Re-posting some common sense

[barking_iguana]

Why most of the recent arguments both for and against gun control are bullshit. From bart_calendar: http://bart-calendar.livejournal.com/2439304.html?nc=39#comments

Comments

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

"a lot of people don't hate guns, they just hate the type of people who like guns."

This.

I take minor issue with what he says - drawing a gun and firing a shot into the floor only works if *no one else in the room is armed* - but most of the rest, yeah. I still prefer Mace and a practical self-defense class to carrying a gun for women, but part of what practical self-defense tells people is to quit thinking you're going to be a victim, and if carrying a .22 makes it easier to think that way, hey.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

If you are in a bar firing in the floor is better simply because you have less of a chance of hitting an innocent bystander. If you shoot at the ceiling you never know what's up there and if you shoot at the asshole and miss you might hit someone behind him coming out of the bathroom.

Shooting the floor lets the dude know you have a working gun and unless he's insane will scare the shit out of him.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Unless he's insane - or has a working gun himself, you mean.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Because - and here I'm showing that evidently I don't know shit about guns - I would consider it absolutely insane, as a random individual not identifying myself as law enforcement, to pull a gun on someone, in a situation where people are drinking, and then shoot the gun and deliberately miss. Because the probability that that is the only shot fired seems like it would be extremely low.

But let's check. As I say, I don't own a gun, so I don't know how this works. Pretend it's you. You're armed, in a crowded bar. You've had a bit to drink. Some asshole gets up in your face, you exchange words. He pulls a gun, fires it, and misses.

What's your next move? Remember that you're drunk, he's an asshole (from your perspective), he's just threatened your life, and you're armed.

If you have a happy ending for that story, please tell it to me.

(edited: let's add five other armed people in the bar, who don't know the context but just saw someone pull a gun a shoot it. What do all of them do? I know what you're doing - you're betting your life that they all magically and instantaneously determine that the guy who fired a gun isn't the bad guy.)

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Guns are loud and startling. That's going to delay people long enough - out of sheer shock factor - for you to have the gun pointed at the guy again.

Now, at that point more likely than not the guy is going to put his hands up. If he doesn't, you shoot him and then instantly drop your gun to the ground and put your hands up.

Because you are not the person who has been shocked by the noise this will all have happened well before the surprised people have gotten their shit together enough to grab their guns and unless they are nuts they are going to grab their cell phones and call the cops and not shoot you.

99 percent of the time the guy is going to stop well before you have to shoot him, because most people are fucking terrified of an obviously loaded gun pointed at them.

That said, for various reasons, I too would prefer mace, but I can also see why some people would prefer a gun. One of the problems with mace is that it doesn't do much if the asshole you are dealing with is on meth, PCP or a range of other drugs. But, even meth heads respect guns.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose that's plausible. It happens like that in the movies, anyway, which is all the proof we need. ;-)

As I say, I overall agree with what you said.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I've never been in a situation where I've had to shoot into the floor. But if I was that would be my choice simply based wanting to not kill someone if at all possible.