Mass shooting in Las Vegas. 50+ dead

[Brian37]

Maybe like making an home intruder turn an run instead of raping your wife or convenience store robber decide it's not worth the risk.

I understand you might not be the kind of guy, but if an intruder alerts me enough in my home close quarters to give me time to reach to a gun, It also gives me time to reach for my fists.

It's a stupid idea that guns can protect you at home. in close quarters, even if you are not too strong, a baseball bat does the trick.

It is far more likely that by complying, running or as a last resort, confronting without a firearm has a far higher rate of success than introducing a firearm into a conflict where another person already has the drop on you with their own firerarm.

If you leave your firearm in you closet on a top shelf, or under your pillow for easy access, it is far more likely you or a family member will injury or kill someone in the home. But even for those who do the right thing and lock them up in a safe, a home intruder isn't going to wait for you and say, "Lets start back to back in a 10 pace duel" like Arron Burr and Hamilton and wait for you to do your combo and retrieve you weapon from the safe.


So the only thing really the far right can do is live in paranoia 24/7 and assume everyone is out to murder them. And that is just absurd.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Maybe like making an home intruder turn an run instead of raping your wife or convenience store robber decide it's not worth the risk.

I understand you might not be the kind of guy, but if an intruder alerts me enough in my home close quarters to give me time to reach to a gun, It also gives me time to reach for my fists.

It's a stupid idea that guns can protect you at home. in close quarters, even if you are not too strong, a baseball bat does the trick.

I defended myself using a semi-auto rifle when I was 12 years old. Some thieves tried to break into our machine shed. When I came out of the house with them in my sights, he and friend quickly got back in their van and drove away. And I took down their license plate. They were caught a few days later.

Now maybe you think a 12-year old should not have a rifle, but I was trained by my brother and father to respect guns, realized that they were not toys, and had seen what they could do to a raccoon or possum.

Armed and Educated Child (1); Rural Low-lifes (0)

[Catholic_Lady]

I like racoonns and possums...

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But besides that, way to go catching the bad guys

[pocaracas]

If I'm a woman and I'm confronted by a big dude in my home who has a knife of his own, I don't think I'd be able to protect myself against him with a knife... id be safer with a gun.

I believe in gun control, and in banning those that are particularly deadly, but not an outright ban on all guns. That seems very unreasonable and very "big governmenty" to me.

If you're a responsible gun owner, your gun will be kept away some place out of sight, out of easy reach and, most importantly, unloaded.

If you're confronted by a big dude in your home who has a knife, how much time do you think you have to go get the gun, load it and aim it well enough to use it?

How prepared are you to shoot another human being and very likely kill him?
Will you try to talk him out of coming for you, first? Just aim and threaten?
At close quarters, how long will it take for someone trained in combat to take that out of your hand and maybe aim it at you?


If you're not a responsible gun owner, you may keep it loaded and within easy reach... how long until you're mad at someone in your home and pull it out?
How long until someone else finds it and does something stupid with it?
How long until your future toddler finds it?
How long until your paranoid husband thinks you're having an affair?
How long until... someone does something stupid?

Which is more likely to happen in your lifetime? the big guy in your home with a knife, or someone doing something stupid?

[Brian37]

I like racoonns and possums...

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But besides that, way to go catching the bad guys

I touched a squirrel last week. Cute little bugger, my friends saved it after it fell out of it's nest. Wasn't afraid of anyone , very happy and went after the tiny food feeder "looked like a tiny turkey baster". 

It really did remind me when I met the cat I have now. His name is Sarah, YES, he has a girls name, but that is a long story. 

My prior cat died months earlier and my mom pushed me to get a new cat knowing how Payton's death affected me. That was 05 or 06. 

So at this cat adoption agency, I was in a room full of cats, not knowing which one to pick, and out of the corner of my eye, blazing fast blur, tiny fur ball ran up, grabbed my leg, looked up at me and "meowed"...... I looked down at him and said to myself "I'm toast".... Meaning I had no way to resist.

Oh yea, the topic of the thread was how bat shit insane America loves firearms. Pisses me off that I cant break out a hotel window and aim Sarah's cute ass at the public and make my point. Why cant I make my cat fully automatic?

[Catholic_Lady]

If I'm a woman and I'm confronted by a big dude in my home who has a knife of his own, I don't think I'd be able to protect myself against him with a knife... id be safer with a gun.

I believe in gun control, and in banning those that are particularly deadly, but not an outright ban on all guns. That seems very unreasonable and very "big governmenty" to me.

If you're a responsible gun owner, your gun will be kept away some place out of sight, out of easy reach and, most importantly, unloaded.

If you're confronted by a big dude in your home who has a knife, how much time do you think you have to go get the gun, load it and aim it well enough to use it?

How prepared are you to shoot another human being and very likely kill him?
Will you try to talk him out of coming for you, first? Just aim and threaten?
At close quarters, how long will it take for someone trained in combat to take that out of your hand and maybe aim it at you?


If you're not a responsible gun owner, you may keep it loaded and within easy reach... how long until you're mad at someone in your home and pull it out?
How long until someone else finds it and does something stupid with it?
How long until your future toddler finds it?
How long until your paranoid husband thinks you're having an affair?
How long until... someone does something stupid?

