I live in Houston, and on the way home, I saw a group of about 15 people walking down Westheimer, which is a very busy road, about 2 blocks from my house and all of them were carrying assault rifles. In my opinion, they may think that they are defending our neighborhood but they are making me and i'm sure others very uncomfortable. It is not against the law, and there are about 3 cops just tailing them in the center lane with their lights on to make sure these nutcases don't do anything. In my opinion, I am fine with a concealed pistol at home and MAYBE in public for a legitimate reason (going to a shady neighborhood, or a legitimately dangerous place), but this is a very peaceful neighborhood, and there is NO reason to be carrying around weapons that are built to rip through flesh and kill other HUMANS. For those people who say it is for hunting uses, fucking bullshit. These people are walking with weapons that would make an animal unedible or not presentable enough to hang on a wall. In addition, there isn't hunting areas within 30+ miles from here.

What are your thoughts on carrying assault rifles and guns in general in public? Especially urban areas?

I, personally don't think people shouldn't carry guns at all if they don't intend to kill someone, and especially not civillians. What are they gonna do? Wave with assault rifles against a terrified robber, is that a good idea?
I'm not sympathising with the criminal, it's just that terrified people make mistakes, and mistakes are especially bad when combined with assault rifles.


I don't know, maybe they thought he acted as a defender of the neighbourhood.

I didn't realize Houston was in some kind of war scenario, after all, it has to be one of the few reasons civilians would have such firepower in public... unless it was some kind of gun convention.

My thoughts on gun control all together is that only soldiers and police should be allowed firearms nonstop, let alone showing them off in public.

If people don't feel safe in public without flaunting their big scary guns then they should probably not be allowed any kind of weapon for conserns of accute paranoia.

Its not a show of force, its a protest against gun laws. They don't walk around with assault rifles because they want to feel safe, they do it because they can.

What are you talking about? No gun convention, no "war".

I even said its just a bunch of nutcases who think they have to protect the neighborhood, similar to George Zimmerman.

Technically, George Zimmerman was part of the neighborhood watch, and most people haven't looked at all of the evidence when it comes to that case and make generalizations. But, before we get off-topic and I start a huge Zimmerman discussion, let me start talking about guns.

IMO the only guns civilians should be allowed to own are handguns on strict background checks and 1-shot rifles for hunting. Any gun that is semi-auto and over 10 bullets should be illegal for civilians.
Too much capacity for death when you can shoot off 30 bullets in 10 seconds, then reload and shoot off another 30 in another 10 seconds.
After all, guns are made for 1 thing and 1 thing only, and that is killing.

So yeah assault rifles should be illegal for civilians

Why my father owns a few assault rifles and we have had some good times shooting jugs of water and an old car that was on our property. I guess we were killing those water jugs. It's fun and a good hobby

Yes, and as part of the neighborhood watch, he ignored the orders of police officers. Not really a point in his favor that he was a self-appointed wannabe cop.

Anyway,


How deliberately obtuse. The obvious problem with semi-automatic guns or guns with many rounds is that they CAN be used to kill many people at a time, and unfortunately this does happen. Your hobby is not worth Gifford's brain damage.

So take away semi automatic rifles and pistols that hold more than 10 rounds. You'll have a bunch of people shooting other people with 10 round pistols. Then what, he spends a little extra time learning to reload faster?

It IS a show of force. If they had a problem with it, they could have organized a gathering without guns to express their discontent. It's the fact that they did it with military-grade or imitation military-grade weapons is what gives it away as a show of force. If you want to tell them to put their guns away because it made you feel unsafe in their presence, what do you think they would do? Listen? They'd tell you to fuck off, because it's America and they can do what they want. Which is the stupidest reason ever, because you have a greater right to your own safety than they to their gun machismo.


And James Holmes had an assault rifle and he had a good old time shooting civilians inside of a movie theater. You can shoot a water jug just as well with a single shot as you can with a semi-auto or automatic. You just can't shoot a jug, and similarly a person, as fast.


Just because it doesn't completely eliminate the problem is not a reason to say it's not worth implementing. Flu vaccines don't eliminate the flu virus, but they prevent the majority of the population from contracting it during the winter seasons. Gun restrictions won't remove all gun violence, but they will certainly reduce, at the very least, domestic gun violence.

And what takes less time: shooting 30 rounds from a 30 round capacity rifle, or shooting 30 rounds from a 10 round capacity rifle. It's a very simple concept; time spent reloading is time spent not shooting. If a shooting happens, you want to decrease shooting time any way you can, as that is you best bet to reduce the amount of deaths that happen from it before police intervention arrives.