Originally Posted by JollyRoger

I find good and bad in gun ownership patterns. Having lived in a number of locations in the US, it has been my experience that states that have strict gun control laws seem to have higher rates of property crime - if I was a burgular in Massachusetts, for instance, I am much less worried that if the owner of a home unexpectedly arrives in the progress of my burgalizing his home, the odds are fairly low that I will be shot, so home burgularies are more common in places like New York and Mass than in Texas due to the lower risk facter, while in Texas the risk of getting one's head blown off while ripping someone household goods off are much higher, since here even his neighbor might shoot you, not to mention the fact the average Texas jury would give the homeowner a pass if he tortured you with a blow torch and a toilet plunger for a few hours before he shot you. On the other hand, the easy availability of firearms in Texas means that fist fights and verbal arguments easily escalate into shootings, so, gun violence in domestic disturbance and assault cases tend to end in a much more permanent way, but here most of the gun violence tends to be concentrated among the drug gangs and the bar room set.

While many of those on the right here would be surprised, I am actually a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and support the right to keep and bear arms, however I must say the experience of living in Texas has caused me to arrive at the opinion that those who are allowed to own firearms be restricted to those who are law-abiding citizens by the use of a registration and licensing system. One can easily see why by attending any Houston gun show, shows notorious for arming the likes of Timothy McVeigh and David Koresh, they are armament marts for Texas and Louisiana, and under the radar,Mexican Cartel, drug gangs. I would like to see the 2nd Amendment enforced for what it says: if you want to own a firearm, you must be an accepted member of an organization we should call The National Citizen's Militia, which would have a roll and a set of regulations, as specified in the 2nd, that one must conform too. Only then could we find the happy medium between the extremes of Texas and Massachusetts. Those who cannot prove membership in the NCM would have their guns immediately confiscated. We could get more guns off the streets from the hands of those who should not have them, while we insure that law abiding homeowners can possess weapons for home protection, and of course militia duty for that horrible day when the Northern Barbarianic Horde finally descends on us from Canada.