The rider forced her to stop by weaving in front of her, then shot up her car. He wasn't trying to hit her. Then rode off, never to be caught. This is a little 5 foot nothing retired dental assistant. I absolutely think more people should behave like me. Not old me, he was a dipshit. Now me volunteers time for the local Ruritans, raising money that helps less fortunate citizens pay bills when they fall on hard times. Someone can't pay their bills, has a hardship, talk to Vickie with our ruritan group. I volunteered more time at the animal shelter than some people work in a year. I volunteer and donate to the local children's home. I actually help people, as many people as I can. What I don't do is fantasize about being out in a situation where I have to shoot someone. That said, how do I really answer your question. I don't know what my threshold is for shooting someone that's endangering me. Only I'll know if that time ever comes up, "God forbid". However, none of that is a requirement for carrying a gun by a law abiding citizen.
I do live in a nice area. Doesn’t change my anxiety about it though. Look at all these mass shooters — they’re almost exclusively social outcasts, bullied, loners, etc. Every community has those. Just because my house or car is less likely to get broken into, doesn’t make me feel safer in large crowds.
That is a bullshit platitude, and I'm calling bullshit because of the inherent bullshit confidence involved in that decision. I've had drunk frat boys sneaking into my house, runaway teenagers, an elderly man with dementia, all manner of critter, etc. Pulling a gun on those instances makes me an asshole at best, at worst, an accident occurs and I'm in jail for life because I wasn't thinking clearly enough for what the situation demanded. I carry a Leatherman MUT for exactly the same basic set of reasons, and just go through my crowd protocols incessantly. I hate crowds, and COVID made it much worse. The difference is I recognize having a gun in ANY of the situations that cause me grief (riots, crowds, etc.) makes them so much worse. Hell, if you have a firearm in a riot, YOU ARE A TARGET FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, regardless of your intentions or rights. I take rabies, for example: 100% fatality rate. Vaccines against it are brutal, and not recommended for anyone who's not regularly coming into contact with animals. It's a nightmare. You know my defense aganst rabies? Stay away from the rabid or potentially rabid. Don't assume that a vaccine NO ONE WANTS TO TAKE AT ALL will allow you to be safe putting your hands in a foamy, growling mouth. It's something I learn from motorcycling: being under-confident in my profiency, skill and luck as a rider is a survival mechanism. I'm not a terrible shot on the range, but I cannot allow that confidence to delude me into thinking the situational decision-making in a shooting incident gives me any sort of advantage. Same thing from fighting: all the MMA guys on Earth tell you "do not fight, de-escalate or get the fuck out of there." The one dude who's standing there going "I never wanted to hit anyone in the face, but I have a right to wear these gloves to Applebees on a Tuesday" just simply sounds insane.
okay, so then you just choose not to own or carry a gun or whatever. But your personal feelings on this aren't going to change the feelings of others. I understand you argument, but understand that I have an argument as well. It's not a "one side or the other" here. Ideally, our laws will meet somewhere in the middle, but there will always be a wide range of opinions on this. Clearly you don't like or agree with guns. There are many who do. We all have to learn how to exist within the same environment. At this point I'm not going to convince you, and you aren't going to convince me.
As a resident of Chicago (Aka - Death Capital of Modern Civilization) the gun discussions here are always surreal to me. I've lived here almost 11 years and owned my house for almost two of those 11 years. Don't own a gun. Never felt the need to own a gun. And have no plans to ever purchase one. My wife and I always chuckle about her dad and brother. Both live in the super duper awesome suburbs - Away from the dirty, filthy city filled with crime, you know. And yet, they feel the need to own all of the firearms ever. The Highland Park shooting probably hasn't helped their mindset (especially since the brother's wife comes from Highland Park), but that's yet another situation that could have been resolved by people having less access to guns and not more. And maybe you guys should move here. It's apparently way safer here than whatever nightmarish, Mad Max-esque dystopian hellscapes you live in.
