[speaker001:] from the from the scale of one to ten I I lean more towards no restriction we by the constitution we have the the right to bear arms and I believe our freedoms are being constantly eroded all the time and President Bush just signed a law that that banned a lot of automatic weapons and and such where they wouldn't do any more damage than some Winchester rifles or things like that what do you think about that
[speaker002:] well I pretty much agree with you uh I wouldn't say that I'm a ten because I do think that there are some types of weapons that should be restricted because of their extreme potential to uh uh to produce collateral damage if you know what I mean I don't think that people should have nuclear weapons in their homes or or biological weapons but I'm probably uh on a scale of ten I'm a I'm a nine in that I think that any any arm that can easily be carried by hand should certainly be uh protected for individuals to own and uh to use uh in particular I'll express my opinion on this uh this there's there's some people that think that the second amendment is you know only a collective right that it applies to the militia I don't believe that I think it it applies to individuals uh also uh I don't think that the our founding fathers had anything in mind anything to do with hunting or even defense against criminals or or target shooting what they had in mind was that people need to be armed in order to protect themselves from the government becoming too strong and taking away our liberties
[speaker001:] well that's a that's a that's a good point also we have to we have to be cognizant cognizant that our society's becoming more and more haves and have nots and the main the main purpose say for the police is to keep the have nots from taking from the haves and that is the purposes of of the gun control
[speaker002:] well the thing with the police is that they're only good to pick up the pieces after the crime has happened we have to to take precautions to defend ourselves uh if someone comes after you with a gun there's no way that the police are going to stop them uh even if have an opportunity to call the police uh because someone has threatened you they won't come out and protect you all they can do is investigate a crime after it's been committed it's very rare that they prevent one so it's important that we each as individuals have the means to protect ourselves and in this day and age that means having guns
[speaker001:] oh I I I agree I my point was that the police want to get rid rid of the people of of guns and what's happening is that I see I I I view this country as as as we have peoples and societies and cultures and things that are be oppressed that are oppressed and so that to to take the way the those weapons so they can protect themselves is that's what the means and that's what they're trying to do and by enacting all this legislation
[speaker002:] I I agree with you I think that uh although to to a large degree what the the politicians are doing is just responding or reflecting what the electorate seems to be telling them the problem is of course is that the majority of the people in this country have no idea what the right to keep and bear arms means or what it's for and all they see is rampant crime in the streets and they think that banning guns is going to stop that but that's that's simply not the case uh you take away the guns uh from law-abiding people and uh I mean it it seems like a trite phrase but if if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns they're not going to stop the drug dealers and the criminals from from getting uh guns of any sort and what they really need to do is attack the root causes of of crime
[speaker001:] that's true yeah well you know I another perspective is that the people in this country I'll just for not lack of a better word I'll say they're spoiled they haven't been except for the immigrants have come to this country they're not cognizant of war and and chaos and terrorism like Lebanon or countries that have been invaded and if our country needs if our country's invaded we need the people to to rise I mean the the military and the police isn't going to do it all for us and if and if we don't have the the goverment