Fortunately I live in Canada where I'm not at all worried about someone breaking into my house in the middle of the night. Is this a thing that happens often enough to be an actual concern? Random break ins with armed robbers? And isn't what you describe illegal, anyway? Does anyone else here think the same way, and I'm just totally out to lunch?
And this is back to the crux of the argument about culture of violence
If someone was to walk onto my property my first thought in Calgary isn’t this person is out to get me
I have basically zero fear of someone breaking into my house or threatening me on the streets, so I don’t own a gun for self defence
If I was living in the US in a lot of places I would immediately get a gun and have locked near my bed
Canada isn’t a violent place relatively speaking, and because of that culture you don’t see people with the need to carry and own guns (ignoring legality) or having guns for self defence
It’s a circle that can’t be broke by taking to innocents guns away in the states. You need to change the culture or violence and fear
You say you don't want or need to carry a gun, but then immediately pivot to defending and justifying carrying and saying you don't know what people are up to and don't want to find out?
Changing the "culture of violence" is impossible without removing the weapon of violence. You aren't going to remove fear by allowing rampant gun culture to exist. And ya, I know that isn't going to happen. Let's at least not let that creep into Canada.
You say you don't want or need to carry a gun, but then immediately pivot to defending and justifying carrying and saying you don't know what people are up to and don't want to find out?
That's not carrying. I meant that I don't want to carry a gun on me everywhere I go, like some in the U.S. do.
And this is back to the crux of the argument about culture of violence
If someone was to walk onto my property my first thought in Calgary isn’t this person is out to get me
I have basically zero fear of someone breaking into my house or threatening me on the streets, so I don’t own a gun for self defence
If I was living in the US in a lot of places I would immediately get a gun and have locked near my bed
Canada isn’t a violent place relatively speaking, and because of that culture you don’t see people with the need to carry and own guns (ignoring legality) or having guns for self defence
It’s a circle that can’t be broke by taking to innocents guns away in the states. You need to change the culture or violence and fear
I'm not talking about someone "walking onto my property" and thinking that I have the right to shoot them. This isn't "Texas".
Not at all. All I'm saying is that at 3am in the morning, someone has broken into your house, and your two little kids are at risk because someone is coming up the stairs and towards their room. How are you going to feel about that?
If you confront them and they refuse to retreat and leave, and make aggressive moves towards you or your kids, what are you supposed to do? In Canada you are not required to "retreat" from your home, and case law precedent is clear that if your life is in danger you can use deadly force. You will be thoroughly investigated and scrutinized if you choose to use lethal force, and most likely charged so that a court will have to sort out the details of whether you were justified or not.
The last thing I'd ever want to do is to make the choice whether to pull the trigger or not, and I never expect to have to do so living where I do.
But to say that you have ZERO fear of someone breaking into your house, is a bit foolish IMHO. Everyone should have that little bit of fear because it's a possibility, and that fear should not paralyze you but make you analyze your home layout and figure out a plan. Just like you would for a fire-escape plan.
It doesn't need to involve a firearm, maybe a lockdown plan, or an improvised safe room. It's not likely to happen, but the risk is not zero either. If as a father/parent you've never thought "what would I do if someone broke-in in the middle of the night?" then all the best to you and I too wish to live in this world that you imagine.
Cases like this happen in Calgary and area, more often that you think. Just because it doesn't end up in the most extreme outcome (i.e. someone shooting an intruder), doesn't mean that the threat isn't there.
I'm not going to say anymore about this.
We can see the world in different ways, all I'd say is I don't want to derail this thread anymore.
I'm not talking about someone "walking onto my property" and thinking that I have the right to shoot them. This isn't "Texas".
Not at all. All I'm saying is that at 3am in the morning, someone has broken into your house, and your two little kids are at risk because someone is coming up the stairs and towards their room. How are you going to feel about that?
If you confront them and they refuse to retreat and leave, and make aggressive moves towards you or your kids, what are you supposed to do? In Canada you are not required to "retreat" from your home, and case law precedent is clear that if your life is in danger you can use deadly force. You will be thoroughly investigated and scrutinized if you choose to use lethal force, and most likely charged so that a court will have to sort out the details of whether you were justified or not.
The last thing I'd ever want to do is to make the choice whether to pull the trigger or not, and I never expect to have to do so living where I do.
