Zip-gun’s are dangerous and unsafe, for the most part.
Sure, you can make one yourself, so why are we in Western Europe not bothered about doing just that? After all, it is much harder to get a firearm here? (…besides the air rifles or paintball guns)
Less violent? Less gun related crimes?
If I would have to worry about, that the robber has a gun, than I would most defiantly look into getting a gun of my own.
I personally think, firearms are good fun at a shooting range, but that is where they should stay. Even with the best training people have accidents at home. The key for the locker get’s left unattended, the kid finds out the combination for the locker etc…
We’ve already discussed this upthread–it’s VERY clear that the US has a firearm homicide rate that’s entirely out of proportion to its household firearms ownership rate. That is, other countries with similar or somewhat lower firearms ownership rates have DRASTICALLY lower firearm violence rates.
Similarly, within the US, firearms homicide rates vary widely from a geographic standpoint without correlation to the firearms ownership rate.
From the data we have, it really looks like the problem is cultural and not based on ownership rates. Further, it seems like the bulk of the problem (and why the problem doesn’t exist as much in Europe) is the perception of hopelessness and lack of safety net among the US’s poor. Personally, I think the US would do better to address the root causes of violence in general rather than waste time and energy attempting to ban guns when the data shows pretty clearly that prohibitions of any kind are entirely ineffective given the US’s border situation. While I’d be happier with some tighter forms of gun regulation, too, I can’t get behind the idea that banning firearms is the answer to anything. Ultimately, I believe that the statistics indicate that even if firearms were illegal in the US, we’d still have a much higher murder and violent crime rate than Eurpoe.
This would be a worry for me in certain areas of the US with or without legal firearms ownership–it’s been repeatedly proven in areas from immigration to drug control that the US border is highly porous to supposedly illegal and interdicted items. We do, after all, have a much larger border area than most European countries and proportionally more of it is wilderness, which makes smuggling somewhat easier over here.
The thing is, in the entire US for 2002 (I foolishly didn’t bookmark the 2007 data I cited elsewhere), there were only around 750 deaths from firearm accidents. That’s so miniscule as to be not worth especially considering from a policy standpoint–compare to 3000ish medical/surgical related deaths, 13000 each for poison and falls, or nearly 44000 motor vehicle accident fatalities.
I don’t think, my neighbour would appreciate me firing a gun in the backyard. … and no, I also don’t need it for selfdefence either, but this was not even anywhere mentioned in my post you quoted me on.
Stop misrepresenting what I am saying. I did not say guns are safe.
The fact is that there are people that shot on their own property. So your idea of keeping them all locked up at a shooting range is not practical for everyone
Is the Czech republic in western Europe? If so, gun ownership doesn’t seem to be a problem despite their relatively loose restrictions on firearms ownership.
So in other words, you didn’t read my post at all.
Also: I shoot at my parents’ place quite a bit. They have 16 acres and a target backstop. What’s not rational about shooting there? What’s nitpicky about “I OWN a shooting range” in response to “guns should only be kept at shooting ranges and not private homes”?
Mine is 40 vacant acres about a half hour from where I live. There are also quite a few public shooting ranges that are not monitored or have any structures or buildings on them. I know of two in my county, that’s the only type we have. That, and National Forest.
It’s only a nitpick if you don’t know what you are talking about.
In rural areas, that is practically true if not literally true–you ARE from here, right? You do realize that in much of this country, owning an acre or more is pretty common?
What’s your thoughts on the fact that the rate of (and danger from) accidental firearms death is orders of magnitude lower than that of falling down the stairs, even in a country with relatively high firearms ownership rates like the US?
According to his profile he’s a German living in Ireland.
Also, even if you say owning a firearm for self defense isn’t sufficient reason, so it’s not an excuse, what about the fact that I compete in competitions at multiple ranges?
I don’t compete in them all, but there are pins at one range, GSSF at another (actually, it moves around), IDPA moves around, then there’s another competition entirely that is outdoor using metal falling targets just for fun.
And that’s only locally, as a pretty good but not great (IMO) shooter. If you’re state or federal competition level, you can travel around the country on a regular basis like it’s nothing.
Central Europe. There seems to be a dichotomy in most people’s mind that Eastern Europe = former communist and Western Europe = capitalist around the same time. Wikipedia has a link that has the UN put them in CE. This also includes Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and Hungary as well as noncommunist countries. These nations tend to share more with Western Europe in everything but Slavic identity (well for 4/5 of them anyway).
This is what I wrote.
Now, if YOUR shooting range is your backyard, then put it into a secure locker on your premisis.
When you transport it, put it in a locker in your car.
Whatever you do, firearms are not safe - you can only make it safer. Whatever smart or smug reply you can give me to that, wont change the fact. And yes, there are other unsafe things we are using every day, but most of the time these things provide a much higher usability than firearms - like electicity, cars, water… the list is endless.
Here is a short version of the German gun storage and transportation rules:
