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There is no rational justification for private gun ownership. Owning a gun isn't the same thing as having it available and ready to stop a crime, which is why t

There is no rational justification for private gun ownership. Owning a gun isn't the same thing as having it available and ready to stop a crime, which is why that happens so rarely. If the police can't provide adequate protection from violence then we need to change the system until they can. Anything else is horribly unfair to people who pay taxes but can't reliably use guns to protect themselves (ie the elderly or disabled) There are very few activities which require a firearm to be owned as opposed to rented. Hunters can hunt and marksman can shoot, as long as the weapons are returned as part of a standard rental. Guns won't stop the (American) government from asserting its will. Many people have tried that, believe me it doesn't work out. Merely owning a gun won't stop a determined adversary or provide you with a modicum of additional safety unless you've been trained in how to quickly acquire and shoot it. An assault rifle is of almost 0 value in a non-war urban setting, unless you plan to be firing at many targets at a range of 200m+ Statistically, the overwhelming majority of guns end up harming their owner or their owner's family. Actual self-defense is near the bottom of real uses for fired personal weapons. Don't buy a gun. Buy a dog. You'll be safer

mberning 6y ago
You should sub Active Self Protection on YT. He covers a lot of self defense cases which happen more frequently than you might expect. He also doesn’t sugar coat it when people screw up.
YPCrumble 6y ago
You say that self defense is near the bottom of real uses for fired personal weapons. That’s not a useful metric because a gun doesn’t need to be fired to be a deterrent.
- hooande 6y ago
  a deterrent from what? it's true that just flashing a gun can stop crime, but that happens no more commonly than stopping a crime by firing one. And in the majority of cases where someone simply brandishes a weapon it's pointed at someone who is undesirable or different and not actually a threat
  - YPCrumble 6y ago
    This is just made up statistics. Also, a gun doesn’t have to be shown to someone to act as a deterrent. I’m not saying that I think guns are effective or not, but when I see arguments like this that cherry pick statistics or make up stories to appeal to emotion it makes me suspicious about the validity of the argument.
OminousWeapons 6y ago
> Owning a gun isn't the same thing as having it available and ready to stop a crime, which is why that happens so rarely Which is why if you're serious about using a gun for self defense, you need to carry it on your person or have it at the ready. > Anything else is horribly unfair to people who pay taxes but can't reliably use guns to protect themselves (ie the elderly or disabled) A small subset of the population can't do something so no one should be able to? > There are very few activities which require a firearm to be owned as opposed to rented. Hunters can hunt and marksman can shoot, as long as the weapons are returned as part of a standard rental. Self defense. > Guns won't stop the (American) government from asserting its will. Tell that to Amon Bundy. Tell it to Mexico. In fact, tell it to most of the countries the US has gone to war with over the last 50 years. > Merely owning a gun won't stop a determined adversary or provide you with a modicum of additional safety unless you've been trained in how to quickly acquire and shoot it. Which is why you should get training and practice. > An assault rifle is of almost 0 value in a non-war urban setting, unless you plan to be firing at many targets at a range of 200m+ This is total nonsense that you just made up. > Statistically, the overwhelming majority of guns end up harming their owner or their owner's family. That's data from the entire country and largely results from suicides. The need to own varies wildly by location, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.

mberning 6y ago

You should sub Active Self Protection on YT. He covers a lot of self defense cases which happen more frequently than you might expect. He also doesn’t sugar coat it when people screw up.

YPCrumble 6y ago

You say that self defense is near the bottom of real uses for fired personal weapons. That’s not a useful metric because a gun doesn’t need to be fired to be a deterrent.

hooande 6y ago
a deterrent from what? it's true that just flashing a gun can stop crime, but that happens no more commonly than stopping a crime by firing one. And in the majority of cases where someone simply brandishes a weapon it's pointed at someone who is undesirable or different and not actually a threat
- YPCrumble 6y ago
  This is just made up statistics. Also, a gun doesn’t have to be shown to someone to act as a deterrent. I’m not saying that I think guns are effective or not, but when I see arguments like this that cherry pick statistics or make up stories to appeal to emotion it makes me suspicious about the validity of the argument.

OminousWeapons 6y ago

> Owning a gun isn't the same thing as having it available and ready to stop a crime, which is why that happens so rarely Which is why if you're serious about using a gun for self defense, you need to carry it on your person or have it at the ready. > Anything else is horribly unfair to people who pay taxes but can't reliably use guns to protect themselves (ie the elderly or disabled) A small subset of the population can't do something so no one should be able to? > There are very few activities which require a firearm to be owned as opposed to rented. Hunters can hunt and marksman can shoot, as long as the weapons are returned as part of a standard rental. Self defense. > Guns won't stop the (American) government from asserting its will. Tell that to Amon Bundy. Tell it to Mexico. In fact, tell it to most of the countries the US has gone to war with over the last 50 years. > Merely owning a gun won't stop a determined adversary or provide you with a modicum of additional safety unless you've been trained in how to quickly acquire and shoot it. Which is why you should get training and practice. > An assault rifle is of almost 0 value in a non-war urban setting, unless you plan to be firing at many targets at a range of 200m+ This is total nonsense that you just made up. > Statistically, the overwhelming majority of guns end up harming their owner or their owner's family. That's data from the entire country and largely results from suicides. The need to own varies wildly by location, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.