Hacker News Reader

Comment by solidsnack9000 | Hacker News Reader

What you are trying to do here, is find some justification for guns; but that is not how a free country works. We don't need to ask the government permission to do stuff. We can still do things without having a good reason.

Not sure what policy you're proposing but whatever it is, it needs justification -- that's what limited government is about. No restrictions without reasons.

View on HN

I'm not proposing any policy. Trying to assess if having assault guns causes more problems than it solves, considering it's hard to keep control of who buys/sells them in a country of 300M+ population. That would probably stand for a justification, wouldn’t it?

We’re also forbidden to keep plutonium or enriched uranium in our basement regardless of what we use it for.

Hell there’s many free countries where it’s illegal to possess weed.

It seems like you’re obliquely arguing for something, since you say “it’s hard to keep control of who buys/sells them” and offer this as justification, but justification for what, exactly?

I don’t think it’s reasonable to look at service pattern rifles in isolation to try to sort out whether they are a problem. They don’t seem to be a major contributor to gun deaths, overall — rifles of all descriptions contribute ~5% of gun deaths every year in the US. Their potential danger may seem great but the data does not bear that out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com