Before you're killed by a handgun it must be very reassuring to know the shooter had unlimited freedom to buy the weapon and, by God, that's the way to keep America free, at least for everyone else as you will soon be dead.
And it must also be reassuring before you are mauled by a pit bull to know that anyone is free to own one. There are, after all, prices to be paid for freedom and your mauling is just one of them.
Five or six houses down from where I lived in Cincinnati, a family pet, a Rottweiler, attacked a neighbor girl with no warning or provocation and it took a great many stitches to come anywhere close to putting her back together again. I'm sure she will bear her scars with pride as she defends the freedom for anyone to own vicious badly-trained animals.
Handguns, pit bulls, Rottweilers, and the like are all owned because of the manic fear in America of being attacked and these types of defenses will serve some purpose if that happens. In actuality, attacks hardly ever happen and the closest the majority of people ever come to one is reading about it in the newspaper ... which is largely the modern purpose of newspapers.
The NRA may say if guns are outlawed then the United States will become like Germany or Greece but I'm not clear on why that is a bad thing. For example, in Germany one needs a license to own a weapon and the term 'weapon' includes potentially-vicious dogs. While no dog is inherently vicious, in America large, potentially-dangerous dogs are frequently very badly-trained and pose an immediate threat to anyone around them. In Germany you would need to license such a dog. This doesn't mean you can't get one, it simply means you must be qualified to own and train it. The same applies to owning a gun in that you must be a cop or a hunter, etc.
People in the United States so often talk of liberty and freedom but they rarely look at what people do with guns. If there is any look at all it will typically be a news story of the vanishingly-rare circumstance in which a gun is used to defend a home. In reality, that hardly ever happens and such stories are nothing more than NRA propaganda.
In the United States, there are annually about ten deaths per hundred thousand in population. Of these ten, about a third are homicides and the other two-thirds are, get this, suicides. So, in the event of using your weapon, the overwhelming probability is that you will use it on yourself. (Reference: List of countries by firearm-related death rate)
In Germany, the incidence of firearm-related deaths is about a tenth that of the United States and Greece is only a little bit higher. Nevertheless, the same relationship between homicide and suicide is seen. If you use the weapon to kill another human, that human will probably be you.
What triggered this article was the report over the week-end over the death of Chris Kyle, a braggart who claimed to be the most lethal sniper in the U.S. Navy. He was killed, along with another military veteran, at a Fort Worth, Texas, shooting range. The shooter got away unwounded but was captured by police shortly afterward. It seems logical that in a place in which one is surrounded by people with guns, all of whom are presumably reasonably well-trained in using them that the shooter wouldn't have been able to get off a second round before someone stopped him. At least it would be logical if guns really do have any value for defense.
And it must also be reassuring before you are mauled by a pit bull to know that anyone is free to own one. There are, after all, prices to be paid for freedom and your mauling is just one of them.
Five or six houses down from where I lived in Cincinnati, a family pet, a Rottweiler, attacked a neighbor girl with no warning or provocation and it took a great many stitches to come anywhere close to putting her back together again. I'm sure she will bear her scars with pride as she defends the freedom for anyone to own vicious badly-trained animals.
Handguns, pit bulls, Rottweilers, and the like are all owned because of the manic fear in America of being attacked and these types of defenses will serve some purpose if that happens. In actuality, attacks hardly ever happen and the closest the majority of people ever come to one is reading about it in the newspaper ... which is largely the modern purpose of newspapers.
The NRA may say if guns are outlawed then the United States will become like Germany or Greece but I'm not clear on why that is a bad thing. For example, in Germany one needs a license to own a weapon and the term 'weapon' includes potentially-vicious dogs. While no dog is inherently vicious, in America large, potentially-dangerous dogs are frequently very badly-trained and pose an immediate threat to anyone around them. In Germany you would need to license such a dog. This doesn't mean you can't get one, it simply means you must be qualified to own and train it. The same applies to owning a gun in that you must be a cop or a hunter, etc.
People in the United States so often talk of liberty and freedom but they rarely look at what people do with guns. If there is any look at all it will typically be a news story of the vanishingly-rare circumstance in which a gun is used to defend a home. In reality, that hardly ever happens and such stories are nothing more than NRA propaganda.
In the United States, there are annually about ten deaths per hundred thousand in population. Of these ten, about a third are homicides and the other two-thirds are, get this, suicides. So, in the event of using your weapon, the overwhelming probability is that you will use it on yourself. (Reference: List of countries by firearm-related death rate)
In Germany, the incidence of firearm-related deaths is about a tenth that of the United States and Greece is only a little bit higher. Nevertheless, the same relationship between homicide and suicide is seen. If you use the weapon to kill another human, that human will probably be you.
What triggered this article was the report over the week-end over the death of Chris Kyle, a braggart who claimed to be the most lethal sniper in the U.S. Navy. He was killed, along with another military veteran, at a Fort Worth, Texas, shooting range. The shooter got away unwounded but was captured by police shortly afterward. It seems logical that in a place in which one is surrounded by people with guns, all of whom are presumably reasonably well-trained in using them that the shooter wouldn't have been able to get off a second round before someone stopped him. At least it would be logical if guns really do have any value for defense.
7 comments:
Did you read the article you posted? That "braggart" donated 100% of the proceeds from his book to wounded warrior,per the article the gun range was an extremely remote location on the 11,000 acre complex.He never made any claims as to people he killed,SEAL records have 160 confirmed kills,Kyle never made that claim.At least HE was an honorable man
Writing a book about your killings isn't bragging? It's one thing to kill someone. It's quite another to come back and talk it up. Prince Harry did the same thing and met the same contempt.
Those men who write of the horrors of war expose them to the rest of us, if you had read the book you would see him in a different light.Don't belittle a man when he rises to a horrible circumstance in which his country has placed him. It is extremely hard to maintain your humanity if you look at that carnage as "family men" Kyle would be the first to admit he had to discount their humanity to remain sane. A soldier in combat does'nt think of the "greater good" he tries to keep himself and his buddy next to him alive. Kyle when he returned home dedicated himself to helping fellow damaged soldiers, hence the circumstance of his death
If he had read "Johnny Got His Gun" then perhaps he would not have done it at all. There are multiple ways to deal with the horrible circumstances a country creates and this was only one of them. The motto of his company was 'contrary to belief violence does solve problems' (rough paraphrase but accurate to content). He wasn't sucked up in the violence, he was part of it.
That's a crock ,if you are in the armed forces you fight or you run and hide no other available options.
Chris Kyle was a member of seal team 3 motto, the only easy day was yesterday.
There are some who support what the armed forces do. I'm not one of them.
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