Malekith

Perhaps Im biased as an American but Im a strong supporter of our bill of rights, the first and second amendments in particular. I believe that the populace (of any nation) has the right and in my mind the duty to arm itself. In my opinion the right to defend your home family and yourself is inviolate. Whether this is on the scale of a personal level such as defending your home and family from an intruder or on a more national level such as the resistance of an illegal or injust government it is an important right to protect. Police being "executed", school shootings, gun violence in general are all bad things. I dont think there is really anyone who would argue that they are a good thing or there shouldnt be steps taken to try and rectify. The real issue is the disconnect between supporters of gun ownership rights and the supporters of gun restrictions. The internet, a 24 hour news cycle, and facebook have all armed both sides with all sorts of statistics. Its a trivial thing to find "silver bullet" statistics for either side because each argument has merits. It is important to remember however that statistics rarely "prove" anything. A very important scientific principle to remember when looking at statistics is that "correlation does not equal causation". While I do find the great urge to throw a number of statistics at you, I will refrain and simply posit that gun violence is a large and complicated problem. There are many, many variables. A weapons ban as evidenced by both current and former laws would be hard pressed to solve much of anything.

A Disarmed populace is a dangerous thing.