Comment on I've never been in a situation where me having a gun would have made things bettter.
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 4 weeks agoSome of us have been victims and may have a different opinion.
And some of you may be gun nuts who upvote any plausible argument for gun ownership, even in the face of overwhelming objective evidence that it makes societies vastly unsafe.
Here’s the thing about guns and victimhood, access to guns causes far more victims then access to guns prevents and it always inherently will. In that environment, a predator intent on committing a crime will always have one, and a victim only ever might have one.
Maybe so, but we live in a world where guns exist. Choosing to disarm oneself doesn’t change that, and certain things can change the math.
There was a violent incident at a nearby house, and it took police 40 minutes to arrive because I live in the middle of nowhere, so right off the “call the police” option essentially doesn’t exist for me. I also have no kids in the house. If children come over, the gun that isn’t in the safe goes to the safe and the ammunition goes to the car. I am not suicidal. For me, gun ownership makes sense where it doesn’t for others.
If I lived in a country where guns didn’t outnumber people it may not make sense. Though with the current government I also wouldn’t give mine up if they were outlawed.
Less guns there are in rotation and more screening there is when getting one effects straight how likely it is for the bad guy having a gun.
Nobody is suicidal until they are and nobody leaves the guns out for children until they do. Also guns at house escalate domestic violence cases.
So my personal solution is what? Can I un-invent firearms? Can I ensure not only that they’re outlawed, but that hundreds of millions of them are magically rounded up? Should I trust US law enforcement to protect me and respect my rights?
Maybe so, but we live in a world where guns exist.
No, you live in a country that chooses to manufacture guns in response to people buying them, and you choose to actively perpetuate that by buying and the purchase of guns, funding gun companies, and then by going online to try and spread that justification so that you can feel slightly less guilty about choices you know are wrong.
So we do in fact live in a world where guns exist.
Thanks for your hypothetical but I’m speaking from first hand experience. When you have the same type of experience and aren’t just speaking off a statistics sheet you might change your tune. Most people do.
Personally I think we need massive gun control reform. But I don’t live in that world, or a world where that’s going to happen in my lifetime even. So I’ll continue to do what’s most practical for the reality I live in.
teft@piefed.social 4 weeks ago
Also some of us have been to war or grew up in the deep woods where having a gun can save your life.
I guess technically that’s being a victim too. Just that the perpetrator is more likely to be a bear than a person.
mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
Yep being 20 feet away from a bobcat will probably make you reassert things. Also having a handgun pointed at you as well. And hearing a ricochet of a bullet right in front of you.
I’m not saying a gun helps in all those situations but it definitely changes your available options.
sukhmel@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
Bobcats are relatively ok, maybe you meant cougar (mountain lion) or wolverine? The latter is especially nasty
mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org 4 weeks ago
Been a while, coulda been a cougar just happy it announced its presence versus decided my neck looked tasty.
rayyy@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
In most cases just the noise from a gun will be enough but a rabid raccoon might need dispatched. Also, some of are too old,or fat, to run from an animal.