To anti-gun users : How do you plan to protect yourself and your family from danger?
Let's say protect yourself from being robbed or killed by a armed individual.
A whistle????
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A whistle????
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I don't have a gun because we don't have the opportunity in the UK. I'm not anti gun.
That said, the ability of your average person to protect much of anything with their gun is questionable at best. It is often a fanciful idea that the gun will be your protector. Real life is not a cowboy movie. I get that a gun can make you feel more protected but in reality you remain just as vulnerable in many ways. You don't have eyes in the back of your head, you're not an expert marksman trained in modern combat, you're not bulletproof, other people have guns too and guns don't put any decent criminal off committing crime just like the death penalty does nothing to reduce crime. The guy that is intent on coming to your house is coming anyway. It could be argued that a gun could provide a false sense of security.
What best illustrates the overall point is the fact that many Americans can own guns for home defence and crime has not reduced at all.
That said, the ability of your average person to protect much of anything with their gun is questionable at best. It is often a fanciful idea that the gun will be your protector. Real life is not a cowboy movie. I get that a gun can make you feel more protected but in reality you remain just as vulnerable in many ways. You don't have eyes in the back of your head, you're not an expert marksman trained in modern combat, you're not bulletproof, other people have guns too and guns don't put any decent criminal off committing crime just like the death penalty does nothing to reduce crime. The guy that is intent on coming to your house is coming anyway. It could be argued that a gun could provide a false sense of security.
What best illustrates the overall point is the fact that many Americans can own guns for home defence and crime has not reduced at all.
@WowwGirl Most Europeans are not at all terrified in their homes most of the time. Home invasion is always possible anywhere but the majority of people will be asleep when it happens and in no state to defend anything and that's even if they hear the break in which most don't.
BizSuitStacy · M
@UBotMate the anti-gun crowd tends to push the narrative that guns don't make you safer, or they use the debunked Kellermann study that gun ownership puts your life at greater risk. Yet, defensive gun use statistics tell a different story.
https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/firearms/defensive-gun-uses-in-the-us/
https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/firearms/defensive-gun-uses-in-the-us/
@BizSuitStacy I'm not part of the anti-gun crowd. Gun ownership definitely puts your life at greater risk, based on the fact that the majority of gun deaths in America are suicides.
As for the defensive gun use statistics, just like anti-gun narratives they are too easy to spin.
As for the defensive gun use statistics, just like anti-gun narratives they are too easy to spin.
BizSuitStacy · M
@UBotMate
That's sounds exactly like something someone from the anti-gun crowd would say. You're from the UK, and firearm ownership has practically been eradicated, so I get it.
But I've studied firearm crime statistics since the 1990s and will go toe to toe with anyone on the subject.
The anti-gun crowd loves to reference the Kellermann study (usually unknowingly) or they simply say things like "gun ownership definitely puts your life at risk" because that's what they accept. But when the study was dissected by John Lott, Kellermann's selection bias became obvious. His study has never been peer reviewed, and when others requested the raw data to review, Kellermann refused.
I've read 13 independent DGU (defensive gun use) studies, and they all come to the same conclusion. Some the DGU studies came from liberal sources. One was CNN, and they never published their results. There are far more DGUs every year than firearm homicides. A DGU is a situation in which someone defends themselves using a firearm where they believe their life was at risk. In the vast majority of cases, he firearm is simply brandished, and not fired, though there are a significant number resulting in a justified homicide. The US gov't CDC found there are between 500,000 and 3 million DGUs every year, as opposed to roughly 10K - 15K firearm homicides each year. It's hard to make your case when firearm ownership is saving more lives than it puts at risk.
I'm not part of the anti-gun crowd. Gun ownership definitely puts your life at greater risk
That's sounds exactly like something someone from the anti-gun crowd would say. You're from the UK, and firearm ownership has practically been eradicated, so I get it.
But I've studied firearm crime statistics since the 1990s and will go toe to toe with anyone on the subject.
The anti-gun crowd loves to reference the Kellermann study (usually unknowingly) or they simply say things like "gun ownership definitely puts your life at risk" because that's what they accept. But when the study was dissected by John Lott, Kellermann's selection bias became obvious. His study has never been peer reviewed, and when others requested the raw data to review, Kellermann refused.
I've read 13 independent DGU (defensive gun use) studies, and they all come to the same conclusion. Some the DGU studies came from liberal sources. One was CNN, and they never published their results. There are far more DGUs every year than firearm homicides. A DGU is a situation in which someone defends themselves using a firearm where they believe their life was at risk. In the vast majority of cases, he firearm is simply brandished, and not fired, though there are a significant number resulting in a justified homicide. The US gov't CDC found there are between 500,000 and 3 million DGUs every year, as opposed to roughly 10K - 15K firearm homicides each year. It's hard to make your case when firearm ownership is saving more lives than it puts at risk.
@BizSuitStacy I will say it clearly, so as not to be ambiguous. I support the right of Americans to choose to have guns as part of a democracy and if guns were legal here I'd probably have one. I just don't see them as any kind of solution. I think that they're fascinating and powerful.
As for the Kellerman study that you reference, hand on heart I've never heard of it until now.
As for the Kellerman study that you reference, hand on heart I've never heard of it until now.