|
|
|
|
|
|
by Hogg
3853 days ago
|
|
|
"I just can't imagine living in fear of some concealed-carry-permit holding goon deciding to shoot the place up." You don't need a concealed-carry permit to carry a concealed gun; you just need one to do it LEGALLY. I would venture to guess that a person who carries concealed with the intent of committing murder will not have bothered to get a permit. My reasoning for keeping a killing machine (it lies around either in a safe or on my person at all times) is because crime happens, and criminals are willing to do things like use force and/or weapons. Police can't be everywhere, and while their response time here is pretty good, it's generally more than enough time for the criminals to do what they want and escape. I'd be happy to go back in time and un-invent guns, but as it stands, I don't see any way to remove all of them from all criminals' hands. So it seems to me the only viable preventive measure is for citizens to defend themselves with the same tools the criminals illegally use to commit their crimes. |
|
|
If tomorrow all gun possession (except perhaps by LEO, but even that is debatable IMHO) was made illegal, then within one year i'm sure there would be many less guns in circulation (without considering who owns them). In my books this is a net win, because a criminal entering the scene at that point in time will arguably have a harder time sourcing a gun than is currently the case. Profit, i would say. Indeed the stable state of this system is, as you point out, that only non-law-abiding citizens will be in possession of guns, but that is collateral i'm willing to accept (as in the society where i currently live. Death rate per capita by guns is much lower here than in the US, see my linked article from The Guardian). The end game of your desired society seems to me that it's an arms race (excuse my wording): everyone who wants to be 'safe' should have a gun, therefore criminals have more incentive to have guns, etc.
The other question i have is how one explains the fact that in many societies where gun possession is not legal, the situation is far from the doom scenario where criminals with guns are rife. Of course, they exist, and of course shit happens, but it still seems that the evidence (just the statistics, no moral arguments) points to the desirability of outlawing gun possession.
And finally, no matter how carefully you treat and/or store your gun, it is still more likely (even if the likelihood is only epsilon) to accidentally go off or get played with by a child than my gun, which does not exist at all.