Ted Nugent on Gun Control

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I would agree with the general notion that smoking is a bigger threat to public health than guns are. If I were going through the exercise of setting the federal budget, I'd invest significantly more in stop smoking programs than I would gun control.

But as for the 4.9 million tobacco deaths worldwide, again, that's due to the massive exposure to cigarrette smoke and other forms of tobacco. Approximately 20% of Americans smoke, and the % is higher worldwide. Nowhere near that % are exposed to guns.

All this is to say that increasing exposure to guns by allowing more on the street raises the acute risk of accidental death, suicide, and homicide.

In the end, I would rather see 1000 armed muggers escape Scott-free with the wallet of an unarmed victim than see one child killed by a stray bullet resulting from a gunfire exchange between said armed mugger and an armed victim.

Well, oddly enough, I respect that opinion. Problem is, we're talking about deaths, not exposure. The deaths speak for themselves. You are 100% right about exposure, but you also have to calculate for the fact that bearing arms is constitutional right. Harming someone with a cigarette (even yourself) is not. All in all, I understand where you're coming from.

I would like to add, I am not sure I agree with your 1000 armed muggers vs 1 stray kid. First off, I am not sure of the stats, but I am assuming it's far more mugged to each stray innocent child. That being said, those mugged people become victims and very jaded after each offense, and therefore become harder individuals making society less pleasant. I'm not saying they will become hard criminals, but you can't be held up at gun point and it not change you a little. No one wants to see children die, but there are more "shaken baby" deaths than there are accidental children deaths from guns. Unfortunately there are always negatives to everything. Keep in mind, I am all for criminals not having guns, they have them illegally. If you can come up with a plan to keep guns out of their hands, I'm down. But don't take a gun out of my hand. Even if the government banned them, I'd still keep mine.
You can't stop EVERY negative, look at that kid that died by a roller coaster. There have been numerous roller coaster deaths over the years, but that doesn't mean we should overreact and ban roller coasters.