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Post by catchafire on Oct 20, 2015 3:01:39 GMT
From my perspective down here in little old NZ...where gun ownership is a privilege (that is easily taken away) rather than a right. Whilst hunting rifles and shotguns are common, you will need to a have a real good reason to be able to get a handgun or AR-15 type rifles (very hard to do).
The USA has got a lot of guns and certain types of people seem to feel inadequate unless they have one on their person.
Do you as a host have a firearm? Would you allow/feel comfortable if a guest brought one with them?
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Post by fleur on Oct 20, 2015 20:59:03 GMT
I recently had a guest here for a shooting competition. He had a car load of guns but they were all locked up safely.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 20, 2015 23:03:24 GMT
Hi Catchafire, interesting you should bring up this topic!! Another host brought up this exact topic not long ago, and I posted a response to it, and put that conversation here: globalhosting.freeforums.net/thread/680/rules-firearms(By the way, what I say below is just the kind of material that I would NOT want to put on the new Airbnb forums, and have permanently linked to my profile and my Airbnb listings!!!) Here's what was said on that thread: Deborah: (High Priestess) I don't have a firearms policy and I have never seen this issue come up before, though I have seen at least one or two hosts who have stated in their house rules that firearms aren't permitted in their homes.
I would guess that this would be one of those things each host should decide for themselves. My own approach would be to first broadly assess who is this guest and why do they have a firearm with them (firearms aren't permitted on planes, so it would be someone either local or driving in ). If they are going on a hunting trip I would be more inclined to allow them to have the firearm, as that seems a legitimate reason, and there really isn't anyplace one can store a firearm while traveling other than in one's vehicle or one's room. And in many urban areas such as mine, it is not safe to leave valuables in vehicles overnight.
If I were a host where the guest's room did not have a lock on it, I would be more reluctant to allow them to have firearms in my house, out of fear of what might happen and any liability that could ensue if a firearm might be left out unlocked and potentially loaded, in a place accessible to others. IF there were a safe in the guest room and the firearm could fit in it, that would be more acceptable.
Just some thoughts.
Jeff: This issue had not even occurred to me but given the recent events in the news I can see why you are! I shudder to think of any firearms in our home...I guess we should add that to our "house rules" section! Please feel free to share any other info you learn.
Deborah (High Priestess) I dont' think we should leap from the situation of a guest asking to bring a firearm, to thinking of the incidents we read in the news of mass murder by disturbed individuals . IMHO it is unlikely that a person intending to commit mass murder, or an act of terrorism for that matter, is going to politely ask you if they can bring a gun or guns, bombs or a large stock of ammo into your listing!
Many reasonable people, including myself, may carry a firearm while traveling. Someone I knew personally and knew well, was murdered while traveling ---- perhaps a measure of effective self-defense would have prevented their death, perhaps not. In any case, as a woman alone on a road trip, it helps me feel secure to have a firearm in my possession as I travel. I generally travel this way on road trips. (Obviously I could not do so by plane -- but I very rarely travel by plane).
That said, this doesn't mean a host has to allow firearms in their home if they are uncomfortable with it or fear the liability issues, or for any other reason, single woman or no.
I would add though that even if a host has a rule prohibiting firearms on their property, it is not something that one can really check up on with every guest. After all our guests don't come through metal detectors when they enter our homes, and we aren't going to search their luggage. A guest who travels with a firearm may not think to mention it to the host, and so for the most part the host would be none the wiser what is or was in the guest's luggage, either during their stay, or afterward.
Additional things to mention: I'm surprised to hear that in New Zealand gun ownership is privilege easily taken away and not a right. I guess I thought New Zealand, being a land with wide open spaces, would resemble the USA and perhaps Australia (though I don't know anything about gun laws in Australia!) in having permissive gun laws. Actually, there are many thousands of "gun laws" in the USA, many restrictions, but apart from those, owning a gun is generally a right, unless one has felony convictions, or grave mental illness which is documented, in which case one loses such rights. I tend to be quite libertarian on my views about gun rights and gun ownership, but I also am quite libertarian about property rights, and thus, the rules property owners can make for what they do and don't allow to take place on or be brought onto their property. So I fully support hosts who would not want firearms on their property. I also think that if one has more than one guest at a time, one has to be careful of permitting a guest with a firearm, who might mention something about having a firearm, which could then lead the other guest to "freak out", even to the point of wanting to cancel, out of fear of being housed with a "nut job" or "gun nut" as some anti-gun people call those with guns in the USA.
