Sato Ord
Member
My wife was reading a New England Medical Journal article that was absolutely anti-gun. They were spouting off facts like crazy, so she did a little research of her own. Basically what she has found is that they are right about one thing, many first time gun buyers (not sure how many) shoot themselves either on purpose, or by accident within the first year of buying a handgun. The report uses such statistics to "prove" the point that handguns should be banned.
What the report doesn't show is that people who know guns, have been raised with guns, and have been taught gun safety, as a rule, don't tend to shoot themselves nearly as often.
Such hysteria can flow both ways. Gun owners/enthusiasts will latch on to "facts" they find on the internet without confirming them because they feel threatened by the "antis". Antis will latch onto skewed statistics to "prove" their point.
Antis typically forget to mention that while crime statistics remain pretty much the same in number of crimes committed, violent crimes are less frequent in area were the perpetrator knows he is likely to be facing an armed person. Violent crimes against women are especially subject to gun control laws.
We may only be talking about a half a percentage point in some cases, but when it is your mother, wife. or daughter who is in danger, it counts, especially when you realize that half a percentage point is a significant number when the population is numbered in the hundreds of millions.
My thought on the whole gun ban debate is simply, look at England. They banned all handguns and the criminals do as they please for the most part. Does this mean that the average British citizen can't leave his house? No, but I bet the victims don't like being thought of as nothing but numbers in an equation, and I bet many of them wish they had had a means of defending themselves!
What the report doesn't show is that people who know guns, have been raised with guns, and have been taught gun safety, as a rule, don't tend to shoot themselves nearly as often.
Such hysteria can flow both ways. Gun owners/enthusiasts will latch on to "facts" they find on the internet without confirming them because they feel threatened by the "antis". Antis will latch onto skewed statistics to "prove" their point.
Antis typically forget to mention that while crime statistics remain pretty much the same in number of crimes committed, violent crimes are less frequent in area were the perpetrator knows he is likely to be facing an armed person. Violent crimes against women are especially subject to gun control laws.
We may only be talking about a half a percentage point in some cases, but when it is your mother, wife. or daughter who is in danger, it counts, especially when you realize that half a percentage point is a significant number when the population is numbered in the hundreds of millions.
My thought on the whole gun ban debate is simply, look at England. They banned all handguns and the criminals do as they please for the most part. Does this mean that the average British citizen can't leave his house? No, but I bet the victims don't like being thought of as nothing but numbers in an equation, and I bet many of them wish they had had a means of defending themselves!