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FTA: "Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49 percent lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation's population grew," according to the Pew study. "The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75 percent lower in 2011 than in 1993."
All of that is good news — but many Americans don't seem to be aware of it. In a survey, the Pew Research Center found that only 12 percent of Americans believe the gun crime rate is lower today than it was in 1993; 56 percent believe it's higher.
I applaud you that you are able to look past your usual opinions and see the justice in this man having a gun. The vast majority of gun owners are much like this store clerk; decent people who only want the means to protect themselves and their familites from violence. Our guns are tools we hope we never have to use, as with fire extinguishers. But fires happen and so do crimes.
I carry a gun everywhere I am legally allowed. I am the guy who makes a joke with the tired clerk to lift his/her day. I help mothers find lost kids in stores or parking lots. I help someone coming it with a cane, walker or wheelchair. I give jumps to people with dead batteries, have given people rides to service stations, etc. I am the textbook "Mr. Nice Guy". I look for the best in people and usually see it, but I have seen that there are some bad characters out there who see everyone else as targets. If they attempt harm to anyone around me they are in for a bad day.
If I go somewhere and see bad characters, I go somewhere else if I have a choice. I do not knowingly go to places known for trouble. Then again, my occupation has forced me to do service calls in very dangerous neighborhoods where I had little choice but to go. I needed the work and people living in those places need services as much as anyone else. My gun is no guarantee of my safety but it does give me a fighting chance if a situation happens.
The bottom line is that you currently have the freedom to take your chances, do everything the bad guys tell you to do - get on your knees, beg for your life & hope the bad guys let you live.
The police will be there 3-7 minutes after the action stops to write a report.
If that makes you feel "safe", then rock-on...
3-7 minutes is in fact a very fast response time, I doubt many departments could meet that. If anyone has any doubt on police response times and how seconds feel like hours when you're in danger, watch the show Panic 911.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zippyman
You're assuming there's some possible way to "ban" guns.
There isn't. The gun violence in Chicago and D.C prooves that..
You canmake it impossible for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves in a lawful manner....
Again, Chicago & D.C are your "model cities".. seems to be working great there..
It's no coincidence that you look at places like Chicago with their strict gun laws and see how much gun violence they have. And they keep blaming the gun as if it can fire itself. The politicians don't want to blame the people doing the shooting because that's their voting base.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fairlaker
The only people talking about taking people's guns away are nutcases at the NRA and the even loonier Gunowners of America. It's all part of their phony scare-people propaganda strategy. Proposals to require comprehensive background checks or to restrict the sale of weapons that have no other purpose than to kill or maim a lot of people in a short amount of time are no more tantamount to taking your guns away than are keeping RPG's and SAM's out of your hands. Do you bristle at that as well?
And by the way, people who buy an AR-15 are not buying a weapon but the bad-ass, Rambo, Seal Team image that comes with one. It's the same people who drive Hummers with big wheels. It's all big people still playing toy soldiers. People who never outgrew Barry Sadler and GI Joe. People say they like to blast stuff with them over at the range or out on the back forty. Some people say they feel comfortable with an AR-15 because of their one-time infantry training with them. A few people say they actually hunt with them, but many states have banned them for hunting things much larger than a beaver. Basically, there is no good reason for owning one. It all comes down to being --- cool. Is that really reason enough?
The posters above have tried to have an adult discussion with you but you just call all of us nutcases. I'm not a nutcase, in fact, I've passed various psychological exams with police departments, survived war without PTSD and don't beat my wife/kids.
You inject emotion instead of logic into the conversation, a very typical liberal tactic.
Maybe you live in a nice neighborhood where you wouldn't need a gun to defend yourself or your family but not everyone does and even us poor people deserve to have the right to defend ourselves.
I'll tell you one thing, I've literally seen war and been shot at with a helluva lot more than what's used by gangbangers. I know this for sure: I'd rather be armed and take a chance in a shootout than to not be armed and just outright murdered.
