Just when I was thinking of selling my T-34

[Taem]

The Taliban is a multinational group funded from many people throughout multiple nations. They aren't exactly the same type of group as American Citizens.

Look at the Arab Spring, since you mentioned it. Can you really say that the armed populace is behind that?

And no one is saying that you unarm the populace of the United States. But like Bolty said, slide that "line" back a few notches. When we are discussing the safety of our society, we shouldn't be so quick to move to the "But we have to be able to defend ourselves from the government!" That should be the very last thing on our minds, but even in the United States, it is seemingly the first thing we jump to. And if it isn't the first thing we jump to, it's certainly on a very short list of things that we leap at to defend our right to own weaponry that John Q. Public has no idea how to use properly or effectively.

I think of it as a Don Quixote complex. We are constantly waiting, and preparing, and bantering as if the windmill that is the US Government will one day awake as a sentient malevolent bloodthirsty giant, coming to take away our freedoms, our lands, our wives, our children, and our guns.

I'm just not that fearful that the windmill is going to awake, and come to take me away. And I'm not so sure that if it ever did, a well armed populace is going to be the force to repel it.

My personal opinion? I think Americans should have the right to defend themselves with a gun, however I think letting anyone except military personal have automatic weapons is ridiculous. WTF are you going to use a fully automatic for unless you're planning on killing a group of people with it? I see absolutely no purpose in owning, or letting others own automatic weapons. But I draw this conclusion on the basis of my assumption that I can trust the government, and I don't foresee a time I'll ever have to take up arms against it.

Having said that, as an American living in this country, I fully respect and adhere the best I can (minus some traffic infractions) to the rules and laws set out in this country. I feel now, and have for quite awhile that if we don’t like a certain law, we can circulate ballot initiatives and with enough support, get the notice of our leaders. And guess what, if we feel our leaders aren’t taking action, we can get petitions started for a ballot initiative to hold a special election and vote the leaders out we don’t like. This is our democratic process.

My beliefs in our laws dictate I respect the current laws while I live here, and part of those laws, as written in the US Constitution, says that as an American I have the right to bear arms to protect myself from a government run amok. Now do I believe this will ever happen? No, not in my lifetime, but until the Constitution is ratified to reflect otherwise, I’ll support it in its current form, despite the fact that I don't personally agree everyone should have AK-47's.

Does this make me a mindless drone? A pawn of the system? This is why I tried to refrain from posting my actual opinion of this subject in this thread thus far, to avoid this. I hate fitting FIT’s clichéd profile of a flag-flying American patriot because that is so not me! I have my own opinions, as I stated above, but I feel without law, there is chaos, and laws must be followed and respected, and yes, we the people have the power to bring about change if desired.

Of course, my beliefs bring up some interesting conundrums: should citizens also be allowed to have atomic weapons since the Second Amendment does not strictly dictate the types of weapons one should be allowed to have? Since I personally believe fully automatics and semi-automatics have no place, would I support legislation change? No, I don’t think any weapons of mass destruction (including automatic weapons) should be available to the public, and yes I would support legislations to change this, but until it’s on the ballot, I respect the law in its current form. That’s the way I feel about it and I don’t expect to change any time soon.

EDIT: I found this interesting article on the subject. Under "THE RIGHT TO BE UNMOLESTED", I fully agree with the first column of listed weapons, and disagree with the second and definitely the third tier columns.