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Post by catchafire on Oct 21, 2015 0:48:07 GMT
Yup, its really up to the police to decide if you can have a firearm license. Whilst not difficult to get if you have a clean record, things like domestic violence or even a DUI would then put that at risk. Gun related deaths are rare here and tend to be "trash vs trash".
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Post by fleur on Oct 21, 2015 2:39:27 GMT
Ok here is a quick run down about Australian gun ownership. In 1996 a crazy guy killed 36 people in Tasmania. He had semi automatic weapons. He hunted people down including women and children. It was awful. Our government acted quickly. Both sides of parliament and the population agreed. They introduced an additional tax that year that we all paid. They bought back all the semi automatic guns and crushed them. I think I paid probably $250 extra tax. We have never had a mass murder since. I don't live in fear of my children being killed at school. We have had shootings since but it's never more than one or two people. We don't see it as our rights being taken away. We see it as our rights to not get killed. Hunting is still popular here, our whole kangaroo meat industry is based on shooting. But there is huge restrictions on who can own them and lots of weapons are banned and cannot be imported. We never want to see that awful day repeated again. I don't feel that having a gun would make me feel safer.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 21, 2015 3:18:31 GMT
THat incident you describe is horrible, awful Fleur. I didn't realize that happened in Australia. Of course we have had many mass shootings in the USA in which deeply disturbed individuals preyed on the innocent, including women and children, and these horrific incidents continue. I think eventually we will go in the direction Australia has gone with regard to gun ownership, but that does not seem on the near horizon. I enjoy the right to own a firearm while the right lasts -- and I very much hope I never am in a position where I "have to" use it.
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Post by fleur on Oct 21, 2015 8:23:25 GMT
I don't think there will ever be gun reform in the US. The gun lobby is too strong. Just watching the news today there was a big punch up at a high school by a ex student. A couple of people got black eyes etc. if it had of been the US there would be bodies. That's the sad reality.
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Post by High Priestess on Jan 17, 2016 15:00:35 GMT
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Post by lambada on Jan 17, 2016 17:46:50 GMT
I like this part suggested in the article: Let’s also banish the term “gun control”: the better expression is “gun safety.”
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Post by lambada on Jan 17, 2016 17:49:10 GMT
And completely agree with this: In short, let’s get smarter. Let’s make America’s gun battles less ideological and more driven by evidence of what works. If the left can drop the sanctimony, and the right can drop the obstructionism, if instead of wrestling with each other we can grapple with the evidence, we can save thousands of lives a year.
I was thinking of the shooting at the Kindergarten on Christmas Eve not that long ago. I so wished that one of the teachers, or Security Guards, or an employee at the school would own a gun and could stop that mentally ill person who shot all those kids and some teachers.
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Post by High Priestess on Jan 17, 2016 18:01:05 GMT
Yes, I'm with you there, Lambada. THis comment from that NYT article is important evidence:
It is reasonable to think that an armed invididual could stop a crime: that is, after all, why we arm police officers -- so they can be effective in stopping crime. Those who call for a ban on all guns, or all handguns, unwittingly cause a defensive reaction on the right as many then rightly fear there is a move abroad to confiscate guns. Mexico is a good example of a nation where we can see that a prohibition on citizens owning guns doesn't do a heck of a lot to stop crime -- Mexico is nearly being completely run by drug cartels, and their violence.
It's a complicated issue, but I think while we examine expanding background checks for firearm purchases, it's actually more important to look at why so many young men are alienated and angry, and also why we can't do more to help the mentally ill in our nation.
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Post by regi on Jan 18, 2016 2:46:09 GMT
No, I would not feel comfortable with a guest bringing firearms. I guess it's really more an emotional reason. I have no interest in guns and I don't want any around me.
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Post by High Priestess on Jan 18, 2016 3:08:03 GMT
Thanks Regi for bringing us back to the question! I was yakking off track there.... I think actually even for those of us who are comfortable with firearms, we may not want guests bringing them into our home! I am fine with myself having a gun in my own home, (locked up, BTW) but I would not want a guest bringing a firearm in. That said, it's possible that a guest might bring a firearm into a hosts' home without asking first about that -- to me this is more understandable and acceptable if they are renting an entire house or entire apartment. When you are just renting a room in the host's home, I think guests cannot assume they have a right to bring in a firearm. Yet asking permission to do that is awkward too....dont' you think?
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Post by lambada on Jan 18, 2016 4:44:31 GMT
Hhahaha ok, I did the same thing - I got sidetracked from the original question. So no, I won't feel comfortable with my guests bringing firearms into my home.
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