***Not all of this will make sense, since it responds to a different thread, but most can deduce what I was responding to easy enough from the context.
There is no way to make the guns dissappear. There is no easy way to get rid of illicit drugs, harmful viruses, or harmful bacteria either. And yet we make the effort, because in the end, it will save lives.
As far as the government controlling us, well, they already do. If you think youre gonna hold off the military with a 30/30 or an uzi, you are sadly mistaken. What protects us from the military, is unfortunately the military. It is the men and women in the armed services, that we must trust. We must simply trust, that there are enough good people to counter any evil intent by any that would use the government against us. I dont know if you watched CNN at all, be the US military took down a trained million man army, complete with tanks, jets, chemical weapons very quickly. Now you may argue that they did not conquer it completely, but that is only because they show restraint. They could kill every last person in any small country, and could very quickly kill every last one of us, if they decided to do so. It isnt our bb guns that is keeping them at bay, it is their sanity. Never mistake the actual force of the military. They never have a green light for absolute destruction. If every person in the military and government decided to declare war on the people, and be willing to fight to the death its game over. Never in any modern war, has the military been allowed to use its full power. Iraq would be a cinder, devoid of all life, and colonized right now if they were. We could have annihilated the entire population right down to the last person. It is not the iraqi weapons that are holding us at bay. It is us that is holding us at bay, and thankfully so.
It wouldnt be the first time that such checks and balances did not work, but if they fail, and you arm every us citizen with a gun, we still cannot hold back the military. The only way to protect us, is to hire the right people for the job. Holding them back with force, is not an option.
As far as your examples of China and Korea, they also punish other crimes severely, but that does not mean that is why the government has power. Military technology has surpassed the ability of any people to control its military. Its ludicrous to think otherwise. And as corrupt as government may be, because the corruption always stands out more than the good....there are plenty of people in our military and government, who would gladly lay down their lives to protect our country, even if its from our own military itself. if this is not the case, we are doomed anyways. I dont care how many citizens have guns.
As far as supporting the fact that it is easy to get guns as a criminal is easy. Anyone who has not been convicted, can purchase a weapon. So any criminal that doesnt have a criminal record, or any person who wants to commit a crime, can go buy the weapon. It might take a few days, but now any psycho that has no record, can go buy a weapon, and shoot at a crowd of people and there is absolutely nothing that can stop him. And as far as buying a gun off the black market? Where do you think those guns come from? Why do you think they are so cheap? Its because there is a mass market for weapons, and producing a few extra, or stealing a few of those is easy. If all guns were illegal, the price of guns would sky rocket. The penalty for having one would be severe. Guns allow a level of violence that simply would not be sustainable by any other means.
Your main arguement really is that we need to have guns, because we have guns. It would be too much work to get rid of the guns, and that the lives lost are not worth working towards that goal.
As far as china and korea, guns are also illegal in Japan. In Japan, they have not had any kind of guns, or even swords for many years. Their government has no more control of it because of that. And since there is virtually no gun crime to speak of, it is safe to say the japanese are better off for it.
To argue, that japan should allow its citizens to go purchase weapons, just in case someone smuggles in a gun, and then they need to protect themselves, is just ludicrous, because it would just make guns available and increase gun crime exponentially. To argue we need them in the US, to protect against other weapons, is the same. The only question, would be the process of the elimination. But if guns were made illegal tomorrow, many lives would be saved. Not all, but many innocent women, children, and men would be saved. There would be some that arguably would have been killed because they only brought a knife to a gun fight, but that number would be the tiniest percentage of the number saved. And over time, the volume of lives saved would be incalculable.
There can be no question that removing guns would save lives. There is no question it would reduce crime in general. Many crimes simply wouldn't be possible without the use of Guns. There would be no more risk of becoming a police state, than there is now.
The main reason guns have not been made illegal, is not because of the obvious benefits to its citizens. Its because of the selfishness of its citizens. The manufacture of weapons is big business. It would cost jobs, and billions of dollars to get rid of them. Our society had decided for now, that this cost is too high, to protect the thousands of innocent people that are harmed and killed by guns every day, let alone every year. We may never decide it is worth the cost. But that will never make the decision the correct one.