You want to talk about one time Infantry training, how often do you think cops fire their weapons? For the majority of departments, it's an annual qualification. For us in the military, it's a quarterly qualification. Cops are also revenue generators (ticket writing), social workers and psychologists amongst many duties they're called to do. How much time do you think they have to dedicate to firearms proficiency?
No good reason to own an AR? What's your good reasoning to owning a house larger than mine, a car that costs more than mine, or anything else?
Gun versus knife. Rock beats scissors. Had it been gun versus gun, the probability of one or more people having been killed would have gone way up. There are reasons why operators of such outlets have no-guns policies and why they instruct employees not to resist and to call police once the robber has left the premises. Testosterone isn't typically a factor in wise decisions about much of anything.
3-7 minutes is in fact a very fast response time, I doubt many departments could meet that. If anyone has any doubt on police response times and how seconds feel like hours when you're in danger, watch the show Panic 911.
It's no coincidence that you look at places like Chicago with their strict gun laws and see how much gun violence they have. And they keep blaming the gun as if it can fire itself. The politicians don't want to blame the people doing the shooting because that's their voting base.
The posters above have tried to have an adult discussion with you but you just call all of us nutcases. I'm not a nutcase, in fact, I've passed various psychological exams with police departments, survived war without PTSD and don't beat my wife/kids.
You inject emotion instead of logic into the conversation, a very typical liberal tactic.
Maybe you live in a nice neighborhood where you wouldn't need a gun to defend yourself or your family but not everyone does and even us poor people deserve to have the right to defend ourselves.
I'll tell you one thing, I've literally seen war and been shot at with a helluva lot more than what's used by gangbangers. I know this for sure: I'd rather be armed and take a chance in a shootout than to not be armed and just outright murdered.
You want to talk about one time Infantry training, how often do you think cops fire their weapons? For the majority of departments, it's an annual qualification. For us in the military, it's a quarterly qualification. Cops are also revenue generators (ticket writing), social workers and psychologists amongst many duties they're called to do. How much time do you think they have to dedicate to firearms proficiency?
No good reason to own an AR? What's your good reasoning to owning a house larger than mine, a car that costs more than mine, or anything else?
Okay, then are you going to volunteer to go door to door collecting firearms? Tell them the government sent you, I'm sure that'll go over real well.
Again? Do people somehow not recognize the difference between the concept of controlling or if necessary ending trade in particular weapons, and the concept of running around trying to take everybody's guns away? That seems like a fairly obvious distinction to me.
The real reason the right to bear arms is in our Constitution is to protect us not only from criminals, but from a tyrannical government.
Seriously? You expect to hold off the government with your personal small arms arsenal? I'm trying not to laugh, but you all are making that very difficult.
Those living or working in crime areas have a lot of street smarts to avoid trouble... we have to.
It's good that you are following my advice in that case.
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Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
What is tragic is the number of children killed and shot from stray bullets...This afternoon a year old was shot 2 blocks away from a gun battle in my city and the child is in critical condition at Childrens Hospital.
How would a gun have prevented that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
A couple of months ago a 60 year old Grandfather I know was washing his car mid morning and two guys came up to him and demanded money... he had none and they said too bad for you and gut shot him... he died two hours later...
How would a gun have prevented that? Have you ever tried to wash a car while holding a gun? Maybe you need to wash cars on the buddy system. One guy washes, the other guy brandishes a gun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
I wish it was not this way... fact is the world is not getting any safer and the cheif of police and mayor of my city have said so many times. As mentioned... several in my family have been inocent victims of gun violence... wishing it did not happen will not make it so. Unless you have lived it... there is really know way to understand. There simply is not enough law enforcement to be everywhere... the police are not private security and may or may not respond...
What you are telling me yet again is that you live in a dangerous area which was noted long ago. Short of relocating, all you can do is make yourself as safe as possible. Believing that you and a gun are equal to a hood and his gun is a good way to make yourself dead, not to make yourself safer. Best of luck in not coming up with the short end of that stick.
The world may or may not be getting safer, but the US is getting safer, even with looser gun laws.
Crime in general has been declining since 1993. It's been an across the board sort of thing that has nothing to do with guns. It might well have something to do with Roe v Wade.
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