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Comment by Taylorious | Hacker News Reader

"People shouldn't have the power to kill other people so easily - not unless they're the police or army."

And why should some some 18yo kid in the army have that right but not a middle aged adult? Because some other army guy yelled at him for a few weeks and gave him a uniform?

You mention a father could go crazy and kill you for sneaking in to screw his daughter, but what if you were a rapist sneaking in to rape his daughter? Might be nice to have way to defend your home in that situation. That being said, I don't believe that assault rifles should be legal though.

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Not to nitpick, but "assault rifle" is a technical term for a select-fire (fully automatic) weapon that fires an underpowered rifle caliber, and any select-fire weapon is quite illegal for individuals to own in the US.

"Assault weapon" is a made up term used to try to discriminate these civilian rifles on the basis of the cosmetic features that make them seem frightening to non-gun-owners. When we talk about a semi-automatic civilian "AK-47" like this, it's really just called a rifle.

What, aside from the obvious reason? Someone in the military follows orders and serves the nation while someone with a gun will probably do whatever he/she feels with it and nothing actually useful. How is that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Shootings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_v._City_of_Oakland

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton#Assassination_by_C...

And for you fans of enterprise solutions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_firebombing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_hiroshima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising

Your moral reasoning needs practice, kid.

Heh, so out of the millions of policemen and militants in the world, that protect the billions out there, you found a handful that have gone bad. Sure, let's let anyone kill anyone then! Moral reasoning!

Heh, I'm < 25 yrs old and a coder at a top software company with a six figure salary. And I've only been coding for a couple of years. I give you advice, kid.

"...you found a handful that have gone bad."

You do realize that your point there is exactly the same that most gun-control opponents make? If we are to accept your point, you need to accept theirs.

What do you work on, out of curiosity? Maybe it's something you're actually qualified to give me advice on--I'm always up for learning. :)

Heh, Because having a six-figure salary (at a top software company!) automatically proves your superiority in all subjects.

More generally, at least some of us have taken note of the lessons learned from around a quarter billion disarmed people being killed by their own governments in the 20th century (and rather obviously most of that was done by the Only Ones you enshrine, the police and military with I suppose some paramilitaries in the middle).

Good luck convincing us to willingly give up another inch on this issue.

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