OR… maybe we could, as a society, try to reinforce the idea that guns are dangerous objects that should be kept secure and out of reach of unattended 7-year-olds. Even at the risk of slightly tarnishing their reputation as sacred objects that should always be everywhere at all times, glory be to Glock in the highest, AMEN.
I know, it’s crazy. A guy can dream, can’t he?
ETA: I see that the 7-year-old was allegedly not holding the gun and was shot by his brother whose age isn’t stated. So forget what I said, everything’s fine!
I know you gun lickers love to crow about how your gun is for ‘protection’, but how many people have to die before you admit what is and has been obvious for a very long time?
And your constructive, thought-out, practical proposal would be … well, what? All you have offered here, in response to yet another unspeakable tragedy involving real people, is more sneering at the very thought that it even is a problem. That’s a mental health problem and you need help with it.
The “solutions” I listed are only solutions in the sense that they are incremental steps in the de-legitimization, and presumably eventual banning, of private firearms ownership. If you fear the irresponsible use of firearms, my solution is more responsibility- see my post upthread for suggestions.
I remain unconvinced that accidental shootings are a disproportionate source of deaths and injuries compared with every other way people can stupidly harm themselves and others. But since you believe people have no business possessing guns in the first place you’re not going to care about that.
I agree. We should teach gun safety in schools. Perhaps we could make it part of the federal physical education requirement. Start kids shooting chained rifles (rifles that are tethered so that they can only point downrange) in 5th grade or so. Have high school electives that will get you a gun permit (kinda like driver’s ed).
I think most gun owners will agree with you that educating our children about guns is a good thing and the sooner the better.
Its still a good point and we should teach gun safety starting in first grade.
So how much “protection” do guns provide? Even the Department of Justice thinks guns are used defensively 100,000 times/year.
This article was written in the wake of Newtown. A lot of trash journalism was debunked in the months following this article. This article by another member of the post-Newtown gun control bandwagon that knows nothing about guns other than what John hemenway tells them.
So according to this article, we commit murder at about 7 times the rate of other wealthy countries. About 60% of our murders are committed with guns. So is the article saying that our resting state without guns would be about triple the “normal” murder rate in wealthy countries?
Does it even matter that the most of these gun murderes are committed by criminals who aren’t allowed to own guns to begin with? Would these murders be prevented in the future if we also made it illegal for law abiding citizens to own guns as well?
If you want to evaluate the harm (this includes all crimes and accidental shootings, not jsut murder but murder is the best documented and easiest to measure so we use murder as an imperfect proxy) caused by the lack of gun control, shouldn’t you only be looking at the harm committed by people who legally own guns? Shouldn’t you also reduce that number by the harm that would have been committed by other means if a gun was not present? Shouldn’t you then compare that to the harm that was prevented by legal access to guns?
Surely you can come up with a more credible pro-gun control cite than this.
I doubt if you people realize the value of gun usage by the police in dealing with hardcore criminals. For example:
"Hearne Police say the 93-year-old woman who was shot and killed by one of their officers was armed with a gun.
According to the Robertson County District Attorney’s Office, police responded to a 911 call about 6:30 Tuesday evening about a lady waving a gun around, outside a home on Pin Oaks Street.
News 3 has learned the person who has called 911 is Pearlie Golden’s nephew. A few days ago, the Texas Department of Public Safety refused to renew her driver’s license. The nephew was trying to take her keys away. Golden got upset, grabbed her gun and threatened him.
You have a cite for the DoJ’s official statement that it thinks there are 100,000 DGUs per year?
Secondly - do you think that ‘100,000 DGUs’ - even if that figure is correct - equates to ‘100,000 lives saved’?
Do you think all of those people could have defended themselves or prevented the attack or whatever they’re claiming as a DGU without a gun? Maybe by, I don’t know, having a home security system? How many people are killed by their home security system I wonder?
Its not an official statement so much as it is a result of their semi-annual national crime victimiazation survey.
We’ve had this discussion a zillion times in a zillion gun threads.
The figure is probably conservative, and no 100,000 DGU doesn’t mean 100,000 lives saved. it means 100,000 times guns were used defensively (in this case by people who were victims of crimes). But I bet the number is probably higher than the number of accidental gun deaths, heck I bet the number is higher than the number of accidental home deaths PLUS gun murders committed by people legally permitted to own a gun.
Possibly. Do you think all of them could have? Do you think the number of lives saved is higher or lower than the number of accidental gun deaths in America?
How much is that home security system going to help you when you are outside your home?
And sure, we could come up with all sorts of “what if” scenarios all day. I suppose I could point to every person that is murdered and raped and wonder if that murder or rape could have been prevented if the victim was armed with a gun (instead something else like a home alarm).
This sort of obstinate refusal to acknowledge any merit to the other side of the argument doesn’t do anything for your credibility on the issue.
A 25-year-old man is dead after officials say he was shot during a “game” using a bulletproof vest. One person has been charged in the shooting. Blake Randell Wardell was with a group of about 10 other people when they found an old bulletproof vest at a home early Wednesday morning. Wardell decided to put on the vest and let others shoot him with a small caliber gun. Apparently, one of the shots missed the vest and hit Wardell in the chest, Coroner Don McCown explains.
Here’s a case where a 4 year old kills his younger brother:
"Police say three children: a four-year-old boy, a three-year-old girl and a 19-month old boy, were in a bedroom when the oldest child opened a nightstand that contained a loaded 9mm handgun. Lt. Todd Ojile says the child didn’t pick up the gun, but was able to pull the trigger.
The 19-month-old, Ty’Marion Savoy Blacknell, was standing near the nightstand and was shot in the chest."
We’ll I’ll be. There are a few people calling for boycotts, but they’re in the clear minority. I mean, generally gun-rights advocates aren’t shy about calling “brandishers” (your word) idiots, like the guys who walk around neighborhoods open carrying AR-15s, but at the same time, this wasn’t Chipotle kicking out one club, this is a store-wide ban. When BW3 did that, there was a pretty strong call for boycotts.
Certainly gun-rights advocates could call the brandishers idiots AND call for a boycott of Chipotle for an over-reaching response. Why aren’t they? This doesn’t seem all that consistent to me.
Basically, about 40 to 50% are committed by people with a prior felony, meaning that most would not be prohibited from gun ownership on the basis of prior criminality (unless ownership is prohibited based on prior arrests or on misdemeanors).
Is it your contention that 53% isn’t a majority? Sure thats felony AND misdemeanor convictions but it doesn’t take into account people under 21 with handguns (there is anage restrictions. It doesn’t take into account people who have had restraining orders or domestic violence misdemeanors.
So why don’t you tell me how many gun murderers were legally in possession of a gun when they committed that murder? Any idea?
How many defensive gun uses do YOU think there are every year?
You spend all your time mitpicking my cites without providing any good cites of your own. All you have i a few studies by gun grabbers. I have studies by the federal government.
A 4 year old girl shoot herself:
"Mead told police his daughter wandered into a bedroom in which he was moving things around. He set a loaded .45 caliber handgun onto a dresser and turned his back for a moment, authorities said.
Seconds later, he heard a single shot behind him. He turned to see a look of shock on his daughter’s face and red spreading across her shirt, officials said.
The girl was pronounced dead at a local hospital."
Father has been charged with involuntary manslaughter…
