For those of us who grew up around guns, your abject horror at an object is as puzzling as someone being terrified of knives or slingshots. Would be nice if cops were all good and could teleport to your location in time of need. Drive an hour outside your city of choice and that ain't gonna happen. Just sharing my own experience, cheers.
Even within cities, people have been having that realization over the past two months with how the cops have been unable to keep up with the rioting. Permit applications are up 500% in Illinois, and sales are skyrocketing all over.
Even before all this, unless a cop just happens to be right outside, you are going to wait a long time. The number of stories where someone calls the police while a crime is in progress and the police arrive before the criminal is long gone are near non-existent except in cases of domestic abuse.
They often won't show up in a timely manner in the city, either. I once called them because I had broken up a fight and one of the people involved ran back to his apartment to get a pistol and was out in the parking lot with his friends searching for me, pistol in hand.
There was a police station less than a mile away and it took them 45 minutes to arrive. No doubt they intended to let events play out however they may and then roll in and take statements, which is their only actual legal obligation.
That incident really drove home for me exactly what I'm not getting for my tax dollars.
Indeed! Though even in non-rural environments their response times are too low to generally be of assistance in life-threatening violent altercations; and that response time is typically lower in predominantly african american neighbourhoods.
It's kind of a mark of white privilege to believe that the police will arrive in time to protect you, and that when they arrive they won't harm you.
Even for de-escalating domestic disputes and dealing with petty vandalism and neighbourly feuds they are likely a worse tool than social workers and such.
Is your direct experience that you have actually held/brandished/used a firearm during an event when you were physically threatened? Or is this strictly theoretical?
I have. A couple guys came into the house late at night while I was in bed. I was upstairs and they were downstairs. I didn't have a means to escape. Cops can't help in that situation.
I confronted them at the stairs and the whole thing de-escalated very quickly. Nobody got hurt. As far as someone sneaking into your house while you sleep, it was pretty much a best case scenario.
Stories like this sound so weird to me. Breaking into an occupied house sounds like suicidal behavior. What kind of thought process goes into doing something like that?
It's borderline suicidal where I live because quite a few houses have guns in them. Every house on my street does. It still happens.
I wouldn't say it's often because car break-ins and empty house burglaries are much more common, but it does happen. Attackers pushing their way in as you open the door, attackers posing as some kind of official or salesperson. When the pandemic started, we had guys going around in lab coats saying they were with the CDC.
Police response times are generally very good where I live, but guns are still very common and so is concealed carry. The thought behind it for many people is sort of the same as keeping a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. You're not the fire department, but you want to be able to control an emergency until they get there or avoid having an emergency become a catastrophe.
around where I live its usually meth addicts trying to steal something to pawn and buy more drugs. The meth addicts in that state are not the most rational forward thinking people.
My parents did while my house was being broken into one night by multiple men. Semi-rural area. Thankfully they left before anything happened. I have close friends with darker stories.
Most developed nations allow gun ownership to some degree, with large variations in the regulations and limits around it. The US though are quite unique in seeing gun ownership as a basic right, not a privilege granted/earned.
Why do most developed nations not protect free speech?
The concept of liberty is relatively new, most of the world has lived under monarchs, dictators, etc until relatively recently in the grand scheme of things. The ideas and mechanisms of freedom are still being learned.
I've never understood the "most developed nations _______" argument. So what? "Most" parties doing something doesn't make it the right choice. In any other discussion this would be rightfully called out as an "appeal to the majority" fallacy.
You're making my point for me. Every single one of those is a stupid argument.
There are plenty of good arguments to be made for all of those things, but "everyone else does it" is not one of them.
Look, if every other country legalizes murder tomorrow, does that mean we should, too? No? Then whether everyone else is doing it is clearly irrelevant.
Somebody will probably sic dang on me for saying this, but it is mind boggling to me that I have to explain this.
Your argument really sounds like those first year students that just attended psychology 101 or theology 101, debate 101, philosophy 101 and suddenly felt "woke" and decided to go "meta" for the discussion and mentioning "majority fallacy" instead of discussing the issue. Yeah, try that with your professors.
I wouldn't have the opportunity, because none of my professors ever used such poor reasoning. I'm not surprised to learn that yours do, though.
Also, psychology and theology have nothing to do with any of this, and you clearly have no idea what "woke" and "meta" mean.
You can call my post "low effort" but at least it isn't a word salad.
I regret wasting my time talking to you. Have a good night.
Well, hunting riffles, even if there are extremely common in most countries, specially in rural areas, are hardly in the same class of weapon as a bolt action/(semi-)automatic riffle or an handgun.
The latter also has a different goal in mind, being generally used for self protection/deterrence.
Also, carrying a gun all the time is extremely uncommon if not forbidden in most European countries if you don't have the proper permits. For example in France, IIRC, you can only get such permit if your professional activity justifies it (Police, Security Guards, etc).
Even for recreational/hunting uses you need to be registered, and maybe have a permit, depending on the type of gun. And that's just for ownership, it doesn't grant you the right to carry the weapon loaded and ready to fire.
> hunting riffles, even if there are extremely common in most countries, specially in rural areas, are hardly in the same class of weapon as a bolt action
