4 ms·

A good reminder of Sam Harris's excellent article, "The Riddle of the Gun" [1]. An excerpt: "Wouldn’t any decent person wish for a world without guns? In my vi

by halfcat 12y ago

A good reminder of Sam Harris's excellent article, "The Riddle of the Gun" [1]. An excerpt: "Wouldn’t any decent person wish for a world without guns? In my view, only someone who doesn’t understand violence could wish for such a world. A world without guns is one in which the most aggressive men can do more or less anything they want. It is a world in which a man with a knife can rape and murder a woman in the presence of a dozen witnesses, and none will find the courage to intervene." [1] http://samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun http://samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun

IgorPartola 12y ago
That comes with a huge asterisk. First, guns are much more likely to be used against the person who is trying to defend themselves [1][2]. You can make the argument that people should take responsibility to learn how to properly use guns, but most people will not or cannot. People should also take responsibility to not overeat, not smoke, not get accidentally pregnant/get others accidentally pregnant, and not transmit STD's, yet here we are. This situation can be improved with education, but the reality is that unless handling guns is your job, you are likely to have it used against you then to use it on your assailant. Second, most rape cases do not happen the way Harris describes. Acquaintance rape happens in 82% of the cases [3], and usually behind closed doors, with no witnesses. There are no dozens of witnesses, or even knives in most of these situations. Thirdly, there are places in the world where gun ownership and use is minimal, even by the police [4][5]. They have much less violence, murders, rape, etc. than the US, which has very high rates of both gun ownership and gun violence. Specifically, the murder rate in the US is 5.8 times higher than in Germany. Think about that for a second: two first world countries, the US locked in an endless cycle of gun violence, mass shootings, and police brutality, vs Germany (or the UK, or Australia, etc.) Basically, more guns, more problems, as statistics and cold hard facts pretty clearly show. Personally, I don't think all guns need to be abolished. The police should be armed with proper weapons. But generally, a private citizen that thinks he/she will defend themselves with a personal weapon, is likely deluding themselves about actually being safe, and chances are they are actually in more danger than without a weapon. Therefore, private ownership of guns for non-hunting purposes should IMO be abolished in the US, and the police forces re-trained to use guns extremely minimally. [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/having-a-gun-in-the-house-doesnt-make-a-woman-safer/284022/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/having-a... [2] http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-protection-national-rifle-association http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-pro... [3] http://www.911rape.org/facts-quotes/statistics http://www.911rape.org/facts-quotes/statistics [4] http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-schoss-2011-seltener-im-dienst-a-832037.html http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-schoss-2011-se... [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...

by halfcat 12y ago

IgorPartola 12y ago

That comes with a huge asterisk. First, guns are much more likely to be used against the person who is trying to defend themselves [1][2]. You can make the argument that people should take responsibility to learn how to properly use guns, but most people will not or cannot. People should also take responsibility to not overeat, not smoke, not get accidentally pregnant/get others accidentally pregnant, and not transmit STD's, yet here we are. This situation can be improved with education, but the reality is that unless handling guns is your job, you are likely to have it used against you then to use it on your assailant. Second, most rape cases do not happen the way Harris describes. Acquaintance rape happens in 82% of the cases [3], and usually behind closed doors, with no witnesses. There are no dozens of witnesses, or even knives in most of these situations. Thirdly, there are places in the world where gun ownership and use is minimal, even by the police [4][5]. They have much less violence, murders, rape, etc. than the US, which has very high rates of both gun ownership and gun violence. Specifically, the murder rate in the US is 5.8 times higher than in Germany. Think about that for a second: two first world countries, the US locked in an endless cycle of gun violence, mass shootings, and police brutality, vs Germany (or the UK, or Australia, etc.) Basically, more guns, more problems, as statistics and cold hard facts pretty clearly show. Personally, I don't think all guns need to be abolished. The police should be armed with proper weapons. But generally, a private citizen that thinks he/she will defend themselves with a personal weapon, is likely deluding themselves about actually being safe, and chances are they are actually in more danger than without a weapon. Therefore, private ownership of guns for non-hunting purposes should IMO be abolished in the US, and the police forces re-trained to use guns extremely minimally. [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/having-a-gun-in-the-house-doesnt-make-a-woman-safer/284022/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/02/having-a... [2] http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-protection-national-rifle-association http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-pro... [3] http://www.911rape.org/facts-quotes/statistics http://www.911rape.org/facts-quotes/statistics [4] http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-schoss-2011-seltener-im-dienst-a-832037.html http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-schoss-2011-se... [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...