I know there needs to be a balance here, between gun rights and civil society,... but...

Az Daily Star...
Moms group plans bus ride to protest AZ gun law
..."The protest stems from an incident about a month ago when a man boarded a Sun Tran bus with a loaded AR-15 and sat with his finger near the trigger while he waited for his stop."...
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/moms-group-plans-bus-ride-t...

Are you feeling safer or freer with this guy on the bus?... or with your children riding this bus?...
...or how 'bout say,.. 11 people armed with AR-15's on the  bus,.. or in line with you at the bank?...
... or hanging out at the park where your kids play?...

This stuff is ridiculous...
God help us,... we are Afghanistan...

"The way state law is currently written, fugitives and criminals can carry loaded weapons on buses, openly or concealed, any time they want

above is a quote from the original story which I think is an excellent illustration of how two people see the same thing so vastly different.
question: would a 'fugitive and criminals' really care if it is against the law to carry a gun on a bus? I mean, by definition, a criminal disobeys the law. Just exactly what good does the law do? Doesn't this make the point that criminalizing guns means only the criminals have guns?

A bit of nit-pickin' to avoid the point?...

The point is,... an AR-15 on a public bus, is not a comfort to a Mum and her children...
--- in a TV a interview, one of the woman that witnessed this, and complained to the bus service, was asked...
"Was he behaving strangely?"...  
...she replied, "He was carrying a machine gun on a bus,... at what point is the behavior deemed strange,.. When the bullets start flying?"...

Seems a valid point... ...  

Maybe if he wore a Turban?... ...
Maybe a bulletproof vest?...

Must a grown man act so afraid, in front of children?...
These fools think they look tough,.. to me, they look like paranoid chickenshits...
These guys need to grow up...
Jes' sayin"...

But this is the crux of the problem, Midnight...
The more people think like that,.. the more seats on the bus will have a gun pointing at the guy in front of him, and him, and him... like a circlejerk Mexican stand-off... one click or pop, and everybody shoots everybody...

This is almost literally true in some parts of the world,... it's just not the parts we want to live in...

In Afghanistan, I would probably carry an AK on the bus,... because I would need too... I don't want to live like that... neither do the majority of Americans...
Some common sense has to injected into this argument, or gun rights really will be infringed...
If both sides can't make reasonable compromise,..  the majority will win...
Gun advocates are not in the majority...

Remember,.. women, minorities, young people,... are all on increase in voter-ship...
Pounding on a copy of the Constitution, won't prevent a landslide, it will trigger one...
Jes' sayin'...

That is why,... both sides need to recognize that rights, and opinions of the other...
Pushing at each other, isn't working...

BTW... Very civil reply, Webster... I thank you... ...

I believe protecting ourselves and our family is a God given right and nowadays it takes a gun to do it. The liberal news never reports unarmed white people gunned down except maybe locally about it. Last night my next door neighbors house was cleaned out. She had a lot of valuable jewlry and they got a credit card. I'm usually up late but I went to bed early last night. She's 90 years old, had a stroke and moved in with one of her daughters. She's a great lady and we've been friends almost 30 years, I just wish I had been up and seen something. I know who did it but I cant prove it. It was someone who knew she no longer lived there. The police called here today because they know my wife is a part time cop. The lady's next door neigbors on the other side of her house are white trash and the jewrey probably has been traded for drugs. Sew I always value you and your opinion and consider you a friend. I'm glad you're back on the TT.Both of us have valid points and I'm willing to let it go for that reason. Have a great day my friend.

Midnightrider wrote on 07/31/13 at 20:18:30:

Why can you do that?...
Could you do that in England?... France?,.. Australia?...
Can you name a country that you admire, or think might be a good place to live,... where you could do that?...
Name any country where you could do that,... and tell me it's a good place to be...

So how is it a good thing here?...
The reason that you can do that here, is because guns are so prevalent....
So,.. we justify our need for guns because of the prevalence of guns, and we make more guns because we need them because there's so many guns...

