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Mass shootings very rare? Really? Isn't the working definition of a mass shooting one in which there are four or more victims? By that standard mass shootings are hardly rare. And OFTEN, victims are (were) armed. Or bystanders. Guns work best when the good guy shoots first. In Florida and Arizona, and a few other places you can do just that: shoot someone preemptively, and kill them. If they look like me, you will not even have to go downtown and make a statement. Other places, there is more burden of proof. There are states where blasting away at someone taking a crowbar to your window bars will get you arrested. The %$^$ has to actually come INSIDE and threaten you, before you can take his life. I don't know... if I was NOT armed and I was doing a job on a posh house uptown, and the lady of the manor showed me the family ordnance, I wouldn't have to be invited to leave. But I know that such sentimentality doesn't carry much weight with the "do unto them that threaten ye with deadly force lest they carry word back to their ken that ye are soft of heart". Some of those news accounts in the o.p. were MURDER! Just saying. By the way, the CDC knows, even if y'all don't. A gun in a home is so much more lethal to young children in that home than ANY possible other kind of threat, that, IN OUR LIFETIME, even if no other kind of gun legislation is ever passed, legislation keeping guns out of homes where young children reside, will one day become law of the land. When children are at stake, stuff gets done.
Most gun violence is the result of gangs not law abiding citizens. Just because children are in a home with guns doesn't mean new legislation will come along. Smart gun owners keep there guns on there person or in a gun safe to prevent children from getting to them. A good idea would also be to teach your children gun safety and if anything not to mess with them without there mom or dad. The think of the children mentally doesn't work for most.
A group of people had been walking in front of the driver around 11:50 p.m. Friday in the 2900 block of North Milwaukee Avenue when Everardo Custodio, 22, began firing into the crowd, Quinn said.
The driver pulled out a handgun and fired six shots at Custodio, hitting him several times, according to court records. Responding officers found Custodio lying on the ground, bleeding, Quinn said. No other injuries were reported.
I dunno... sure, concealed carry folks can sometimes act in a timely fashion and stop something bad from happening - and that's of course good.
My general concern is that when you take it to the logical (and desired) extreme and make lethal weapons in the hands of the vast majority of the population, then you probably counteract that by basically making it really, really easy for a lot of unstable, angry, and immature people to have the ability to pull out a gun anywhere, anytime and start taking lives. These types already have it easy enough to get a gun...do we need to make it even easier?
In other words, I think the potential for more damage from the crazies with easier gun access is likely to outweigh any benefit that you're likely to occasionally get from some good samaritan concealed weapons carrier.
When you continually lower the bar to put weapons in everyone's hands, you'll have increasing frequency of use...person on person. And having to live in a world where you're always on guard, worried that you're going to have to shoot your way through evening traffic with everyone else also armed around you, is not really a desirable state.
Yes, the Swiss also have a lot of guns, but they have strict gun regulations and, more importantly, a culture and set of ethics that we lack over here.
The CDC had their funding stripped becsue of advocacy for gun control. Studying mental illness or whatever is certainly in their domain but when you start labeling guns in general as "a public health threat" and begin recommending laws that affect every single person in this country you have gone over the line. Had they stuck to the science instead of becoming political they would still be doing research on it.
The CDC provides studies in many different areas but suddenly they attempt to study the details of gun deaths and it's politics. CDC has analyzed deaths due to cars, appliances and many other areas why not guns.
Most gun violence is the result of gangs not law abiding citizens. Just because children are in a home with guns doesn't mean new legislation will come along. Smart gun owners keep there guns on there person or in a gun safe to prevent children from getting to them. A good idea would also be to teach your children gun safety and if anything not to mess with them without there mom or dad. The think of the children mentally doesn't work for most.
Well with the proliferation of guns there are many irresponsible owners, there are people that buy guns and don't know the first thing about safety.
Even trained police officers have an issue, why do some gun owners view concealed carry as a solution to anything. We have had mass shootings where there were gun owners carrying but chose not to do anything because of the risk, good judgment.
The one thing I will give you is that proposing more people carry guns and eliminate gun freezones as a solution to the problem of mass shootings is just a non-starter, although I do believe GFZ's should be eliminated because they serve no public good.
As others have mentioned, your figures are from a rabidly anti-gun advocacy group. The number ( 763 ) they use includes incidents where the person had a concealed carry permit, but where that permit had no impact, such as a husband killing a spouse at home, for instance. It also includes incidents of people carrying concealed weapons ILLEGALY... and suicides... How did having a concealed carry permit affect the outcome one way or another of someone making the decision to take their own lives?
But even if for the sake of argument we take their number at face value, there are roughly 12,000,000 concealed carry holders in the US. 763 incidents out of 12,000,000 account for about 0.00635833333% of the total Concealed Carry population. Doesn't sound like much of an issue to me. Concealed carriers overwhelmingly prove to be more law-abiding than the general population and are by far under-represented in crime statistics as a group.
I absolutely support conceal carry for those licensed to do so. I am against open carry because having an exposed gun scares people. Me included.
I can think of a time not so long ago when a black man walking down the streets of certain neighborhoods would "scare people"..... I guess it was justified then, when he was harassed and his rights trampled. Right?
I absolutely support conceal carry for those licensed to do so. I am against open carry because having an exposed gun scares people. Me included.
Your freedom scares me, so it would only be logical that my freedom scares you..
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