4 ms·

> Once someone owns a gun, or a household has a gun with-in it, there are all sorts of disasters that can now occur that were not possible without one being pre

> Once someone owns a gun, or a household has a gun with-in it, there are all sorts of disasters that can now occur that were not possible without one being present. Amen. The 'upsides' of owning a gun don't outweigh the horrible potential consequences for myself and others around me. I'm really glad that guns are not as prominent in my country compared to the US.

throw0101a 5y ago
> The 'upsides' of owning a gun don't outweigh the horrible potential consequences for myself and others around me. Of course other people make different value judgements as to the risks. If I was in the US I'd be less concerned about general firearm ownership, and people basically being about to have whatever they want in their own homes, versus all the concealed carry and stand-your-ground laws, both of which impact public safety more. And it seems toward the negative (AFAICT). > I'm really glad that guns are not as prominent in my country compared to the US. As someone in Canada, the day-to-day firearms stuff isn't as prevalent, but we're tied for 7th in per capita ownership: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g... However, from a firearms death rate (homicide+suicide), we're lower than what many people would expect: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r... With a lower rate that Austria, Switzerland, Finland, and France. IMHO this is because (a) we have mandatory licensing/training, which works as a filter to reduce the cowboy types, (b) relatively lower rates of poverty which helps with reduce crime (most shooting seem to be gang-related), and (c) decent social programs which helps the less fortunate. Many calamities are also probably reduced through safe storage laws. I don't think there's a need to even "ban" firearms or specific firearm types if these are implemented. There's no one silver bullet that will solve gun-related problems, but there are a few policies that have been shown to work fairly well. It's 'just' a matter society choosing to implement them.
- rich_sasha 5y ago
  I guess additionally “gun ownership” is a crude metric. Is it fair to assume that more firearms in Canada are hunting weapons? These are less suited to violence than hand guns, SMGs etc. UKs gun ownership per capita is something like 30% of US’, but these are predominantly shotguns, and a few single-shot rifles. Legal ownership of pistols of any kind is essentially impossible (yes even sport 0.22 ones).
  - throw0101a 5y ago
    AFAICT, about 12% of firearms-owning households have handguns: * https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/wd98_4-dt98_4/p2.html https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/wd98_4-d... Hunting rifles and shotguns are not registered, but (many) semi-automatic rifles (e.g., AR-15) would have to be registered—as do handguns—so some ratio of licensees-to-'restricted'-class firearms can be estimated. These restricted-class items can only be used at a licensed range, and so are generally used for fun/target shooting as well as sporting activities (IPSC, IDPA, three-gun).

throw0101a 5y ago

> The 'upsides' of owning a gun don't outweigh the horrible potential consequences for myself and others around me. Of course other people make different value judgements as to the risks. If I was in the US I'd be less concerned about general firearm ownership, and people basically being about to have whatever they want in their own homes, versus all the concealed carry and stand-your-ground laws, both of which impact public safety more. And it seems toward the negative (AFAICT). > I'm really glad that guns are not as prominent in my country compared to the US. As someone in Canada, the day-to-day firearms stuff isn't as prevalent, but we're tied for 7th in per capita ownership: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g... However, from a firearms death rate (homicide+suicide), we're lower than what many people would expect: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r... With a lower rate that Austria, Switzerland, Finland, and France. IMHO this is because (a) we have mandatory licensing/training, which works as a filter to reduce the cowboy types, (b) relatively lower rates of poverty which helps with reduce crime (most shooting seem to be gang-related), and (c) decent social programs which helps the less fortunate. Many calamities are also probably reduced through safe storage laws. I don't think there's a need to even "ban" firearms or specific firearm types if these are implemented. There's no one silver bullet that will solve gun-related problems, but there are a few policies that have been shown to work fairly well. It's 'just' a matter society choosing to implement them.

rich_sasha 5y ago
I guess additionally “gun ownership” is a crude metric. Is it fair to assume that more firearms in Canada are hunting weapons? These are less suited to violence than hand guns, SMGs etc. UKs gun ownership per capita is something like 30% of US’, but these are predominantly shotguns, and a few single-shot rifles. Legal ownership of pistols of any kind is essentially impossible (yes even sport 0.22 ones).
- throw0101a 5y ago
  AFAICT, about 12% of firearms-owning households have handguns: * https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/wd98_4-dt98_4/p2.html https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/wd98_4-d... Hunting rifles and shotguns are not registered, but (many) semi-automatic rifles (e.g., AR-15) would have to be registered—as do handguns—so some ratio of licensees-to-'restricted'-class firearms can be estimated. These restricted-class items can only be used at a licensed range, and so are generally used for fun/target shooting as well as sporting activities (IPSC, IDPA, three-gun).