The Myth of the Good Guy With a Gun

LaPierre’s central message: Owning a gun is the solution. The world is a scary place. There are bad guys everywhere threatening you and your family, and the only thing they’re afraid of is a gun in your hands.

Tragically, a record number of Americans subscribe to some version of this mythology, with 63 percent (67 percent of men polled and 58 percent of women) believing that guns truly do make them safer. The public’s confidence in firearms, however, is woefully misguided: The evidence overwhelmingly shows that guns leave everybody less safe, including their owners.

A study from October 2013 analyzed data from 27 developed nations to examine the impact of firearm prevalence on the mortality rate. It found an extremely strong direct relationship between the number of firearms and firearm deaths. The paper concludes: “The current study debunks the widely quoted hypothesis that guns make a nation safer.” This finding is bolstered by several previous studies that have revealed a significant link between gun ownership and firearm-related deaths. This international comparison is especially harrowing for women and children, who die from gun violence in America at far higher rates than in other countries.

Source

This is perhaps the most definitive piece I have read (including sources) about guns, and the relationship between gun ownership and violence.
This part is particularly relevant as I hear so many bang on about "responsible" gun ownership.

Everyone likes to pretend that he or she is more rational, more responsible, and more immune to the risks that gun ownership poses relative to the average American. Yet, we know from gun violence statistics that many are simply misjudging their own competency. Everyone thinks he or she is above average, but half are mistaken.

There are multiple sources and good statistical evidence that to me trumps any anecdotal evidence that is the usual battle cry of the gun enthusiast.

Put quite simply, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that more guns = more deaths from guns,

More bees = more bee stings.
More cars = more car accidents
More food = more choking deaths
More stairs = more falling to your death.
More sex partners = More STD's

More divorces = less money...
ah well I was on a role there for awhile.

Put quite simply, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that more guns = more deaths from guns,

And?
People die from all sorts of things.

Should we ban guns?

Would it solve anything?

Heroin is illegal. You can buy it just about anywhere.

a reply to: budski

But... budski, you forget that science does not apply to gun ownership. Placing a gun at the hand of bloodthirsty people has always led to peace.

/sarcasm

S&F mate

a reply to: budski

Out of curiosity, do you own a gun? Have you? Have you ever discharged a gun?


The people I know with either or both a concealed carry permit or the appropriate permit to open carry are very level headed.

To a one, they have all said that they are held under such a high standard due to this, that they MUST think about their actions more so than when they did not own a gun. The reason being? Because owning a gun opens them to greater legal culpability.

For full disclosure, I do NOT own a gun. I make the conscious choice as an adult not to do so. I do this because I *KNOW* I've been proven time and time again to do stupid sh&t with hand knives which involve stitches on my own person. Given that, I chose not to own a gun for the time being.

originally posted by: butcherguy
People die from all sorts of things.

Yes. You can die from a car accident.

That's why before owning a car, you undergo training.

Why when it comes to guns, there is no examination of the owner's mental stability, nor training to master the gunner's impulses in special situations?

Lemme tell you why. Because Gun & Ammo Corps love selling guns. And this propaganda of "if you don't own a gun you and your family will die" is making a good job at keepig people in fear. This in turn makes ALOT of gun customers.

I never owned a gun. In the city where I live, in Quebec, no one that I know of does. We walk freely, with none of these crutches. Yet we have extremely low homicide rate.

How do you explain that?

Interesting.

I guess me and my family must be a statistical fluke.

We have quite a few guns now that have been added over the years, and yet there has not been one gunshot fatality, nor anyone harmed by a gun.

Same goes for all my neighbors around me.

There was one death that happened out here though many months ago. A woman was shot to death.

A cop shot her.

Of course he had responded to a call from her, threatening suicide, and she answered the door with what looked like a weapon that she pointed at him. Turned out to be a pellet gun.

So this area I live in must be statistically crazy. No deaths from privately owned guns. The only one was by law enforcement.

in china they don't have guns.
here the stabbing rate is higher in contrast to gun liberal countries.
there will be always sickos who kill others.

but i rather defend myself with a gun than a wooden spoon.

ps: from my experience legal(!) gun owners are polite and sane people.

a reply to: swanne

And just as much as corporations go into a feeding frenzy when fear is like chum in the water....

So do people love to desperately cling on to ideals such as yours, disregarding common knowledge, personal experience, and common sense.

Because, you know, you yourself are not afraid in this scenario, either.

a reply to: swanne

Since when has anyone gone through a pysch eval, fingerprinting and a national criminal records background check to buy a car or get a driver's license?

a reply to: hogstooth

Because it's a car, mate, not a nuclear submarine.

originally posted by: swanne

originally posted by: butcherguy
People die from all sorts of things.

Yes. You can die from a car accident.

That's why before owning a car, you undergo training.

Why when it comes to guns, there is no examination of the owner's mental stability, nor training to master the gunner's impulses in special situations?

Lemme tell you why. Because Gun & Ammo Corps love selling guns. And this propaganda of "if you don't own a gun you and your family will die" is making a good job at keepig people in fear. This in turn makes ALOT of gun customers.

It sounds like you are afraid.
Poor thing, I feel for you.

originally posted by: nullafides
a reply to: budski

Out of curiosity, do you own a gun? Have you? Have you ever discharged a gun?


The people I know with either or both a concealed carry permit or the appropriate permit to open carry are very level headed.

To a one, they have all said that they are held under such a high standard due to this, that they MUST think about their actions more so than when they did not own a gun. The reason being? Because owning a gun opens them to greater legal culpability.

For full disclosure, I do NOT own a gun. I make the conscious choice as an adult not to do so. I do this because I *KNOW* I've been proven time and time again to do stupid sh&t with hand knives which involve stitches on my own person. Given that, I chose not to own a gun for the time being.

I don't own a gun, and wouldn't even if it was legal here.

I am, however, well trained in the use of firearms.

originally posted by: butcherguy

It sounds like you are afraid.
Poor thing, I feel for you.

Yeah. I'm terrified.



/sarcasm

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: hogstooth

Because it's a car, mate, not a nuclear submarine.

It is several thousand pounds of metal barreling down a road at 65 or more MPH. A whole lot more kinetic energy than any bullet shot by the public.

originally posted by: butcherguy

Put quite simply, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that more guns = more deaths from guns,

And?
People die from all sorts of things.

Should we ban guns?

Would it solve anything?

Heroin is illegal. You can buy it just about anywhere.

Yes, guns should be banned.
They are nothing more than a device that was invented to kill other humans.

To my knowledge, there is no other "product" on the market, and so freely available that was invented for the sole purpose of killing another human.

originally posted by: swanne

originally posted by: butcherguy

It sounds like you are afraid.
Poor thing, I feel for you.

Yeah. I'm terrified.

/sarcasm

You can try to hide it with humor, but you are obviously afraid. Don't worry you will be okay... until...
Was that a bus?

a reply to: butcherguy

Guns are usually shot at people. Whereas cars are only rarely used to ram a burglar. Quit pricey of a weapon, if you get my meaning.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Did you not understand what you wrote?
The person got shot because "she held a gun" (regardless of it being a gun or not).

What happens when you hold a gun, when someone else holds a gun?

Ask yourself - Is it safe to hold a gun?

I really do wish we could go back to the time before guns were invented. The lack of such an evil device obviously meant that everyone was safe and violence was pretty much non existent. It must have been utopia.