AST (After Sean Taylor)-To gun or not to gun?

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by onlydarksets

Likewise, thanks.


Laws affect all people, so you can't look at a specific situation to prove the rule. Across the entire population, there is a 100% certainty that there are unintended consequences to owning a firearm.



That's a strawman argument, but it seems to come up often, so allow me to debunk it. The natural use of any of those other items is non-injurious to anyone. The natural use of a gun (and by use I mean firing it) is injurious.



First, I still don't agree that "training taking over" is going to get you through this situation 100% of the time in the manner you intended (I found this interesting article that appears to support neither of our positions, or both - I can't tell). The risks just aren't worth it in my house.

Second, the flaw with the "gun safety by training" arguments in this thread is that they focus on the top 10-20% (and I am being extremely generous with that guestimate) of the gun-owning population. Given the amount of training that you have gone through and your background, I have no reason to doubt that you are a better marksman than the average police officer. I would venture to guess that the gun-owners with which you associate are like-minded in their view of the importance of vigorous training.

However, this argument ignores the fact that the vast majority of people who own guns do not take the time to get the training that you describe. If this training were made mandatory, then I might be a little more comfortable with the idea.

I think this discussion boils down to a few basic philosophies.

1) Should the government be restricting access to something (anything really) that CAN be used irresponsibliy even though with proper training it WOULD be used properly.
2) It sounds cliche but the old saying that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" is pretty central to the argument here.

I think a lot of people would rather the government remove the ability of irresponisble people causing harm to others at the expense of the responsible. Others would rather not. I guess it is a fundamental difference of opinion. Neither side is probably right or wrong totally.