Is it inappropriate to encourage a person who has never used a handgun to learn how?

[Kalhoun]

@BrandonR

Not all societies perhaps, but societies where the right to owning a gun is guaranteed in the country’s legal charters. Guns are machines. You provide an input, they provide an output. Sure, maybe their intention of forcefully stopping people is a bit devious, but a gun is as safe as a lollipop in the right, sane-minded hands.

Why would you minimize the danger and effect of a gun this way? Do call a nervous parent who comes upon a child with a gun in its hand “sane?” Have you never heard of skilled gun owners accidentally shooting a loved one because they were startled or distracted? Or a gun malfunctioning?

Situations cannot be controlled 100%. If it were as simple and clinical as you describe, accidents would never happen and few people would ever be shot (willingly or otherwise).

[BrandonR]

@Kalhoun

Why would you minimize the danger and effect of a gun this way? Do call a nervous parent who comes upon a child with a gun in its hand “sane?” Have you never heard of skilled gun owners accidentally shooting a loved one because they were startled or distracted? Or a gun malfunctioning?

Guns very rarely malfunction, and 99.9% of the time it’s because the user was negligent – something more training and knowledge would prevent.

@Kalhoun

Situations cannot be controlled 100%. If it were as simple and clinical as you describe, accidents would never happen and few people would ever be shot (willingly or otherwise).

True, but again, virtually all accidents happen becuase people don’t follow the very basic rules of firearm safety… Rules that everyone who is around a firearm should be aware of and follow. But weren’t you arguing that’s not necessary, right?

[begbert2]

@BrandonR

True, but again, virtually all accidents happen becuase people don’t follow the very basic rules of firearm safety… Rules that everyone who is around a firearm should be aware of and follow. But weren’t you arguing that’s not necessary, right?

If you follow the following even more basic rules of firearm safety:

1. Don’t touch the gun. At all.

2. If you must touch the gun, then do not touch any movable part of it, and stop touching it as soon as possible.

Then I for one think that, yeah, all your other rules of firearm safety are completely unnecessary. Or are you claiming that the gun is going to get up and shoot somebody on its own without anyone touching it?

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@begbert2

If you follow the following even more basic rules of firearm safety:

1. Don’t touch the gun. At all.

2. If you must touch the gun, then do not touch any movable part of it, and stop touching it as soon as possible.

Then I for one think that, yeah, all your other rules of firearm safety are completely unnecessary. Or are you claiming that the gun is going to get up and shoot somebody on its own without anyone touching it?

Oh, I have guns capable of doing that. Of course, I’m a supervillain, so I’m supposed to have crap like that. And it’s less a gun than an enslaved Decepticon.

[begbert2]

@Skald the Rhymer

Oh, I have guns capable of doing that. Of course, I’m a supervillain, so I’m supposed to have crap like that. And it’s less a gun than an enslaved Decepticon.

Ah, well, the rules of safety for enslaved Decepticons are entirely different:

1. Run away.

2. Run away screaming.

3. Don’t pick up random objects and carry them into “secure” facilities.

See? Totally different scenarios.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@begbert2

Ah, well, the rules of safety for enslaved Decepticons are entirely different:

1. Run away.

2. Run away screaming.

3. Don’t pick up random objects and carry them into “secure” facilities.

See? Totally different scenarios.

You forgot the most important rule: Just in case the enslaved Decepticon ever frees himself, make sure he believes that the meatbag keeping him prisoner was someone OTHER THAN ME. For example, Megatron currently believes he is the prisoner of someone named Begbert2.

[Kalhoun]

@begbert2

If you follow the following even more basic rules of firearm safety:

1. Don’t touch the gun. At all.

2. If you must touch the gun, then do not touch any movable part of it, and stop touching it as soon as possible.

Then I for one think that, yeah, all your other rules of firearm safety are completely unnecessary. Or are you claiming that the gun is going to get up and shoot somebody on its own without anyone touching it?

Dude. Guns don’t shoot people. People shoot people.

[ivan_astikov]

As much as I dislike guns, I have this underlying affinity with the idea that not only the authorities should be able to own them. I think the solution is for said authorities to remove them from the bad guys hands, and by the time they have done that, they might be trustworthy enough for the law-abiding citizens to hand over their own weapons. Not gonna happen though, is it.