I agree, that’s the same thing I tell people when the bring up Newton AND Aurora.
When you get home watch a few and tell me what you think.
Ah, so you’ve had trouble comprehending other things you’ve read too. Next time, have someone else check things for you; you clearly don’t understand much that you read, even when they are your own test scores.
Ran out of argument did ya?
Sadly, I don’t have internet access at home. Most of your posts I end up lumping into the category of “Hey, guys, check this out! <youtube link>”. If it were email, it’d be getting caught by my spam filter. It might help in the future if, in addition to the youtube link, you provided a summary, or a link to an actual news story like, I dunno, the thread title suggests?
What and spoil the surprise? I don’t know what else to tell you except to maybe get an ipad.
No.
The thing is, you never had an argument to begin with. And you’re apparently unable to understand that, so you keep posting inanities.
There are all sorts of studies out there on defensive gun use and at one end of the spectrum is Kleck and Gertz who many consider to be industry shills because their methodology stretches to define almost anything as a defensive gun use. On the other end of the spectrum is Kellerman who many people consider a political activist with no objectivity. he basically doesn’t count anything that doesn’t result in a criminal actually getting shot as a defensive gun use. I tend to believe the Department of justice numbers. are only slightly on the high side.
The lethality of suicide attempts with guns is orders of magnitude higher than lethality of other forms of attempted suicide.
You missed the title of the thread.
See, we have this other, rather lengthy thread called “Stupid Republican idea of the day”. In it, people post stupid things that Republicans and other conservatives have said or done. What they don’t do is post sensible things that Republicans/conservatives have said or done, because that’s not what the thread is about.
You seem to think that this is a GD thread where all instances of stupid gun news must be somehow cancelled out by news of someone using a gun properly, and that by posting links to these videos you’re proving some sort of point. All you’re proving, however, is that you’re fucking clueless about how this messageboard works.
If you want to start a thread about people using guns in a sensible way, by all means do so. I welcome it. But if you do, don’t just post coy links to YouTube videos with no description of what they’re about and why you’re posting them, because that too would prove that you’re fucking clueless about how this messageboard works.
Is this cute 89 year old lady who defended herself against a home invader inane?
What is inane is your insistence that a 89 year old lady who defended herself is a stupid gun news story.
No, you don’t get it, man! It’s not a stupid gun news story, but posting it in a thread about stupid gun news stories totally makes it a “gotcha!”. Don’t you all feel stupid now?
mmm, no.
[quote=“Kable, post:250, topic:648729”]
Is this cute 89 year old lady who defended herself against a home invader inane?
[/QUOTE] Two interesting things there - she was quite successful doing so with a little revolver. Also, the story was apparently on CNN.Thanks for sharing your evidence that people do not need semi-automatic weapons for successful personal defense, and that these stories receive significant media attention.
In other words, 89 year old lady defends herself with gun that would not be banned.
And the nice policeman reloaded it for her.
They won’t do that with a thirty round magazine.
I did a little further reading on this story. I’ll say first of all that I am very glad the woman in the story (Beatrice Turner) was unhurt, and I think she was well within her rights to shoot the guy.
Now, then.
The CNN piece excluded some details that were reported by the Des Moines Register. The Register article is no longer available for free online, but the patriots over at something called m4carbine.net helpfully copied and pasted the whole articlefor future generations to enjoy.
Sure, the gun played a part in this story. Had Ms. Turner not had a gun, I am sure the story would have played out differently. But I note that Ms. Turner, having been unable to get off a second shot, defused the situation by calming the guy down verbally. Talking to him, saying Jesus would help him, was what finally resolved the situation.
Again, I am not disputing that Ms. Turner had every right to kill an intruder. And I am not disputing that defensive gun uses do happen. I just don’t see this as a slam-dunk case for a gun saving her life. I see it as a case of the media getting some mileage out of the “gun-toting granny” trope, even though the granny’s kindness and compassion ended up being more effective than the gun.
And because I am bored (hey, it’s my last week before I go to a new job), I started poking around on the topic of elderly people and guns in general. In a 2010 article, The NY Times reports on the increasingly common problem of elderly Americans, some suffering from dementia, holding on to their guns. The article notes:
The VA has launched a public awareness campaign about the dangers of firearms in the hands of people with dementia. One of their publications (PDF) notes that firearm owners with dementia are at increased risk of shooting a loved one they mistake for an intruder. And a studyin the Journal of the American Geriatric Society found that firearms were present in 60.4% of houseolds in which a member suffered from dementia. In households with a firearm, 44% of the families reported that the guns were kept loaded, and 38% of families reported that they were not sure if the guns were loaded or not.
In Seattle in September 2012, police shot and killed a man with dementia in a “tragic incident”. The Seattle Times reports that 77-year-old Henry Lee called 911 to report an intruder. There was no intruder. There was an unrelated emergency response going on in the street in front of the house, and Lee apparently mistook the commotion for an intruder. When police arrived and made their way toward Lee’s house, Lee stood in the doorway and brandished a gun. The police ordered him to drop it. He lowered the gun, then raised it again. Police then shot him. Price of freedom, I suppose.
Sure, it’s a fun story when Granny shoots an intruder (even when she doesn’t, really), but it’s a little less amusing when cops shoot an elderly person who probably shouldn’t have a gun anymore.
You’re a real spoil sport, you know that, Bayard?
“You’ll shoot your eye out, Grandpa!”
I’m tempted to say your sentence should be altered to read “a public awareness campaign of the danger of people with dementia.” Firearms, cars, power tools, kitchen appliances… there’s almost no end to the things a demented person shouldn’t be handling anymore because of the danger it poses to them and to others around them. But who wants to hold that conversation with their parents? “Dad, I think it’s time you sell your guns and power tools. Mom, I think it’s time you stop driving.”
But we sure need to talk about these things! Here’s hoping the VA’s campaign does some good. At least with cars in the hands of the very elderly, there’s more general awareness of the problem. Creating awareness is definitely the first step.