[fabsroman]

It doesn't matter whether you are new here or not. That shouldn't matter as far as your opinion is concerned. It is kind of like saying the older people are always right, which we know isn't true. They are just right most of the time.

Personally, I think that was a pretty good post, with a couple of soft spots open for attack, so here I go.

1. I truly believe in "Give an inch, they take a mile." You even state that the anti's are radical groups. The problem with giving into a radical group is that they don't usually back down after that. They don't just stop after the .50 BMG is gone. Sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire.

2. I agree that society feels better when children are safe, but a lot of children get molested and killed without the use of a firearm. I think Val will be able to give you some stats on that one. Of course, I am not an expert, so I might be wrong on the stats on this one, but I just do not hear much about children being molested and killed at gun point.

3. In the end, I do not think there is any simple way to lessen the amount of crime or terrorism in the world. Look at 9/11. That entire thing happened without a single terrorist using a single gun. Look at the Oklahoma bombing which was 10 years old this past week. Not a single gun was used there. How about the little girl that was abducted and killed in Florida a couple of months ago. I do not remember anything about a gun there either. People that have never used a gun or been around one fear them just because they do not know them. So, they want to get rid of them. Just as schools teach children how to swim, they should teach them how to treat, handle, and shoot a gun. A hundred years ago, the use and respect of a gun was a lot different than it is today. Back then, almost everybody knew how to handle them.

It is just tough to give into these people based upon stupid facts. Hell, I am willing to bet that more people are killed by aggressive driving than are killed by firearms in the US every year. Sad thing is that traffic is only going to get worse. I do not see anybody banning SUV's. Who NEEDS an SUV? Why won't a stationwagon do instead of a SUV. What is the increase in the probability of injury when an SUV collides with a passenger car? Right now my fiance and I are kind of debating this because I am looking at an AWD car instead of an SUV but she really wants an SUV because she feels safer in them. I understand her point because I feel a lot safer in my F-350 than I do in my Taurus. Now, if there weren't as many soccer mom/dad, non-driving, SUV drivers on the road, I might feel better driving around in the Taurus.

America has a lot of problems right now, but I do not think that the .50 BMG is on the top of the list. Hell, I would love to know of the last shooting that involved a .50 BMG. About the only people that own them are the people with money, and those people aren't usually the ones going out shooting everybody. Then again, that is only my opinion.