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A comment on New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles. Parent comment

Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by um_ya on Thursday March 21, 2019 @07:49AM (#19451194)
There's a reason why the second amendment comes right after freedom of speech. If the government doesn't uphold your rights as citizens, the citizens have the authority to hold their ground. Imagine Venezuela, but the citizens having guns. The government couldn't do what they're doing over there if the citizens had guns.
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by yongjik on Thursday March 21, 2019 @02:12PM (#19455493)
Citizens have guns in the US.

It's also the only "democratic" country where police officers shoot innocent citizens every day.

Go figure.

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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by CompanionCuuube on Thursday March 21, 2019 @02:40PM (#19455852)
Citizens have guns in Canada and police officers there don't shoot innocent citizens every day.

Go figure.

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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by OscarTheGrinch on Thursday March 21, 2019 @07:55AM (#19451238)
Reductio ad absurdum: Place 1 gun per square meter of the planet. Are we safer now?
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by modest_sarcasm on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:00AM (#19451266)
Less safe from the average kind of psychopath, but more safe from the magnificent supreme leader kind of psychopath.
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by samfriedman on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:46AM (#19451646)
In that dichotomy I guess the question is: which type of psychopath is a more frequent & significant threat to the people? Frequent/significant is probably a trade-off in this case.
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by benjohnson on Thursday March 21, 2019 @09:59AM (#19452392)
My government has made complex weaponry to instantly kill half of the world's population with one push of a button. For me, that's a huge part of the equation.
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by um_ya on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:04AM (#19451305)
Guns placed like fire alarms (Break glass for gun)? While it may sound absurd, it does follow the principle that there are more good people than bad. If one bad apple arises, finding the next gun to neutralize said apple would be pretty easy.
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by krapp on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:05AM (#19451321)
One problem with the argument that "the only thing stopping a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun" is that "good" and "bad" people exist on a different axis than "people who can be trusted with guns in a crisis."
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by um_ya on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:13AM (#19451389)
How so? In our case, the police are the good people you describe. The question is, would there be more net good people with access to guns, when placed everywhere, or more bad people? It's a thought experiment.
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Re:New Zealand banning assault and semi-automatic rifles by krapp on Thursday March 21, 2019 @08:25AM (#19451478)
To me, I think it depends on whether a good person untrained to handle a gun properly in what amounts to a combat situation is still "good" if they decide they want to be a hero.

So whether or not we're safer in this situation is basically a dice roll.

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