wimsey wrote:
Like I said, I'm not going to tell anyone how to protect their family in their own home. But I would venture that everyone "has strong feelings' about not accidentally letting people get hurt with their weapons, and many feel like they "control the variable" with locks and such, right up until the point where they don't.
I grew up with (unsecured) guns in the house too, and it worked out fine for my brothers and me. It doesn't always work out that way, even for families where gun safety is taught. The fact that you can't relate to people being anxious about the idea is a little strange to me.
Lastly, if you have such fierce dogs that they'll rip anyone apart who tries to get in the house, why do you need a gun...? :)
Anyway, I'm not trying to be a jerk about this and I respect that you're going to protect the house the way you see fit.
Re. control the variables right up until they don't. Agreed. Can't be helped.
Re. I can't relate to people who are anxious about guns in the home. In an absolute sense, sure, I can relate. But in a relative sense, it's harder to understand. Take a look at the deaths caused by backyard pools vs. guns. Then factor in the fact that almost everyone killed by a gun is a bad guy. The stats re. kids killed by guns are almost all teenage druggies and gangbangers. So weigh in your mind the relative danger re. backyard pools vs. guns in the home to innocent kids. Pools are helaciously more dangerous. Yet, they don't create nearly the anxiety that guns do.
One of my subordinates works 3000mi away at one of our California sites. He came out to visit. My shop traditionally takes visitors to the local range, so that was the plan. None of us shoot very often, a couple times/yr probably, but it's a "different thing" to do to make a visitor's trip to our shop memorable.
As the day approached the guy got more and more anxious. He was stressed out and not sleeping. We didn't know any of this tho. The day we were going to go to the range he was shaking and white with fear. So we didn't go. Would that sort of extreme anxiety be perceived as a normal reaction to a backyard pool, prob a 100x more deadly to innocent children? That's an example of anxiety re. weapons in the home to be way out of proportion with the trouble they actually cause.
Re. why have the guns if we have scary dogs. The purpose of the guns isn't home defense, they are just an occasional hobby. The last time I was serious about shooting was 15yrs ago. That said, I'm certainly obligated to teach the boys firearm safety, so I'd have guns no matter the scenario. Likewise, the purpose of the dogs isn't home defense, they're just pets. The Dog Pound told us that the pitbull was a "boxer mix" puppy. It was later that I came to realize that pretty much every dog at the Pound was a pitbull.
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