11 Mar '16 15:54>1 edit
Originally posted by normbenignWhich is far more likely to happen if you have liberal gun control laws.
It would be safer, except for the occasions when you needed a weapon for self defence.
Over the years, I defended my life and property with a gun many times.
And I have never done so. Makes you stop and think, doesn't it.
As with anything, the risk/reward factors must be personally evaluated, and care exercised to minimize the risks. The mother in the cited case paid the ultimate price for her carelessness, and the child will pay for decades to come.
People are notoriously bad at assessing risk. Hence the need for government regulation in high risk behaviour.
This all has to be weighed against the positives that come with responsible gun ownership.
If there were any.
Your concluding argument is that everything involving guns where they are prohibited is a crime.
That is what 'prohibited' means. I am not sure what you are getting at other than a tautology.
NRA has been saying that for decades. Outlaw guns and only the outlaws will have them.
That is what the NRA has been saying. Don't attribute it to me because I never said any such thing.
I say: Outlaw guns and a lot less outlaws will have them.
What goes unsaid in that argument is that where guns aren't available, criminals use other means, which at times can be worse than guns.
Except that:
a) most of the alternatives criminals use are not worse than guns.
b) zero gun accidents.
c) many criminals simply don't try because they don't have the weapons ie you get fewer violent criminals.
Other weapons usually must be deployed, often with deadly effect.
Knives and other weapons are frequently used to threaten. I am not sure what weapons you are thinking of.
Personally, I'd rather be robbed at gunpoint, and go home broke and alive, than to be beaten or stabbed by a robber, and end up dead.
Can you provide any statistics or other actual evidence that more deaths result from violent crimes in countries with fewer guns.
How's that working out downunder with supposedly nobody having guns? I've read that the collection was a farce, with most people just throwing away useless relics and nonfunctioning guns.
Gun related deaths, gun violence and homicides by any method are all down significantly since the gun control laws were introduced.
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/australia
Don't get your information from right wing gun lobby websites.
Guns are not illegal in Australia