Which is more likely to happen in your lifetime? the big guy in your home with a knife, or someone doing something stupid?

Usually shooting the person isnt required. Simply pointing a gun (or shooting next to him) tends to be enough to get a burgler out of the house.

[SteelCurtain]

A person who keeps a weapon in their home is 22x more likely to harm themselves or someone else on accident or in a dispute, according to the Kellerman study published in the New England Journal of medicine.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJ...#t=article

[Brian37]

While one is at it, they can search for the stats on how much gun control effects violent crime rates. 

I don't own a firearm, and don't really see the need for me to have one at this time.   However, if I did fee that I needed that kind of protection I would want it available.
However I do think that focusing on the means used, is ignoring the real issue which is a social problem.

Yep... start with recent examples, like Australia and work down to more ancient ones, like the UK.

Availability, ok, but not uncontrolled availability. You shouldn't be able to buy a gun like you buy a candy bar. And this is the real issue.
Somehow, people in the US feel the need to have guns, for whatever reason.
Somehow, that need is not present in Canada, in my eyes, the country more similar to the US.
What's the difference?

THANK YOU and somebody who gets it.

Nobody wants to make all firearms illegal by making sure the wrong people don't get them, even the right says they don't want the wrong people getting them. I am tired of them screaming when we agree the wrong people should not get them. 

They cant have it both ways and it seems they simply like the cake without the responsibility that it is not good to hand out certain objects like candy. We don't do that with booze or porn or cars.

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If you're a responsible gun owner, your gun will be kept away some place out of sight, out of easy reach and, most importantly, unloaded.

If you're confronted by a big dude in your home who has a knife, how much time do you think you have to go get the gun, load it and aim it well enough to use it?

How prepared are you to shoot another human being and very likely kill him?
Will you try to talk him out of coming for you, first? Just aim and threaten?
At close quarters, how long will it take for someone trained in combat to take that out of your hand and maybe aim it at you?


If you're not a responsible gun owner, you may keep it loaded and within easy reach... how long until you're mad at someone in your home and pull it out?
How long until someone else finds it and does something stupid with it?
How long until your future toddler finds it?
How long until your paranoid husband thinks you're having an affair?
How long until... someone does something stupid?

Which is more likely to happen in your lifetime? the big guy in your home with a knife, or someone doing something stupid?

Usually shooting the person isnt required. Simply pointing a gun (or shooting next to him) tends to be enough to get a burgler out of the house.

Agreed and perps whom rob you will often tell the police after the arrest if the person had not resisted. NO, that does not justify the crime but saying if someone wants your wallet odds are if you give them their wallet you will survive. 

But so is noise. If you hear a noise in the other side of your house, odds are if you shout, "I have the cops on my cell phone and they are on their way" you wont even need to pull a gun on them. 

For the same reason a bear will run in the woods if confronted by a loud noise rather than if you try to physically confront it.

It still remains having a firearm in the home is far more likely to hurt the people in the home than it would be used to successfully confront a complete stranger. The data does not lie.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thanks to those who answered my question ... Gave me a bit to chew on. I think my opinion on the matter is moving after this; prior to this I'd not liked the idea of banning another class of small arms, but then too I was unaware of bump-stocks, for instance. Anyway, thanks for the informed opinions.

After the events and discussions of the last few days, I'm wondering if semi-automatic rifles ought not be banned. Hunters can use bolt-action. Thoughts?

I'm more interested in something for home and personal defense. For close quarters and in narrow hallways something along the lines of the Taurus Judge or the S&W Governor is all that I'd need. Both guns shoot a variety of 410 shot gun shells as well as a 45 ca. bullet. Much more maneuverable for home defense than a 12 ga. shotgun or a rifle.

Yeah, I was looking at a 1911-type .45 for home defense today. I don't much fear for intruders, but 911 has a thirty-minute response time out here in the sticks. I'd been looking at various short Remington 570s before, but I've got a small place and a handgun seems a better fit.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thanks to those who answered my question ... Gave me a bit to chew on. I think my opinion on the matter is moving after this; prior to this I'd not liked the idea of banning another class of small arms, but then too I was unaware of bump-stocks, for instance. Anyway, thanks for the informed opinions.

I'm more interested in something for home and personal defense. For close quarters and in narrow hallways something along the lines of the Taurus Judge or the S&W Governor is all that I'd need. Both guns shoot a variety of 410 shot gun shells as well as a 45 ca. bullet. Much more maneuverable for home defense than a 12 ga. shotgun or a rifle.

Yeah, I was looking at a 1911-type .45 for home defense today. I don't much fear for intruders, but 911 has a thirty-minute response time out here in the sticks. I'd been looking at various short Remington 570s before, but I've got a small place and a handgun seems a better fit.

If you're going for a gun at home, consider getting the teflon-loaded rounds. They are basically capsules of liquid teflon with BBs suspended in them. They will stop a person but they won't go through two layers of dry-wall. You can shoot without worrying about who's in the next room. I used carry them as airplane loads when we were moving prisonsers.