I too believe that people who carry their guns with them as they go about their day to day life as “walk through life in continuous fear for their fellow humans”. I don’t really have a problem with a gun in your home, as long as everybody in the home (and everybody visiting) knows it exists. Maybe you can put a sticker on your front window identifying that the house is protected by a gun, therefore people can make the educated decision before they knock on your door.
If you feel like you need to be armed going to your local Walmart, there is something wrong in the world. I’m really more concerned with escalation. For example, what would have been your run of the mill mugging or purse snatching, turns deadly. There is no reason to protect your stuff with deadly force, if there was then you should be boobytrapping your house when you leave.
I agree with 2square4u when she talks about playing the odds. The odds are so tiny that something will happen to you that it’s not worth stressing over. If some random violence were to happen to me, I’d like to think that I would simply consider that it was my turn and that I could live another three lifetimes without it happening again.
I don’t consider myself a pacifist but I know that guns are not right for me. I have two dogs in my house. I do not live my life in constant vigilance that something may happen. Life in general is safe, people in general are not looking to do me harm. There are some neighborhoods where I might feel unsafe, but in general, I just avoid that circumstance altogether.
There is an argument to be made that the value of having a gun in the isn’t directly for protection, but for the peace of mind having the protection.
For example, one evening my pregnant wife and I heard a loud crash in the house. I was happy to have a gun with me while I checked out the house to find a valance had fallen off of a window. Gravity happens…
Another time I woke up to find a large guy in the middle of my apartment. Turns out he was staying the night with my neighbor, got drunk, got up to pee, and went into my apartment by mistake. Turns out he was even a cop, and given that he was in his boxers, it was pretty obvious he was unarmed. I’m happy that I didn’t have a gun that night, I’d hate to think I’d have panicked and shot the guy.
Booby-trapping your house is illegal not because it’s deadly but because it’s indiscriminate. As for protecting your stuff, when did we become so pacifist (and so contemptuous of the very idea of property) that it’s considered better to let someone shove you to the ground and run off with your valuables rather than resist? No, you shouldn’t plug them in the back as they’re running away, and the law would be unhappy with you if you did. But you do have a right to defend yourself- and yes, your stuff too. And if they dispute this to the point of being willing to threaten your life, then you have to accept that they’ve crossed the over the line of considering you prey rather than a human being. Gentleman bandits saying “Stand and Deliver” they’re not. This essay says it all. Frankly if they’ve reached that point then they’d only get as much mercy from me as I thought I could afford.
I’d have to agree. Some years ago, I was visiting VA beach and some guy had a handgun on him, at the beach. While I’m all for reasonable gun ownership rights, I thought that was just a bit absurd and uncalled for. A family beach like that, where parents and kids are clad in swimsuits/trunks and such, represents one of the least threatening places I can think of.