It all makes sense now...

...the Constitution has been amended more than 20 times...
That wall has holes in it... not a thing to be standing behind...
Especially when the majority is not on your side... and that side has the growing demographics...

There were those Halcyon Days when these issues weren't issues...  those days of "Leave it to Beaver", and "Ozzie and Harriot"... but,... what if the Beave came home and told dad, there was a man on the bus with an AK-47?... or Harriot said "Oz, I saw the strangest thing at the market today"...
...and this was during the conservative, McCarthy era...
... but, what conclusion would those episodes have?...
Would watching Beaver be the same, if he rode the bus with a few AK's and AR's on there with him?...
This is not going to create that Utopia...
This not even going to take us back to the days of the Revolution,.. or even the Wild Wild West...
Legendary massacres like the OK corral, and the St, Valentines day massacre don't hold a candle to this modern America...
It does hold a candle to Afghanistan,.. or Iraq...

More guns, equals more guns stolen, more guns purchased by straw men, more guns swapped for a motorcycle,.. more guns in the hands of people that will use them...
I just don't see the solution to be more guns...

...and I'm as guilty as anyone... I have 9 guns...
My buddy's dad had a collection of over 200... guess where they went?... he was burgled...
I don't carry,... mine are mostly 22 plinkers... I have one for home defense...
I'm not going to go out carrying a gun... I'm not going to kill someone that wants to take my wallet. or car, or bike...
If they're in my house, while I'm home, I'll have it for protection...
... and I live 70 miles from the border... drug alley...
If I carry,... I'm not safer,.. I'm in more danger...
I'm a realist... I'm not Dirty Harry, or Bruce Willis....
...bullets don't go around me...
I can't out shoot a cartel... or even a drug gang...
They have more guys,.. and they have my buddies dad's guns...

It is here,.. and it ain't pretty... and it's scary how many bad guys have weapons...  ... but, adding to it, won't fix it...
It's a "short term, feel good, solution"...
It's not a fix... it's not where we want to go...

Courage,.. is not in carrying a gun,.. it's in taking the in the bigger picture and saying this has gone too far... this is not the world I want for my children's children...  I will not add to this... my car, wallet, bike, even my life, is not worth making this worse...

We need to start having a more intelligent conversation than our representatives....  
When we start getting smarter, they will too...
They are only parrots....  
Part of the problem is, we've started to parrot them...
JMHO...

" Courage,.. is not in carrying a gun"  I carry because I'm chickensh!t and cant fight LOL. It doesn't make me feel like a man to carry But if I can save an innocent life or mine I believe its the right thing to do.I really don't know much about foreign countries. I heard the murder rate in Austailia went up after the gun laws were changed, don't know if its true or not. Jerry and I have printed the statistics that the minorities are responsible for at least 85% of the murders. Do way with that and we would be one of the safest countries to live in.. You know I'm not a racist but you cant argue with the facts. I never locked my doors 20 years ago but times and people have changed. These kids growing up with the violent video games have no conscience, just like the whacko at New Haven. I have a lot of friends who carry and they really don't want to, they just believe as I do. There are a lot of guys carry big guns. I don't know if its to make up for small genitals of an inferiority complex. The biggest guns I have are deer hunting rifles and I cant use them anymore. I couldn't get a deer out of the woods if I killed it. My favorite round is the 22. I have 2 black automatic 22's, one with a 50 round clip. I don't need it but that's the way it came. I got em because the guy's needed money quick. They're great fun to shoot but you could have practically the same gun with a 10/22 with a 30 round clip. They sell a lot of them, probably to guys who cant afford a real AK or cant afford to shoot one. I would love to have an AR because like the 10/22 its about the best firearm ever made. I hang my guns on the wall unloaded and I love looking at them like my guitars. I think I have 6 guns I've never shot, I'll get around to it one of these days. I could talk guns all night but I'll quit boring you. God Bless You!