Gun ownership poll

[Carter08]

Originally Posted by G1911

What country has "greatly lowered" mass shootings by banning arms? Can you link the data? Does this country have 400,000,000 guns in it already? Do you truly believe that a psycho plotting a massacre will simply dispose of his weapon and magazines if they are made illegal for anyone to have?




Frankly, no. A life might be saved if protesting and free speech were illegal. Should we eradicate them? We would have less traffic deaths if cars were illegal. Should we eradicate them? Everybody is disgusted by these incidents, but, even assuming criminals will magically follow this law for the first time in the history of the world, living in a totalitarian nightmare where everything that has ever caused a single death is illegal is worse. We would be able to use and do almost nothing.

Furthermore, I don't see how making my rifle here next to my desk illegal saves a single life. Who is in endangered by it?

Criminalizing the other half of the population is attractive to many on both sides of the culture conflict these days. I think it unfortunate that this is so, and short sighted.

If you have a gun next to your desk, there are many people endangered by it. Good and bad people. And it’s just not a good way to design a society in my view. Once we feel the need to arm ourselves at our desks I think we’ve truly lost.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Carter08

If you have a gun next to your desk, there are many people endangered by it. Good and bad people. And it’s just not a good way to design a society in my view. Once we feel the need to arm ourselves at our desks I think we’ve truly lost.

How, specifically, is anyone endangered by my possession of a rifle in my home? I don't mean to belabor the point but I really do not see how this is so. Knives are used far more often in US murders than rifles. Is the knife in my home also a danger to "good and bad people"?

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by G1911

How, specifically, is anyone endangered by my possession of a rifle in my home? I don't mean to belabor the point but I really do not see how this is so. Knives are used far more often in US murders than rifles. Is the knife in my home also a danger to "good and bad people"?

Because many kids that don't know better kill themselves with their parents firearms every year.

In a 2017 study published in Science, Philip Levine and his colleague Robin McKnight found that where gun sales increased after Sandy Hook (as indicated by increases in background checks), rates of accidental death rose, too. They estimated that 60 additional people, including 20 children, were killed in the aftermath of Sandy Hook because of the excess guns people purchased. “With everyone staying home, those new guns are more likely to fall into the hands of a child or other inexperienced user, with deadly consequences,” says Levine, an economist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
https://www.thetrace.org/2020/04/gun...rus-gun-sales/

[G1911]

Originally Posted by cgjackson222

Because many kids that don't know better kill themselves with their parents firearms every year.

In a 2017 study published in Science, Philip Levine and his colleague Robin McKnight found that where gun sales increased after Sandy Hook (as indicated by increases in background checks), rates of accidental death rose, too. They estimated that 60 additional people, including 20 children, were killed in the aftermath of Sandy Hook because of the excess guns people purchased. “With everyone staying home, those new guns are more likely to fall into the hands of a child or other inexperienced user, with deadly consequences,” says Levine, an economist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
https://www.thetrace.org/2020/04/gun...rus-gun-sales/

I do not have a child. If I did, they certainly would not have access to it outside my supervision.

Will you hold knives and other implements of suicide to this same standard?

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by G1911

I do not have a child. If I did, they certainly would not have access to it outside my supervision.

Will you hold knives and other implements of suicide to this same standard?

I'm talking about accidental injuries and deaths in households that have guns. Not specifically your house and your rifle.

As for knives, there just aren't that many accidental injuries and deaths from knives.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by cgjackson222

I'm talking about accidental injuries and deaths in households that have guns. Not specifically your house and your rifle.

As for knives, there just aren't that many accidental injuries and deaths from knives.

There are not that many for firearms either. I'll use a left-wing pro-gun control source.

NPR (https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/10327...death-children) using data from the extremely biased Everytonw group says there were 2,070 'accidental' shootings by children from 2015-2020, and 765 deaths, or 127.5 a year.

127.5 per year from guns, 389 from accidental drownings of under 15's (the gap is even larger, as the guns go up to actual adulthood; https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-R...ercent-in-2021).

Meanwhile 44% of households have a gun, and there are over 400,000,000 of them in civilian hands.

It appears that my home is markedly safer for a child than one with a swimming pool.

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by G1911

There are not that many for firearms either. I'll use a left-wing pro-gun control source.

NPR (https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/10327...death-children) using data from the extremely biased Everytonw group says there were 2,070 'accidental' shootings by children from 2015-2020, and 765 deaths, or 127.5 a year.

127.5 per year from guns, 389 from accidental drownings of under 15's (the gap is even larger, as the guns go up to actual adulthood; https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-R...ercent-in-2021).

Meanwhile 44% of households have a gun, and there are over 400,000,000 of them in civilian hands.

It appears that my home is markedly safer for a child than one with a swimming pool.

Well we can agree on the fact that swimming pools may not be the best idea for households with young kids.

The question is whether having a gun in your home makes one's family safer, and the data says it does not.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...vidence-shows/

https://psmag.com/news/keeping-a-gun...g-killed-there

https://research.northeastern.edu/do...ake-you-safer/

[bnorth]

I found these numbers interesting.

From the FBI in 2019.
Homicides by handgun 6365 that was 45.7% of all homicides
Rifles killed 364 or 2.6% of all homicides
600 people died from beatings without weapons or 4.3% of all homicides
knifes killed 1476 or 10.6% of all homicides

The percentage of handgun murders did not shock me. The number of deaths being almost double from no weapon beatings to deaths by rifle kinda shocked me. Also knifes killed around 4 times as many as rifles.

I would be all in for safety courses being required to own guns. Most of the other laws we actually already have.

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I found these numbers interesting.

From the FBI in 2019.
Homicides by handgun 6365 that was 45.7% of all homicides
Rifles killed 364 or 2.6% of all homicides
600 people died from beatings without weapons or 4.3% of all homicides
knifes killed 1476 or 10.6% of all homicides

The percentage of handgun murders did not shock me. The number of deaths being almost double from no weapon beatings to deaths by rifle kinda shocked me. Also knifes killed around 4 times as many as rifles.

I would be all in for safety courses being required to own guns. Most of the other laws we actually already have.

I saw similar statistis. Note that there are thousands from "Firearms, type not stated" that do not fall in the handgun or rifle category:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...y-weapon-used/

Do you think some of the thousands of homicides category are from rifles?

How many of the knife deaths were accidental?