The problem isn't you owning the guns, it is the fact that a great many people spread their "gun culture" like religion, purporting complete utter bullshit like "Grandma shoots the burglar" and the like as something that happens all the time.
Fact is, it doesn't. Fantastic stories like "John Q Public uses WeaponX to defeat Phil Badguy" aren't taken in American culture as an example of an unexpected triumph. Instead, the same people like "Gun nuts" use it, like a Fundamentalist looking for evidence of prayer answering, as a singular example in a long and bloody history of people killing other people and usually following through, regardless of who was armed.
Now, granted, it may be that there is a correlation between survival and gun ownership in high crime areas. It says nothing about owning a gun and everything about the safety, culture and status of said area.
It also may be reasonable to point out that perhaps increasing the number of guns in a community and owning a gun would increase your chances of surviving something horrible - however I will point out that while the gun owner has, by virtue of owning a gun, increased the number of guns in a population, and henceforth has put others at risk.
The whole nasty "culture" that I, and quite a few European folks I've had the pleasure of driving with (rideshare), oppose is that. I've heard it from Germans and Czechs, and even the lone Frenchie - we've usually reached this conclusion:
Guns aren't bad. A few guns are fine. But the thought that one would own a gun to increase their petty chances while damaging the community through increasing the number of available firearms in a population?
Fuck them and their boomstick.
It only takes one to fuck everything over for the rest of us...
TL;DR version - I oppose the self-serving "every man for himself" mentality. Owning guns in it of itself isn't bad. But then again, having fundamentalist churches isn't bad either. It's the cultural baggage that comes with is the problem. Perhaps things will mature. Perhaps not. But don't make life more risky for the rest of us just because you're too damn chickenshit to walk the same paths the rest of us walk.
Fact is, it doesn't. Fantastic stories like "John Q Public uses WeaponX to defeat Phil Badguy" aren't taken in American culture as an example of an unexpected triumph. Instead, the same people like "Gun nuts" use it, like a Fundamentalist looking for evidence of prayer answering, as a singular example in a long and bloody history of people killing other people and usually following through, regardless of who was armed.
Now, granted, it may be that there is a correlation between survival and gun ownership in high crime areas. It says nothing about owning a gun and everything about the safety, culture and status of said area.
It also may be reasonable to point out that perhaps increasing the number of guns in a community and owning a gun would increase your chances of surviving something horrible - however I will point out that while the gun owner has, by virtue of owning a gun, increased the number of guns in a population, and henceforth has put others at risk.
The whole nasty "culture" that I, and quite a few European folks I've had the pleasure of driving with (rideshare), oppose is that. I've heard it from Germans and Czechs, and even the lone Frenchie - we've usually reached this conclusion:
Guns aren't bad. A few guns are fine. But the thought that one would own a gun to increase their petty chances while damaging the community through increasing the number of available firearms in a population?
Fuck them and their boomstick.
It only takes one to fuck everything over for the rest of us...
TL;DR version - I oppose the self-serving "every man for himself" mentality. Owning guns in it of itself isn't bad. But then again, having fundamentalist churches isn't bad either. It's the cultural baggage that comes with is the problem. Perhaps things will mature. Perhaps not. But don't make life more risky for the rest of us just because you're too damn chickenshit to walk the same paths the rest of us walk.
