Are you suggesting that linking to an SDMB thread is an improvement over a wiki link? Your research skills are truly impressive!
Certainly the gun hobbyist gets pleasure from owning and firing guns but I would guess that the majority, perhaps even the large majority of hand gun owners don’t fire their gun more than once or twice a year, if that.
If guns were merely a dangerous hobby that served no other purpose (like a more dangerous version of lawn darts), it wouldn’t be important to me but they are much more than that and the gun control side consistently ignores the benefits of private ownership of guns.
Oh fer chissake, you are dense.
I think I’ll take a break from the pit and see if I can get you to come on over to great debates (at least until you mytseriously disappear when your arguments fall apart under scrutiny).
Go ahead. It hasn’t happened before though, but at least you’ll be safe from me calling you a quivering pathetic pussy while I rip your arguments up.
I wonder what automobile death and accident statistics would be like if people only drove once or twice a year?
I think we’ve got a record here!!!
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Police-Man-accidentally-shot-killed-by-6453226.php
Damn, I would be thrilled if they understood what you mean here.
You are the one that is not getting it. Look at the title of this thread. It was never intended to be a debate in the first place, so quitcherbitchin.
A man at a “Muslim-free” gun store and shooting range in Oklahoma accidentally shot himself on Tuesday
I hesitate to return to the wallow of ignorance and self-congratulation that this thread has become, but this sentence seems to imply that anyone who owns a gun is a “crazy gun fuck” who’s afraid of the world and spends their evenings practicing quick draws.
Is this an accurate précis of your position?
Who are “they”? Gun owners, or particular posters in this thread?
Thanks for your answers.
In both cases, I’m referring specifically to posters on the SDMB, and to the degree that these posters represent gun fucks more generally, then to those gun fucks as well. I have developed an impression of gun fucks as generally doughy white guys (see photos of gun shows) who are scared of the world (see NRA literature), especially of black men (see again NRA literature). Posters on this board have in fact described practicing their quick draw.
Should you ever find yourself in Wisconsin in the autumn, I invite you to come shooting with me and my friends. We could hunt pheasants at the club or shoot sporting clays, there are three of us who own a membership.
I think you’ll find we are far from “doughy”, and we all have a fine understanding of statistics (I’m a Director of Quality, another is a chemical engineer, the third is a high school math teacher). As far as I know, none of us own handguns, so practicing quick draws is not available to us as a pastime. I will concede that we are all white.
I think you have a false impression of most gun owners. Or maybe I’m just traveling in the wrong circles.
That’s a very kind invitation. I enjoyed skeet shooting, but I haven’t done that for about 20 years.
I’m not sure you read my previous post well. If you aren’t making a claim that cars and guns are equally dangerous (or that cars are more dangerous), or if you are not handwaving away any empirical studies that disagree with you, I’m probably not talking about you.
If you’re not practicing quick draw or fantasizing about getting the drop on bad guys, I’m probably not talking about you.
If you’re not a doughy little pussy looking to buy your next AR-15 before Obama takes away your guns, or protesting that a gun registry is only a prelude to confiscation, or proposing that CCW people are safer than non-CCW people, I’m probably not talking about you.
Saw this on Reddit and had to post it here:
Man Guarding ‘Muslim-Free’ Gun Range Accidentally Shoots Self
Too slow; post 5728.
Too slow; post 5712. 
Fair enough. Your statement that you’ve “never thought of owning one” seemed to imply that those of us who do own a gun have some sort of moral failing and are therefore “gun fucks”. You’ve clarified that’s not the case.
The point I was trying to make is that I think the type of gun owner you are talking about exists mostly on the internet, or draws publicity by doing something moronic like deciding to take a bunch of guns to a recruiting center the day after someone shoots up a recruiting center. The vast majority of us aren’t doing that.
Heh. An oldie but a goodie.
No, that is not the case. You might have been misled by some of the lying that goes on here.
Perhaps. For example, I went to college in rural Missouri. Two of my friends were conscientious hunters. On the other hand, another bragged about spotlighting deer and shooting them from his car.
Perhaps it is just the internet, but my experience on these boards is that even those who pretend to being conscientious and thoughtful on the issue are really just fronting. When it comes down to practicalities, they actually espouse the same positions and engage in the most specious and ignorant of arumentation. It is extremely frustrating to spend time explaining fundamental stats and publication processes, as well as citing data sources, only to have those pretending to reason balk upon reaching the precipice of insight. It really is reminiscent of the recent evidence on thenl effects of providing health information to antivaxxers.
So, if you’re not that person, great. It’s nice to be reminded that they exist. It is hard to see you there behind the crazies.
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Unless you claim that all the studies showing that guns have a negative net impact are dispassionately researched truth, and all the studies that claim guns have either no or a positive impact are lying propaganda, then I can’t take your certainty as proven. I do not believe that the gun issue is as cut and dried as smoking or global warming.