IRONwolf wrote:
Yeah, gun violence sucks, no doubt. I think what so many people seem to miss is that for many many people guns are sort of a sport, not something owned out of desperation for safety. I own lots of guns, I didnt buy them because I was scared, Initially that may have been part of the reason, but it turned into a hobby itself. I would buy them because I liked them or wanted them, not because I felt I needed them.For fun, I went and read a bunch of posts on gun rights on several gun forums.
The number of individuals there who emphasize the protection aspect of guns is staggering. I wish I could say that I got a positive impression of these people, but honestly, the first thing that came into my mind from reading most of the posts from these pro gun defense people was that of a 6th grader who was intoxicated with the feeling of power it gave them. I'm probably being generous here as well. When you see numerous posts in a row of people claiming that they are so skilled with their hunting rifles that they could easily defend themselves from the US military if it came to that, and not a single person in the thread doubts them (they get reinforced with kudos actually), it starts sounding juvenile quickly - until you realize that these very people are very real people with very real guns.
Most of those same folks on the forums claim that their gun is a crucial part of self-defense for them several times per year. I'm not sure where they're living in where you NEED to draw a gun several times a year and be fully willing to fire on a human being to defend yourself, but I strongly suspect that their self-satisfied determination what constitutes a gun-worthy situation is highly skewed given that they say it happens so frequently to them.
I wish I could say these were fringe players making up <.1% of the population, but it's clearly way higher than that, and likely a significant percentage of the gun toting population in the US. Scary, actually.
I frequent a road cycling forum as well, and it was amazing to me there as well when a "packing heat on the ride" thread came up, that more than a few vigorously defended carrying a pistol with them on their training rides, and most of the logic was "well if you consider that a car is a potentially lethal weapon against cyclists, I'm going to respond with equally lethal force against that threat if I'm threatened on the road." WTFFF.