Home > Gun politics

1 Specific locales

This article discusses these policies in a general sense. For more specific discussion of policy in specific locales, see:

• Gun politics in Australia
• Gun politics in Canada
• Gun politics in Finland
• Gun politics in the United Kingdom
• Gun politics in the United States

2 Approaches

In summary, those who support greater restrictions on firearm ownership believe some subset of:

• that there is no fundamental right to own firearms
• that gun control legislation may reduce violent crime
• that guns are more dangerous to the owners than intended targets because most gun related deaths are a result of domestic violence, accidents and suicides
• that guns are often of little use as self defense for the typical owner because in the incidents where a hostile encounter with an armed criminal occurs, the criminal is usually more experienced and skilled with his/her weapon
• that even against unarmed criminals, the presence of a gun serves most often simply to escalate the likelihood and/or severity of violence
• that citizens have no need to own guns to protect themselves against crime, since this is the task of the government
• that citizens of First World countries today have no need to protect themselves against their governments if they are vigilant enough to confront government wrongdoing before violence is necessary, or that even if such a need should arise, it would be hopeless anyway to take up individual small arms against the sort of modern military technology that a government could bring to bear.

Those who favor maintaining or extending the private ownership of firearms believe some subset of:

• that owning firearms is a fundamental right
• that the government has no right to interfere with an individual's right to own firearms as long as the individual is not harming or intimidating fellow citizens
• that guns in the hands of the populace decrease crime
  • that citizens have a right to self-protection
  • that an armed populace decreases the overall risk of violent crime, because it provides a deterrent effect for criminals who cannot know whether their next prospective victim, or someone nearby, will turn out to be armed
  • that law-abiding citizens have a responsibility to provide their own protection because governments cannot be held civilly or criminally responsible for failing to provide such protection
• that gun ownership protects citizens from the excesses of government, and provides the possibility of revolution, if necessary

2.1 Degrees of gun control

There are many areas of debate into exactly what kinds of firearms can be owned, if any, and how and where they may be used. For example, automatic rifles are legal to own in America only after acquiring numerous and expensive permits, and in the majority of countries, banned altogether; but in most states one can buy a low-tech shotgun over the counter with only signing a simple form, or less. Another hot issue is whether individuals are allowed to carry a handgun concealed on their person, even if it is perfectly legal and easy to own a pistol in general. In the United States a major area of dispute is whether a requirement that all guns be registered constitutes a violation of the Second Amendment by making it easier for any hypothetical government which may wish to disarm the public to identify gun owners or simply a reasonable precaution similar to licensing of automobiles.

3 General discussion of arguments

3.1 Balance of power

Advocates for citizens having the right to bear arms often point to totalitarian regimes that passed gun control legislation as a first step of their reign of terror. The sequence is said to be gun registration, followed some time later by confiscation. Totalitarian style governments such as Nazi Germany, Fascist ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer, and Communist regimesThis article is about one-party states ruled by Communist Parties. For information regarding communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, or as a popular movement, see the main Communism article. In common speech in the such as the U.S.S.R. and the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China PRC comprises most of the cultural, historic, and geographic area known as China. Since its founding in 1949, it has been led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is the world's most populous country, with a population are all well known examples of this.

This does not indicate that gun control laws will always lead to totalitarianism. Many places, such as the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly and AustraliaAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count have had such laws for many years without becoming totalitarian. However, it should be noted that registration of firearms in many democracies has led to confiscations of formerly legal firearms and the outlawing of the ownership of firearms to various degrees.

Some persons oppose registration of guns or licensing of gun owners because if captured, the associated records would provide military invaders with a means for locating and eliminating law-abiding (i.e. patriotic) resistance fighters. Location and capture of such records is a standard doctrine taught to military intelligence officers.