From a recent question on Quora (why are there so many shootings in the United States?)
Across the democratic developed world the vast majority of guns are hunting or sport firearms. Switzerland, often cited by gun advocates, is an anomaly since it's had a long history of required military service and the requirement a trained adult properly maintain and store their issued firearm - improper handling being an offense. Switzerland is an anomaly.
American ownership is radically skewed towards the ownership of guns with an intent to use them against other people. The whole (inane in the light of facts) 2nd Amendment argument - blurred by the NRA to the point it's authors wouldn't be able to recognize (nor stomach) it. A lack of confidence in its democratic institutions, and in its people's respect for them, led American (white property-owning) men to entrench their right to bear arms against their democratically constituted elected authorities - which since has been stretched into blanket coverage of the right to arm themselves against their next-door neighbor.
Institutionalized paranoia.
Exactly right.
His conclusion is even better.
Simply having loaded guns lying about leads to 2 of every 3 gun-related deaths in the United States. Those are the unintentional homicides. Over 20,000 such deaths in 2013 alone. With a majority of gun homicides ruled not premeditated the rate attributable to ease of access alone is realistically higher.
But it isn't a gun but the thought behind ownership that makes U.S. ownership so disproportionately destructive. The hunting rifle my grand-dad shouldered as he trudged through the backwoods of the Canadian hinterland nearly a century ago was carried with a vastly different intent than an assault rifle with 40 round magazine in the same rear window as a '2nd Amendment' decal which seldom leaves the suburbs.
There is, in other words, a face-palm obvious statistical correlation between a gun being at hand and gun tragedy - but the violent intent behind possessing weapons of war primes the violence pump predisposing the entire culture to a greater likelihood of violence. A fact born out by 'cold. hard ...' fact.
So, can we change?
8 comments:
If you own a gun "for protection" that means you fully expect and are more than willing to kill someone.
Most Americans who own guns start out expecting that the someone they would kill will be a dirtbag who broke into their house to rape their daughter. But once you cross the psychological threshold that lets you excuse killing scum invading your home, it's just a tiny step further to kill someone who's knocking at your door in the dark. And a tiny step further to kill someone who's walking down the street behind you, especially if he's young, black and wearing a hoodie. And a tiny step further to kill the guy you're arguing with in a bar. And a tiny step further to kill the guy who flipped you the bird after you cut him off on the highway. And a tiny step further to kill your wife and your kids after she threatened to divorce you because all you ever do is sit in the basement and fondle your AK 47. Um, excuse me: cleaning your weapon.
If you own a gun "for protection" that means you fully expect and are more than willing to kill someone.
Wrong as usual. People who own guns "for protection" don't fully expect to use it that way nor are they more than willing to kill someone. Most don't ever want to be in that position. Most will NEVER be in that position. Really? "more than willing to put a bullet in someone?". Gun makes you do that, eh? Evidence?
Licenses for concealed carry are increasing everywhere yet this 'killing spree' you think is going to happen isn't and hasn't. Exceptions are not the rule except in Lefty land.
His conclusion is even better.
Simply having loaded guns lying about leads to 2 of every 3 gun-related deaths in the United States. Those are the unintentional homicides. Over 20,000 such deaths in 2013 alone. With a majority of gun homicides ruled not premeditated the rate attributable to ease of access alone is realistically higher.
That is factually incorrect and incredibly stupid - no wonder you think it so brilliant.
primes the violence pump
LOL - this is what passes for intelligent discourse on Quora? I guess if you usually hang around TPM, Kaos or DU.
It's no surprise that people who are so fond of magical thinking in some arenas would also be afflicted with it in other areas. When it comes to fighting these evil talismans of doom, facts are not only irrelevant, they are the tools of The Insidious Enemy Within. (which would a great name for a band)
Then there's this Armed Doctor Shoots Gunman At Hospital, Saving Lives. I thought police would come in, guns blazing, and shoot bystanders as well as the armed citizen? The way the Nikto-anus has dribbled on in the past, you'd think that's a weekly occurrence. Funny he's never tried backing that assertion up. Surely it's happened somewhere?
I wonder if Nikto has a fire extinguisher at home? Does he fondle it lovingly as he dreams of stopping a house fire? I mean, it's only one small step from there to either assaulting people with a fire extinguisher because they didn't set fire to something, or committing arson of crowded nightclubs so as to be a hero and put it out. Right? Right? Oh, no, it isn't. Hint for the coprocephalic hosts: almost no one has a fire extinguisher or two because they want a house fire. But if one happens, they damned sure would like a chance to put it out when a fire starts.
Larry I'll go you one better, instead of armed doctors, how about a hospital's semi-private cops...
What could go wrong?
Of course M always fully trusts the police because they have been properly blessed by state power.
M may always trust the cops, but if we take N at his word then we have to apply his logic that them just having a gun makes them state sponsored murder machines.
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