You can only, as they say, do you.
I believe in the Netherlands, you are required to retreat, and call the police, and only if the person pursues can you use force. Defending your home is not a defense, only defending yourself or others from harm is. Again, the argument is that worldly possessions do not equate to a person’s life.
7 billion people and you think life is precious. It’s only an argument if you need a colossal army in the future resource wars.
I assume you are volunteering to help with our problem of over population?
Heh, well… I’m offering up 1% of the population in the other thread.
Yeah, then only the innocent guy would have died, and only from beatings or stabbings, which is better than bullets.
Okay, buddy.
I’m somewhat similar to both of you: I’m a gun owner, a hunter (distant past,) had a sidearm for military duties, and have been around guns my entire life. And I vote Democrat with a capital D.
The issue is complicated. We need to do so, so much better than where we are now. But it has and will be a landmine for political candidates. About the only way I see major change happening is if both sides unite due to an unforeseen circumstance. And based on the fact we have had many of those which have been horrendous, with little change afterward, I’m afraid it’s going to have to be something very bad and very major.
You mean worse than a gunman massacring a bunch of kindergartners? I am sure over the period of history people say this all the time, but a gunman in a elementary school already happened… what can be worse than that? Daycare?
If we want change? Sadly the only answer I can see is “Congress”.
I’m going to jump in here because I’m stupid and I should learn to leave things alone. But I just want to say that people see this story and go out and buy a gun. But people see one of these stories (accidental shooting from the last month only, and only those that were reported):
https://www.google.com/search?q=accidental+shooting#q=accidental+shooting&tbm=nws&tbs=qdr:m&*
And say, “Wow, those people are dumb. Unlike me. I’m cool and knowledgeable.”
If you think mass gun ownership is a good idea, learn to look at the forest.
To be more clear because people are playing pretty dense in this thread, if you think you are statistically safer to have a gun in your house to defend yourself from criminals breaking in while you’re home to do bad things to you, you are dead wrong.
Nobody said that.
I’m pretty sure there are several people saying exactly that.
Please note them. I don’t think I read any response here that said they are “statistically safer to have a gun in your house to defend yourself from criminals breaking in while you’re home to do bad things to you” or really anything close to that. The responses I see are more along the lines of “sucks for those dumbass intruders” and “it’s hard to argue against the emotional side of protecting ones family from home invaders”
I’ve posted repeatedly about risk analysis and aggregate vs. individual thinking.
If you think mass gun ownership should be outlawed or severely curtailed, learn to look at the trees.
This inability to process other perspectives is why some people struggle so badly with this topic (or a Trump election, etc.)
It’s also impossible to work through via the Internet.
I know I haven’t said that.
I just want to live in a safer country, and looking at crime statistics, murder rates, and suicide rates, I seem that on a whole, western countries with stricter gun control laws have lower rates in all those fields then the US.
I realize its a pretty simplistic way of looking at it, but I’m a simple man, with simple outlook, who would like to see fewer articles involving gun violence, justified or otherwise.
Those countries have a lot of factors which are dramatically different from the US, other than gun control laws.
Don’t worry about me. I understand where you’re coming from, therefore your belief doesn’t confuse or upset me.
To be clear, it’s not a matter of simplicity vs. complexity, but rather looking at aggregate statistics to feel some abstract percentage safer or less upset about the plight of others.
Anyway, I don’t feel like deconstructing it this week.