Quote:
Originally Posted by Flashpoint
Here's the problem with handguns in an urban setting (I have no issue with hunters).
For every law abiding citizen that uses their handgun to defend themselves, there are 52 people who are killed accidentally. I got that number from a Time magazine article I read about 15 years ago. I can't cite it for you (I was a teenager at summer camp), but I remember it vividly. The article listed every gun fatality in the US over the course of 1 week, and showed a picture of every person who died.
If people have access to guns, they use them and people die. If they don't have them, less people die. Last year DC had the lowest gun fatality rate in 20 years - 168. This year it is up to 180. That's from a BBC article I read yesterday. The cop in the article had words to the effect of "when someone makes a mistake with a trigger in hand, it usually results in fatality".
Less handguns = better society in my opinion.
You want to defend your home? Get a dog.
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The old teenager at summer camp excuse eh?
Any chance that was 20 years ago or so? I remember an article (much less vividly) that I used in an extemporaneous speaking competition my senior year in high school that was of a similar vein. The part I remember compared gun deaths in the UK, Japan and the US (among other nations) and the numbers were startling. Sound like the same article?
Home invasion robberies are all the rage these days, I'm afraid a dog doesn't really protect your family from an intruder with a gun. Trust me, most people in bad neighborhoods have dogs. They die pretty easily when shot.