But to say that you have ZERO fear of someone breaking into your house, is a bit foolish IMHO. Everyone should have that little bit of fear because it's a possibility, and that fear should not paralyze you but make you analyze your home layout and figure out a plan. Just like you would for a fire-escape plan.
It doesn't need to involve a firearm, maybe a lockdown plan, or an improvised safe room. It's not likely to happen, but the risk is not zero either. If as a father/parent you've never thought "what would I do if someone broke-in in the middle of the night?" then all the best to you and I too wish to live in this world that you imagine.
Cases like this happen in Calgary and area, more often that you think. Just because it doesn't end up in the most extreme outcome (i.e. someone shooting an intruder), doesn't mean that the threat isn't there.
I'm not going to say anymore about this.
We can see the world in different ways, all I'd say is I don't want to derail this thread anymore.
I would be much more worried about the 2 little kids living in the house with firearms. The risk of a poorly secured firearm leading to "an accident" seems massively higher than the risk of an armed intruder looking to do harm.
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I would be much more worried about the 2 little kids living in the house with firearms. The risk of a poorly secured firearm leading to "an accident" seems massively higher than the risk of an armed intruder looking to do harm.
Then you clearly don't know Canadian safe storage laws.
When coal gas ovens went out of style, suicide rates plummeted. Ovens don't kill people, people kill people.
It's almost as if making inanimate objects that can kill more difficult to get reduces the rate of death.
I've seen a keynote speech from a former president of the CHMA who said that any inconvenience someone who wants to commit suicide experiences drastically reduces their desire to actually kill themselves.
By reducing the opportunity for gun violence would reduce gun violence.
The question is: is society cool with gun violence as the opportunity cost to have a prevalent gun culture?
So may things could be done to go after the criminals instead of people who have owned guns all their lives and never have committed a crime and never will but the ####ing stupid politicians won't do that. Why won't they go after the drug dealing losers and criminals?
And this is back to the crux of the argument about culture of violence
If someone was to walk onto my property my first thought in Calgary isn’t this person is out to get me
I have basically zero fear of someone breaking into my house or threatening me on the streets, so I don’t own a gun for self defence
If I was living in the US in a lot of places I would immediately get a gun and have locked near my bed
Canada isn’t a violent place relatively speaking, and because of that culture you don’t see people with the need to carry and own guns (ignoring legality) or having guns for self defence
It’s a circle that can’t be broke by taking to innocents guns away in the states. You need to change the culture or violence and fear
You may have seen too many movies or tv shows if you think the us is this bad.
I’ve shot guns , like guns and support the ownership of guns
HOWEVER I honestly don’t see a need to have one at my house because the odds of a violent home intruder having a gun or deadly weapon is so low in Calgary
The odds shift dramatically in some places in the US. What about this do you think is perception due to movies?
I think you are naive about the violence in some US cities and even more in some area of some cities
(Sure you can argue little difference then Canadian cities where certain areas are more prone to violence - there are areas i Calgary I would consider owning a gun more then others )
Changing the "culture of violence" is impossible without removing the weapon of violence. You aren't going to remove fear by allowing rampant gun culture to exist. And ya, I know that isn't going to happen. Let's at least not let that creep into Canada.
This is where you and I disagree. I don't view guns as the biggest problem, I view them more as a symptom of the problem.
Either way I wouldn't worry about it creeping into Canada. We've made laws decades ago that pretty much ensure that
There was an incident when I lived in Louisiana where an angry customer threatened an employee at a gas station over some price discrepancy. Some other customer in line, who was carrying a gun, felt the need to defend the employee and made it clear to the angry customer that he isn't afraid to use deadly force. The angry dude didn't respond well to that, attacked the man with the gun and ended up dead.
The guy with the gun was hailed as a hero and no charges were laid.
In Canada, that would have probably ended in a yelling match, maybe a physical altercation and probably a trip to the hospital for both with some charges laid.
While I can probably see the self defense angle for carrying a gun, I think a good portion of the time, what ends up happening is people get killed over a perceived threat and an invented crisis.
I guess there's a remote chance that you have a home intruder, carrying a gun, that is willing to murder a bunch of children to steal your TV. But there's also a decent chance that the intruder is unarmed, thinks the home is empty and would just run away if approached. I think planning on hiding, or running out of the house is probably a better approach than to try to be a hero.
