That’s why Ruger came up with a seven shooter.
I didn’t say it did. I said it reduced the risk. I have a cousin in the Bronx who’s only been in 2 cars his whole life. One was a hearse when his dad died. So the likelihood of him getting killed by a vehicle is almost zero. Far more likely to get shot (especially in the Bronx)
You’re more likely to be killed with your gun by the guy who breaks in than you are to defend yourself.
I know the stat you’re using, and it’s BOOGUS.
Everyone who cites that stat is using a study by an ER doctor, comparing the prevalence of self-inflicted plus “friendly-fire” ER admissions, to ER admissions involving a “bad guy” wounded by a gun.
This logically means that the only “positive outcomes” noted are one in which:
- gun is drawn
- BG escalates, doesn’t flee
- Shots are fired
- Shots hit target
- Shots wound (but don’t kill outright) BG.
- BG assents to have wounds treated in ER, and doesn’t succeed in fabricating a story about how he acquired them (such as, say, a self-inflicted wound.)
This, quite obviously, has HUGE errors that prevent it from being useful in making any sort of a risk assessment. Most notably, the BEST outcome of having a gun is: you pull gun on intruder; intruder rapidly runs the other way, while soiling himself. THIS OUTCOME IS COMPLETELY OVERLOOKED. Given that most people place survival above all else, it’s reasonable to assume this is the MOST likely scenario if you pull a gun on an intruder, and this flawed study overlooks it entirely.
Also, there’s an additional benefit to prevalent gun ownership: A society with a high percentage of gun owners acts as a disincentive towards burglary and home invasion. Does the aforementioned study document the societal good arising from the decrease in home invasion? Of course not–how could it? It’s merely an observation of ER admissions!
This is a weak study, poorly applied, Random Troll. You do your argument a disservice by utilizing it.
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Is the Bronx a car free zone? Is your cousin never a pedestrian who never has to cross a street?
My own likelihood of getting killed by a car is also almost zero, one chance in 12,000 per year if I’m average. My risk of getting shot is even lower.
The difference between cars and guns is that almost all auto deaths are accidents and almost all gun deaths are intentional and around 60% of them are suicides. So if you are not depressed and suicidal, you’ve taken yourself out of a large part of the risk pool right there. Most murders are not done by total strangers but done by your immediate family or close friends, so by being a nice guy and not angering the people you are in contact with, you farther reduce your risk. Saying “yes sir” to cops instead of running away from them and insulting them and not getting involved with street gangs along with not breaking into the homes of total strangers to steal stuff will farther guarantee that your death will be in a nursing home.
Because car deaths and injuries are almost all complete accidents, taking yourself out of that risk pool is not as easy, though by defensive driving, you can still minimize that risk Likewise not texting an walking when you are a pedestrian.
Well we have a big old double barrel shotgun, damascus so modern rounds evidently cannot be used, though that is open to debate if anyone knows about an 1894 Remington with hammer less, Now I told wife if a drive by (trying to keep it car related) comes into the house all you have to do is grab this big old gun and say get the heck out of here or else. Don’t mess with a woman with a gun. But if they do end up taking it from her it s not loaded.
No where did I say the risk was ZERO? Tell me how many people in the Bronx have been killed by a car while walking?
Compare that number to how many people who have been killed while driving/riding in a car.
The later is well over 100 times or even 1000 times higher.
I stand by my statement…the risk is drastically reduced.
I couldn’t find the statistics for just the Bronx, but NYC had 257 traffic fatalities in the year 2014. Of these, 139 were pedestrians. This makes pedestrians 54% of NYC’s traffic fatalities.
Nationally, pedestrians account for about 15% of all traffic fatalities. I attribute NYC’s very high pedestrian fatality percentage to the fact that auto traffic moves at a crawl so most auto accidents are not severe enough to kill the drivers or passengers. Twenty mph collisions seldom kill people in modern cars but are still deadly to pedestrians.
During the same year, NYC had 333 murders, 95 of which were in the Bronx.
Of the total of 333 murders in 2014, 188 were committed with firearms.
http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/indexcrimes/nys-crime-report-2014.pdf
It appears that even in NYC, a traffic accident is more likely to kill you than a gun.
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I don’t know exactly where the Bronx are but it looked like they were #1 or 2 in the NY area for pedestrian incidents. In 2010 8 were hit but not sure if they were killed. Trucks and busy intersections were blamed so they are working to reduce the hazards.
Where I live the pedestrian/motorist fatality is about equal in numbers. Nearly every day there is a news story of a motorist or pedestrian killed.
Perhaps there are places where a motorist is 1000 times more likely to be killed than a pedestrian but not NYC or any large city.
Was that in one day or one week? In my county there are more than 8 pedestrian fatalities in a month.
Of course you are more likely to die by your own gun than a bad guys, There are more gun suicides than gun homicides. There are no lies that work as well as statistics.
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As a Darwinist you should appreciate this.
Gun Kills Burglar
Fortunately I live in a very low crime area. In the 18 years I have lived in this house in a small town there has been a grand total of one reported shooting. Although the one shooting was fatal the circumstances were bizarre. A burglar stole one AR type rifle and tossed it in his back seat with the rest of the loot. He determined his best escape route was driving across the farmer’s field with his car lights off. In the dark he did not see the small irrigation ditch that abruptly stopped his car. The rifle (which the dumbest crook obviously did not even check much less properly clear) hooked something with it’s trigger and with a single shot blew his head off. That one in a bazillion time a firearm not touched by a living creature fired. Of course the gun grabbers will say this proves their fantasy that guns kill people. This incident was featured in the “News of the Weird” weekly column. The only times I have felt the need to have a loaded gun handy in the U.S. for possible self defense is when driving the desolate Western highways where a flat tire or other breakdown could put you at the mercy of “Highway Pirates” who occasionally take advantage of that situation. I use a loaded .38 Cal. revolver in the small open compartment under my dashboard. When away from my car I unload the revolver, lock it in the trunk, and carry the 5 cartridges in my pocket. By the way this type of open carry in a vehicle is legal in my state.