powerful the government becomes and less rights we will have.
Police cannot be brutal if civilians had power.
"You should not be afriad of government, your government should be afraid of you"

… except that some types of governments can grant people their rights.

I doubt that most people would have rights in an an-cap society.



… and yet look at American cops today.



It depends on what the government is doing exactly.

Givernments cannot "grant" you rights, that would be privileges. They are innate. The Sepreme court rules on rights all the time.
Give me one time in history where a government was not brutal to its citizens. I'll wait.

You mean the Supreme Court is not part of the government? Are you sure you have attended an elementary school? Because that's what's taught in elementary schools: the three branches of the government. There is not such a thing as innate right. All rights are granted by government bodies.

- - -

Governments are brutal, because that's the whole purpose of governments. The first governments in human history happened in the form of "protection fee," pretty much just like mafia gangsters. That happened when agriculture first came into scene (or animal domestication in some other civilizations). That, later became known as tax. Tax in the old days consisted in anything tangible: like crops, or animals... plus one thing that is not immediately tangible: labor. Today, USA still collects taxes from its "allies," but in a more subtle way: via sales of weapons. USA offers in return some promised "protection." On an individual level, if you don't pay your taxes, you are thrown into jail. On an international level, you won't foot your defense bills? Sorry, we will let the Russians invade your country and watch.

You look at the world map, and frankly, if you don't like governments, your choices are: (a) to live in the ocean on a boat, or (b) to live in Antarctica.

Inside the USA, say, you are a farmer. One day a group of gangsters come over to your land and occupy it. You are one, they are 100. Now what do you do? You either need a government to protect you. Or, you can form your own militia. Wait a minute. The moment you form a militia, guess what? You are becoming a government. You will be no less brutal than other governments. See the dilemma? There is no way out. That is why every single inhabitable square inch on earth is controlled by a government. There is no way out of having a government. Period.

Governments are there to be brutal. That has been the case from the dawn of civilization. That is true today. At any given time today, about 1% of the US population lives inside the jail. About 5% of the US population has been in the jail at one point in their lifetime. Is that good or bad? It depends, right? If you are the farmer whose land has been occupied, you won't think much about throwing those gangsters into jail, right?

- - -

There is no such a thing as "innate right." The concept of "right" happens only if there are at least two people. "Right" is always relative. A person living alone, say, on Mars, won't need any "rights." A "right" is a contract, an understanding, between groups of people. It's a treaty. A right basically means: "I'll leave you alone to do certain things."

Because throughout the years, governments acquire certain resources, and because you want those resources so badly, governments basically have control over your life. For instance, money. Governments control the paper money and the whole monetary system. You may say: heck, I'll come up with my own money. Oops, sorry, first of all, you will be thrown into jail. Secondly, if somehow you succeed in using your own money without being sent to jail, hey, you are the government, and as we have already seen, you will be no less brutal than other governments. Because governments are brutal and because they control your life, all rights are granted by governments simply BECAUSE THEY CAN. There is no such a thing as "innate right." You may say, but the constitution says I have certain inalienable rights. Wait a minute. The constitution is a contract written by a government.

Whether gays can get married or not, it's always up to the government. There is nothing innate to it. Same thing with women voting. Same thing with the right not to sit in the back of a bus.

The USA ideally has a government that is "of the people, by the people, for the people." Though not everyone has equal weight. The founding members have substantially more weight, via constitution. Supreme court justices have tremendously more weight on certain decisions. The president has tremendously more weight on certain decisions (e.g. issuing pardons). The USA has a political system that at least tries to minimize tyranny, excessive power or brutality. But, at the end of the day, it's a government. And the role of a government since the dawn of civilization has always been to be brutal. And it will continue to be that way, forever.

You don't like it? You have the choice of moving to (a) an ocean, or (b) Antarctica. (Frankly, the entire Antarctica has long be claimed by many countries. It's just that currently there is no consensus who gets what.)

Wow.

Well I guess that takes care of 300 years of Western political philosophy.

GOOD!

This means that if the current Fascist regime wishes to oppress each and every American, they are going to have a “yooj” fight on their hands. It’s likely the only reason we’re not all goose-stepping like a nation of jack-booted thugs.

Nice little rant, repeat yourself quite alot. You do think highly of yourself dont you?
You even put in a snarky comment relating to my intelligence, just like a sixth grader. My recommendation to you is if you want people to take you seriously, leave the personal insults at home.
So the only choice if I don't like something is to either leave or put of up with it?
Over the years the US has gone less outside of personal liberties and more into equality of outcomes, since the US population is more affluent than 90 percent of the world population, we have lost that idea of feeedom and personal accountability and more into the relm of personal comfort and convenience. " I deserve this because he has it"
Sorry, but I could hardly make sense of your manic ramblings. Maybe organize your thoughts first before typing them?

Modern Scandinavia

Nazi Germany has less gun control than the preceding Weimer Republic. Despite this, the Nazis still managed to oppress the people of Germany.

How did they pull this off? The Nazis convinced the people of Germany that they were liberators … and most of the general public bought into it.

Lesson Learned: You need more than just guns to protect yourself from tyranny. Knowledge is crucial also.

I have to stop you there.

There are some supporters of economic reform who say "I deserve this because he has it." … but it's mostly a case of "I deserve this because I am so poor that I wouldn't be able to afford chemotherapy if I ever got cancer."