> 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

> 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.