Comments on: Monsters are real

By: valerie

valerie — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:35:16 +0000

Thank you for the great post. Sometimes I just get sick of explaining ourselves over and over again. Now I can refer people here. :)

By: BUBB4H

BUBB4H — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:12:59 +0000

This was an excellent post. I cringe when I see the “cower while they come save me” mentality of so many in this home of the “brave”. But make no mistake, safety and security does not end with getting a gun. A gun is not a magic talisman that will ward off all evil. It WILL deter many, less motivated criminals looking for easy prey. But unless you know how to handle it, manipulate it and effectively employ it, it is just another tool. It’s not for everyone, and there are plenty of other security measures and self defense mechanisms that are available besides firearms. Just as we are told to be tolerant of other religions, race, etc. we need to be tolerant of others’ rights to protect themselves in the manner in which they choose is best for their families; whether it be a Mossberg 12ga. manstopper or a bull mastiff named Cujo.

By: Bundabar

Bundabar — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:17:23 +0000

I keep my guns loaded and in a safe, that way children or anyone else besides my wife and I do not have access to my guns. In the event I need one I punch in the code and within 2 seconds I have a loaded gun.

By: bkocik

bkocik — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:39:09 +0000

Come on, Joe - do you really think that because you were able to Google and find research that falls on the side of the fence opposite from mine, I somehow have not done my job? Do you think there is any stance one can take - even backed by data - that someone else cannot rebut with other data?

With regards to your point about suicide, it took me less than 10 minutes to refute it. Data from the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics online and ATF Firearms Commerce Report for 2002 indicate that there is no link between firearm ownership and suicide rates. I know you can do better than that.

As to your question regarding safe firearm storage - most of the time the gun is in my direct possession. When it’s not, it’s safely out of reach (and unloaded and locked). Just like the pesticides.

Trying to keep a firearm both safe from unauthorized access *and* ready to use at all times is a tall order. One has to compromise.

By: Dr Dzoe

Dr Dzoe — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:16:59 +0000

Come on, Bill. I was able to find the research to refute much of what you wrote with all of ten minutes of Googling. You can do better than that.

For what it is worth, I recommend looking around at the links and references provided in the following: http://www.bradycampaign.org, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/prevviol.pdf, http://www.ena.org/ipinstitute/fact/enaipfactsheet-gunsafety.pdf.

Look at just one aspect of all of this: having a gun in the home increases the chance that someone living in the home will commit suicide by a factor of 5. (The reference to that is cited in the third PDF above.) And the suicide rate in this country is considerably higher than the homicide rate - meaning that it’s a higher risk. So even if having a gun decreases your chance of death-by-intruder by a factor of five (and I find that far-fetched - certainly the statistics you site above are far less generous then that), having a gun increases your chance of violent death.

(I suspect that facts like that are behind the fact that a gun in your home is more likely going to be used by someone living in your home than on an intruder.)

Note that I haven’t seen statistics that give the real answer to any of this: what is the comparative death rate for violence (from others and self-inflicted) between homes with guns and without. That’s the statistic that is really needed - and nothing that I’ve presented above, and nothing that you put in the blog post, answers that question.

Also none of this is to say that I support gun control laws. If you want a gun in your home, that’s fine by me. But bear in mind that you are increasing some types of risks for you and your family by having that gun. Pretending otherwise does not make it any less so.

Because while there are monsters out there, there are also monsters within us. And one of those monsters goes by the name of suicidal depression.

(One question - something that I’m really curious about: how do you store a gun safely in such a way that a child cannot get at it, but that it is quickly and easily accessible in an emergency?)

By: bkocik

bkocik — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:08:02 +0000

Thanks, David - references added.

By: David

David — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:37:32 +0000

Very well written. As a gun owner w/ a CCP [1] I only wish I would have written this. The only thing I regret about what you wrote is that while you cite statistics I know to be true (because I’ve also done the research), you don’t reference them. If you have the links, please update so that someone reading this can see for themselves the truth behind it, and not just think its “some other gun nut trying to defend his reason for gun ownership”. Sure there are those that will doubt it anyway, but those of reasonable intelligence will see through the lies.

[1] Well, I still have one, but its expired. I don’t carry currently, and I’ve been to lazy to go through the process of a re-issue.