There is nothing in the Constitution guaranteeing untrained individuals can keep and bear arms in anticipation of using them against their own government or their fellow citizens. That goes against the spirit and intent of the document to which the amendment is attached (a document defining the free state itself).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Framers did not intend the 2nd Amendment to be a suicide pact.

But guns aren’t a problem.

I can’t find specific data regarding firearms murders, but overall murder rates don’t seem to show any correlation to whether or not there’s a war on.  Murders rose throughout the Vietnam War, for example.  

Overall murders stayed pretty steady for several years after 9/11, actually rising a bit in the mid-2000s, and only declining significantly after 2007.  

Here’s murder rates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for 1900-2006:  http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/hmrttab.cfm

Things always get quieter at home when the armed forces are actively recruiting.

But derp, lets say it is more guns and not what it has always been, war and sociological advances/setbacks, affecting crime rates.

EDIT – Oh I’m sorry I thought you were being nonsensical, by attributing a major sociological statistical trend to one factor, like many silly people are lately.

Most mentions of falling crime/murder/firearm/assault/hate/rape/death rates have of late been attributed solely to the fact of more guns on the streets.

It’s like attributing the Mississippi River to the Red Rivers contribution. Willful blindness.

If you weren’t among those I apologize for being nonsensical in reply.

Or you could do everyone a favour and replace your hammers with loaded sidearms.

Go bear hunting with a hammer.

Set out with just your Winchester to make an out-of-state visit.

The same?

Where’s your /s? I know I saw it somewhere.

US gun homicides, 1991: 17,986.  Rate: 7.13 / 100,000
US gun homicides, 2011: 8,583.  Rate: 2.94 / 100,000.

You honestly think that your average Syrian owned military weapons, or that the U.S. is like Syria?  That’s not how the rebels got armed, it’s not how Libyans got armed…

Opinions of the school-shooting troofers aside, reasonable people don’t see the shootings of young people as an ideal opportunity to score political points just for the heck of it. They do see these incidents (including this one) as symptoms of a broken system, and would like to see the system mended.

/s

There’s a lot of momentum in the gun control debate. I agree assault weapons are not the majority of the problem, but they should be the easiest part to fix, and help build momentum for discussing the rest.