First a poem on this. It is not a good one but does gun toting require or inspire good poetry?

Denial

 

Nothing ever charmed us more

Than feeling safe

 

We send our sons and guns  ashore

Then send our missiles, jets and drones

To make it safe.

 

We crossed out  maps and towns

We took down kings and clowns

We bombed and plotted

Covertly  swatted

Overtly told them off

Wishing that,  would keep us safe.

 

We marched in arms with great delight

To keep our rifles is our right!

What if a burglar comes at night?

We’d be ready t’ wake up and fight

Our freedom, was feeling safe.

 

Within our homes and on our streets

At point blank to 400 yards,of yore

The booming noise of shots says more

We know what kept us feeling safe

Can be far from any where secure.

 

Take what we know, then how we feel

Defiance, ping pong in between

The game in which one can’t just kneel

Go on don’t let me interrupt

(If ) You’re, feeling safe.

–  ID

 

Statistically, it is much more likely for women to be killed by intimate partners who own guns or whose households have guns. For such studies you look at total number of women killed or injured in attempted murder by intimate partners and then check history, gun ownership etc. The above article I linked to, in the Atlantic, states: ‘In fact, not a single study to date has shown that the risk of any crime including burglary, robbery, home invasion, or spousal abuse against a female is decreased through gun ownership.’ I say let the single or unattached men fight it out, women take self defense lessons, use pepper spray and run to safety and then call 911.

There are several stories published by NRA stating how guns were used in self-defense during home invasions and self-defense remains the reason 60% gun owners say they have them, as expected, it is not to exercise  their second amendment rights that they own them. Apparently, it is good guys with guns that can stop bad guys with guns and anecdotes are not data: the reality of successful self-defense, forget public defense by a private citizen, using hand guns is not very convincing and not at ALL convincing for semi-automatics! In the article above by Politico (‘The myth behind gun ownership’) one of the most often cited (by NRA) digital-dial based surveys studies by Gary Kleck and Marc Getz,  is torn to shreds in three points as the numbers of how many times gun owners have used them in self-defense are ridiculous: the main one being  that the alleged numbers proposed by the gospel study of Kleck, the number of actual instances of legitimate self defense firing has never been verifiable, and in some cases been mathematically impossible. For example, it would need 65% of all burglary attempts be thwarted by gun owners using their guns, most if not all the burglaries would then have needed to target homes that owned guns (even in 1992, that when the Kleck and Getz study was conducted, that was 42% of households in the US ), been at home and awake at the time of burglary. We KNOW that in the US only about 28% of all burglaries happen when there are people (at least one person) at home (we don’t know how many burglaries target home owners owning guns but logically about 42% of this 28% would, but I am ignoring that for now) in other words:(~) 65% of all burglaries cannot be thwarted by people at home using their guns, as they are not even home for that percent of time during a burglary.  ON THE OTHER HAND, actual data indicates reduced suicide rates especially in children as gun ownership declines in households. All life is precious right? Oh, and to spice this up a little this study states: ‘It is noteworthy that in prison surveys, about half of convicted felons who have fired a gun claim to have done so in self defense.‘

Without getting into even more complexity of reports where using guns has harmed an innocent bystander, or is illegal in itself, I will just ask you to think of the least competent person you know at work and then try to imagine them trying to protect you using a gun. I think a real competent protector will understand statistics and the unpredictability of human nature and circumstance.

And forget all that, if one has 10 burglars in the house, it is unlikely they will need something that fires 100 rounds a second. So semi-automatics are an overkill, to put it mildly. The Las vegas shooter had 23 rifles of which he had modified several to upgrade their firing speed. He carried out the largest mass shooting in US history.

In context of events going on right now, NFL players are being labeled unpatriotic as they kneel to support their ostracized colleague: Colin Kaepernick who brought to national notice (or tried to anyway) the plight of black children growing up in underprivileged neighborhoods. In 2017, apparently showing solidarity to a colleague in team spirit is no longer part of sportsmanship and of course any respect for the PEOPLE of the country is far less important than PERCEIVED (feelings of some other people, clearly not of the ones making the sign) disrespect for the flag /anthem, while remaining within their First amendment rights. People apparently don’t make a country great.

To everyone who has been a victim in one way or another of a gun crime, I have no worthy words of consolation..