Quote:
Originally Posted by Racoon
I've done some careful thinking, and I think that owning a gun is a wise investment.
Not for Hunting, not for crime, but for protection...
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This is a question I suspect nearly everyone in countries that permit legal private gun ownership, and quite a few that don’t, has pondered. It’s been a very difficult one for me, as I love having beautifully-made machines on hand, which, IMHO, many if not all guns are. I’ve also had a few experiences in which I believe my person was protected (while another persons was threatened), because I had a gun on my person, and they did not, and a few in which the situation was reversed. To my great gratitude and relief, I have never pointed a loaded gun at another person (though I very nearly had to shoot a dog), only had a loaded gun intentionally pointed at me a few times, and actually been shot only once, accidentally, while hunting.
I’ve not owned a gun, or had one in my possession in other than extraordinary situations, since 1986. In my best assessment, this has resulted in me and my family having been less likely to be injured or killed, than if I owned a gun.
You’ll find fervent opinions and analysis for both this conclusion, and its opposite. I think the correct conclusion depends on many factors related to a person’s history and circumstances. In my analysis, with the exception of people who have persistent, dangerously violent enemies, people are safer not having guns than having them.
The statistics are difficult to analyze, as they involve many variables. In simple terms, people who own guns are more likely to be injured or killed by them – either their own, or those of others – but this statistic is difficult to control for such factors as the increased likelihood of emotionally imbalanced people owning guns, or the tendency for people in communities where gun ownership is more common to own guns. While it’s fairly obvious that people who are careless with guns – for example, leaving loaded guns in plain sight or well-known, unlocked hiding places around their dwellings – increase their risk of being shot, it’s also obvious that someone like me, who has no gun, is more likely to be shot in a scenario in which a person with a gun attacks him.
A factor that strongly determined my decision not to own a gun was having children. Although my parents took precautions to prevent it, by the age of 8, I was, without their knowledge, able to undetectably lay hands on several of their handguns and cartridges for same. Like many children, I had several emotionally turbulent conflicts with my parents and peers. I consider it lucky that I never took a gun, and shot anyone. Having no reason to believe my children would not be similarly clever and troubled, I concluded that the absence of a gun in our home increased our safety and the safety of our neighbors.
In my final analysis, I’ve concluded that, for most people, a few simple rules assure the greatest safety:
Don’t steal – human beings will injure and kill in retaliation for theft;
Don’t be emotionally cruel – nearly any person will physically retaliate if emotionally hurt enough;
And, though a sub-rule of previous one,
don’t mess with/steal a boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/significant other. Most of the killing and wounding of which I’ve first-hand experience involved some sort of “romantic triangle” or more complicated figure. Such situations are, IMHO, the most dangerous ones encountered by mostly law-abiding people.
The following of none of these rules requires, or is aided by, a gun.
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I have owed, but not longer own, guns
