4 ms·

I mean, you said why not yourself. There's a lot that goes into being a bodyguard that makes it quite different from allowing random employees to carry.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
> There's a lot that goes into being a bodyguard No. There isn't. I used to work for a company that fielded body guards as one of their many services. Basically just have a pulse, don't have a criminal history, pass a fairly trivial interview that's designed to filter out people who think they're gonna be billy-badass or that it's gonna be an exiting job. There's a reason it doesn't pay well. Almost anyone can do it. Driving a floor polisher was more lucrative and sucked less so I did that.
da_big_ghey 6y ago
I think this is a cultural thing that causes people in other places to worry too much about concealed firearms. I'm from Texas, where it's generally understood that there is a very good chance that any given person is carrying. Not just Joe Tough Guy either, there are plenty of old ladies with .25 ACPs in their handbags. People don't see it as scary or abnormal the same way other places do; it's just a tool that many people carry. I've only ever seen one incident where someone got stupid with a concealed handgun, and that guy was clearly a moron and had been drinking quite a bit. "Random people" carrying isn't really an issue. And because they're not seen as an exceptional or evil scary thing, most people are less-likely to abuse them, at least from what I've seen.
- anoonmoose 6y ago
  At the end of the day, Texas, however you may feel living there/being from there, has a higher per capita firearm death rate than several large states with stricter gun laws and many countries with stricter gun laws, and I personally believe those things to be related.
  - agensaequivocum 6y ago
    Actually in 2019 firearm homicides per 100k AZ 2.93 CA 2.89 ID 0.90 ME 0.97 NH 1.18 VT 1.28 WY 1.56 Aside from CA, all the other state listed here have constitutional carry, and aside from VT magazine limit, no more strict than federal law. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-20 https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-...
    - danaris 6y ago
      So, um...what are the statistics for Texas, which is the state being talked about? It's all very well to mention that other states have some firearm homicides each year, but if you don't provide Texas' stats to compare to, it's not especially germane to the topic at hand...
      - agensaequivocum 6y ago
        TX 3.67 The reason I pointed out the other states was to show that the looser gun laws of Texas is not necessarily the cause of higher firearm homicide rate. The other states have looser firearm laws than Texas (not in all respects). Edit: Some other states CT 1.823 DC 19.27 IL 5.11 MA 1.25 MD 7.61 NY 1.53 RI 0.94
        anoonmoose 6y ago
        I do not think it is the cause. My point is that the laws on the books and the firearm homicide rate seem fairly loosely coupled, if at all. If TX has loose laws, and CA has strict laws, and they're about the same with regards to firearm homicide rate, I think it is fair to suggest that the original poster's suggestion that "knowing every person could be armed actually reduces issues" may be faulty.
  - da_big_ghey 6y ago
    Gun murder rate per 100k, state by state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta... The data are from 2015, but DC is highest by far, even with its very strict gun laws. Note that California is higher than Texas despite horribly restrictive gun laws. My point was more that people are less likely to abuse them as some exceptional item, at least as far as I've seen. Criminals will always use them; I was more talking about the likelihood of someone to draw a gun in a tense situation, which I can't measure. But people who view them as tools and know how to use them understand that one ought not to draw a gun unless he intends to use it. All that aside, I don't support gun rights because rates of certain crimes are below some number. We would call it silly to support a right to privacy only insofar as terrorism does not exceed a certain threshold and to say that such a right disappears. In the same way, I don't believe crime rate should have any effect on our right to keep and bear arms.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

> There's a lot that goes into being a bodyguard No. There isn't. I used to work for a company that fielded body guards as one of their many services. Basically just have a pulse, don't have a criminal history, pass a fairly trivial interview that's designed to filter out people who think they're gonna be billy-badass or that it's gonna be an exiting job. There's a reason it doesn't pay well. Almost anyone can do it. Driving a floor polisher was more lucrative and sucked less so I did that.

da_big_ghey 6y ago

I think this is a cultural thing that causes people in other places to worry too much about concealed firearms. I'm from Texas, where it's generally understood that there is a very good chance that any given person is carrying. Not just Joe Tough Guy either, there are plenty of old ladies with .25 ACPs in their handbags. People don't see it as scary or abnormal the same way other places do; it's just a tool that many people carry. I've only ever seen one incident where someone got stupid with a concealed handgun, and that guy was clearly a moron and had been drinking quite a bit. "Random people" carrying isn't really an issue. And because they're not seen as an exceptional or evil scary thing, most people are less-likely to abuse them, at least from what I've seen.

anoonmoose 6y ago
At the end of the day, Texas, however you may feel living there/being from there, has a higher per capita firearm death rate than several large states with stricter gun laws and many countries with stricter gun laws, and I personally believe those things to be related.
- agensaequivocum 6y ago
  Actually in 2019 firearm homicides per 100k AZ 2.93 CA 2.89 ID 0.90 ME 0.97 NH 1.18 VT 1.28 WY 1.56 Aside from CA, all the other state listed here have constitutional carry, and aside from VT magazine limit, no more strict than federal law. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-20 https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-...
  - danaris 6y ago
    So, um...what are the statistics for Texas, which is the state being talked about? It's all very well to mention that other states have some firearm homicides each year, but if you don't provide Texas' stats to compare to, it's not especially germane to the topic at hand...
    - agensaequivocum 6y ago
      TX 3.67 The reason I pointed out the other states was to show that the looser gun laws of Texas is not necessarily the cause of higher firearm homicide rate. The other states have looser firearm laws than Texas (not in all respects). Edit: Some other states CT 1.823 DC 19.27 IL 5.11 MA 1.25 MD 7.61 NY 1.53 RI 0.94
      - anoonmoose 6y ago
        I do not think it is the cause. My point is that the laws on the books and the firearm homicide rate seem fairly loosely coupled, if at all. If TX has loose laws, and CA has strict laws, and they're about the same with regards to firearm homicide rate, I think it is fair to suggest that the original poster's suggestion that "knowing every person could be armed actually reduces issues" may be faulty.
- da_big_ghey 6y ago
  Gun murder rate per 100k, state by state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta... The data are from 2015, but DC is highest by far, even with its very strict gun laws. Note that California is higher than Texas despite horribly restrictive gun laws. My point was more that people are less likely to abuse them as some exceptional item, at least as far as I've seen. Criminals will always use them; I was more talking about the likelihood of someone to draw a gun in a tense situation, which I can't measure. But people who view them as tools and know how to use them understand that one ought not to draw a gun unless he intends to use it. All that aside, I don't support gun rights because rates of certain crimes are below some number. We would call it silly to support a right to privacy only insofar as terrorism does not exceed a certain threshold and to say that such a right disappears. In the same way, I don't believe crime rate should have any effect on our right to keep and bear arms.