Nah, I own guns, and enjoy them for range time and formerly, hunting, and like I said, if I had the time and was down there long enough, I'd pursue a CCW. I just draw the line at thinking I'd ever point a gun at another person. My perspective on guns, why I own them, and how I feel about them are based on an entirely different set of assumptions. Mine tend to be backed up by the data, and a more pragmatic assessment of risk, my ability to achieve a desired outcome with vs. without a gun involved, and a longer list of resorts before I get to the last one. Also, as a civilian idiot, seeing the business end of one pointed at me, and having been shot at as a kid, and having been in a bunch of riots where law enforcement wasn't discerning on who lost a few teeth, my perspective on it is unique. Also, having been in middle school during Columbine and being kicked through active shooter drills every couple of years since 2017 or so puts some cold water on the romantic notions of gun ownership as a means of protection. And....well, when a few members of the group that clamor for the right to sport guns literally erase the right to exist by committing fucking murder, it's not a live and let live situation. Again, I think gun culture has to change, and one of the biggest parts of it is the myth, fantasy, wholly-unsupported-by-reality narrative that a good guy with a gun is going to win the day, make the right decision and save the distressed by committing sanctioned murder. The "your life vs. my life" line is what cops use to justify shooting unarmed civilians in the street, it's hardly a rationale for why a gun is a protective measure. Also, the gravy seals standing around voting places earlier this month looking like they Wal-marted a version of their COD skin as a limp dick version of intimidation is another vivid illustration of how much of a fantasy world this really is. I can't see the ice you're standing on getting any thicker, when it's also supporting folks who have some....antisocial tendencies, and little sympathy for the increasing number of people who've been directly impacted by mass shootings. I think of it kind of like disasters: if it barely touched anyone you know, you probably don't give a shit. If it impacts 90% of the counties in your state, and at least 1/3 of the organizations (schools, businesses, local govt. agencies, etc.) recently implemented some kind of risk managment tactic for it, and you personally know 3-5 people who've been involved in one, it takes on a whole other level of reality. The more of these shootings that occur, the more people who are impacted, the louder these cries become, and the more hollow and shrill the arguments against become. If you're defending your position to a parent whose kid was gunned down in their school, you're gonna need a lot better argument. The sad reality is that's becoming a lot more prevalent and it's overtly more compelling than the personal pro nonsense. I'm an advocate for some solutions to this now, because if current trends continue, it only makes responsible gun ownership harder and the intermediate steps that are palatable to responsible gun owners seem more feeble in contrast to a growing mountain of corpses.
This is such an amazingly unaware statement that it boggles the mind. @toytoy88 in case you were referring to me, when I used the word "fantasy," I wasn't implying sitting at home and fetishizing the experience. I was saying that the scenario itself was so unlikely as to be an imaginary creation.
No it isn't. Since you didnt try and make a point I assume your response was purely emotional? U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics puts household burglaries at 3.7 million average a year. Over a million of those someone is home. In a quarter million someone is violently attacked. FBI puts all rifle deaths at average under 500 a year. Which is a vanishingly small statistical minority again?
I'm actually vaccinated against rabies. The vaccines aren't bad, except for an immediate metallic taste in my mouth. It's after you get bit that sucks, when they have to give you the shots again. I don't carry my pistol everyday. I sometimes go weeks without carrying it. I only carry when I go to places with more crazy... Raleigh Durham area, Henderson/Henahsun NC, Greensboro, Winston Salem. My typical daily routine, no I don't feel the need to carry.
Incorrect. That source is 12 years old. A little more research would have yielded that burglaries have been on a significant downward trend for more than a decade. Good try, though. You missed the point in what I said, which is not that burglaries don't happen. It's that the number of scenarios where the stars align such that a gun is even useful in that situation is practically nonexistent. It sounds right, but the evidence does not support that guns keep you safer. And if the 500 rifle deaths/year is the sum total of the gun problem to you, well, I don't think we're going to have a very interesting discussion.
I feel a goalpost shift coming on. I am replying to your specific response to Clutch’s post which was about the cultural narrative of the frequency AR/assault rifle deaths and the frequency of home invasions. True there is a downward trend and they’ve split the stats between property crime and violent crime during burglaries. I’ll look up the violent home attacks later but I’m willing to put money that it still far outstrips assault weapons deaths by an order of magnitude. The use of guns in these situations is murky but still most likely orders of magnitude more than rifle deaths. We are talking perspectives and narrative and the horror of mass shootings is statistically nothing compared to a laundry list of other crimes.
I am not shifting goalposts, and you're ignoring my main point. I know violence occurs. I don't need your statistics to back that up. I am not stating that mass shootings are more prevalent than whatever $violentCrime is that you were/are going to look up. I am stating that the use of guns to prevent violence is essentially nothing more than a fantasy, which is what the SciAm article discusses.
Why else do you think the NRA fought and lobbied so hard for years to stop any kind of scientific research into the subject?
Checks in on politics over the weekend: Y'all Qaeda shutting down drag shows (fuckin WHAT?) Thousands in NC without power, because domestic terrorists shot infrastructure Trump calls for abolishment of the Constitution, also his tax returns indicated a WHOLE BUNCH OF ILLEGAL SHIT SURPRISING NO ONE. Walker vs. Warnock somehow got even more absurd, as voting in GA is fucking ridiculous. Kanye changes his name to "Yitler". Jesus....Jesus fuckin Christ, bro.
Somebody shot a kid through their front door while he was canvassing for Wornock. A kid. What the fuck is wrong with these people?