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[Bushra Shammo]

Bushra Shammo has commented on the AcademicKeys.com survey, "The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment does protect an individual’s right to own a handgun.  What is your feeling about this ruling?". Vote on the survey here:
 - http://www.AcademicKeys.com/#survey

that will increas the crime rate

[Keith Palmer]

Sometimes the rate of crime is not the most important thing to worry about... personal freedom and the preservation of individual rights and liberties is.

Once you start saying people can't own handguns, people will start saying that people shouldn't be able to own knives either because those kill people as well. ... and then it will turn into, well, people shouldn't be doing martial arts either. Or boxing. Or wrestling. People shouldn't own baseball bats or golf clubs, they can kill people too. etc.

That's an extreme example, but restricting people's rights and liberties is a slippery slope to step on to.

[Dr. Ozair Chaudhry]

none

[Charles Maletz]

I agree with handguns which one can argue are for personal protection. Unfortunately, too many expand this to include assault and automatic weapons which are clearly well beyond any reasonable personal protection and can only be used to inflict major casualities.

[Jagdish Prasad]

I don't agree that individual must own a handgun. By doing this crime may increase. Police must take care to protect the citizens

[Jeff Hendrix]

Which countries are handguns illegal in? How successful are they in low crime rates?

[Laura Pizzi]

The amendment was intended to ensure that militia were "on the ready" during Revolutionary times, before the US had armed forces. It is antiquated.

[Julie Bilz]

Several news reports that I have looked at have stated that gun crimes have gone up in London and the rest of the United Kingdon and most have been committed by illegal guns.
Banning guns only creates a black market or underground for illegal guns and does not lower crime rate.  History has shown that banning an entire product (such as alcohol) does not work.  The banning of guns, marijuana, or alcohol has helped increase our crime and create illegal markets for these products.  
The amendment was intended for the militia, but every male over 16 was expected serve time in the militia, so that included practically every family.

[Danvan]

the US is unique in that it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst developed countries in terms of both gun ownership and gun crime rates. You can indulge in creative causalities if you like....

if the second amendment has been extended from single action guns to machine guns, then why should we not be allowed to own tanks, attack helicopters or tactical nuclear missiles?
Might this by any chance have something to do with the scale of damage we can inflict with these weapons?

is the second amendment more sacred than human life? and are guns less lethal than (say) knives?