There is no way a typical law abiding citizen with a gun could stop large scale massacres. There is no way someone could react fast enough to a developing situation. They would have to act first which would increase likelihood of incorrect targeting or missing the person altogether. Hardened criminals will always have ways of getting guns, but stricter laws could prevent people with serious mental health issues from causing harm. Making it harder to obtain guns will cut down on crime cause someone can't go out and buy a gun completely legally and then decide later to rob someone and now they happen to have a gun to do it
A gun owning law abiding citizen has a better chance of cutting a killing spree short than an an unarmed one. Also we already have means of keeping guns away from the mentally unstable. In the US al least. Besides, if the would be robber couldn't get a gun, he'd just find another one illegally. He already intends to hurt people, why should he care about breaking another law?
Would just like to quote a few things "Hardened criminals will always have ways of getting guns" (ie gun control laws wouldnt do shit to them). "There is no way a typical law abiding citizen with a gun could stop large scale massacres" - lets pretend you are somebody that decided to go nuts and kill a bunch of people....would you go to place A, where there are no other people with guns and you can have a free for all for the 20 minutes+ it takes law enforcement to show up and get inside to stop you. Or place B, where every single person you target MIGHT have a gun that would stop you point blank as the massacre stops. Yes that person could miss and kill somebody else, but the point is, the criminal isnt gonna go there to begin with, they are gonna choose the easy place (unless they are targeting a specific person) and go where they know nobody can stop them.
And lastly, do you honestly believe that just because a person owned a gun they decided it would be a good idea later to rob
somebody? Like in their head they went, "man, times are tough....you know what, I'm just gonna start robbing people. I mean, hey, I already have a gun" Or a 2nd guy went "man, times are tough....you know what, I'm just gonna start robbing people......well, never mind. I mean, hey, I don't have a gun now so its too much work"
Maybe Canada never just compares numbers rather than severity. Everyone has crime. I'm going to do some research. Try to find cases where a concealed carry could of helped. If you look too, I'm sure you'll find something. If not, I'm headed up north.
Our murder rates are so much lower, and by having less access to guns, we have managed to keep it this low. Same with many other countries in the world. Majority of the murders here are more "clear." Not that any murder is good, but we have a lot less senseless murder. Most have a definite reason, generally drugs. Robberies rarely involve guns, etc.
I'm saying this as a Canadian, and living one of Canada's largest cities, where my father in law was chief of the homicide unit for 25 years.
Yeah... Sorry Americans, but to most Australians you just come across as psychopaths when you complain that you need guns because everyone else has guns.
Some criminals still have illegal guns in Australia, but at least it's a hell of a lot harder to get them.
Why should we give two shits what the rest of the world does ? Everybody is here because they were tired of the crap elsewhere. Stop trying to make us conform to foreign standards.
Firearms were used in 19,392 suicides in the U.S. in 2010, constituting almost 62% of all gun deaths.
Over 50% of all suicides are committed with a firearm.
On average, 49 gun suicides were committed each day for the years 2005-2010.
From 2005-2010, almost 3,800 people in the U.S. died from unintentional shootings.
Over 1,300 victims of unintentional shootings for the period 2005–2010 were under 25 years of age.
As sad as suicide is, I really don't believe that there were any people that didn't kill themselves because they didn't have a gun handy or vice versa. Guns are just an easy way of doing it. Once they have made up their mind to kill themselves, they arent going to just decide not to because there isn't a gun handy, they are gonna do one of the dozens of other easy ways to off themselves.
As to the other statistic. 05-10 is 6 years of data, 3800 people means 633 a year. Divide that by the population of the US and thats 1 person in every 500,000 people, and thats assuming all of these unintentional shootings actually are unintentional and not just murderers that got away.
In many cases, the suicide wasn't long planned. In the heat of a moment, someone just snapped. Its just so easy and simple to use a gun. Psychologists estimate that if people have more restricted access to guns, suicide rates would go down 30% in the U.S alone.
Idiots don't understand the meaning of gun CONTROL: it's stricter background checks and limited magazine capacity, not outright elimination. Jesus Christ
How about some media control then? How about gov't agents searching your home whenever they please? How about one national religion? How about you wait in jail for 7 years awaiting trial for speeding and failure to signal a turn? I do not like most of what you are saying, however I will fight for your right to say it, I ask only the same courtesy.
You cry so much about that second amendment of your but do nothing when all your other rights get taken away. On the contrary. You cheer it as a improvement of your security (e.g. Patriot Act). How are you still going on about that? Didn´t you read any statistics on that matter ? You are far more likely to shoot yourself than stopping a robbery or doing anything useful. How come you... ah what the hell you´ll have to learn it on your own. Have fun with your thousands of murder victims over there.....
If you're not American, which a doubt you are judging from the tone and word choice of your comment, please refrain from trying to tell us how to feel about a country that is not your own. Thanks.
I´m not trying to tell you how you should feel about your country. I don´t care about that. I´m just trying to say that the argumentation is fundamentally flawed. There are other countries with as many weapons but with far fewer casualties. And how is me saying that regulating weapons usually leads to fewer gun deaths (duhh) an infingement on your right to feel about your country the way you want ? Ah well whatever. Like having a discussion about this here is gonna change anything . have a nice day where ever you are.
1, there were lots of people that did complain about the patriot act, but thats not really the issue here anyway. 2, the "statistics" you made up aren't large enough to be worth a dam, which is why you can find statistics and studies showing both point of views. If it really were completely one sided, there wouldn't be any debate about it. 3, criminals can get guns (or bombs or whatever) whether they are legal or not. This is why crime happens all over the world, even in countries with strict gun control. The problem is people don't hear about that, they hear about America, because we are so vocal about whats going on here. How many of you knew there was a bombing in Russia....how many of you knew there was a SECOND bombing like a month later.....Russia must have pretty lax gun and bomb laws.....oh wait....
And lastly, do you honestly believe that just because a person owned a gun they decided it would be a good idea later to rob
I'm saying this as a Canadian, and living one of Canada's largest cities, where my father in law was chief of the homicide unit for 25 years.
Some criminals still have illegal guns in Australia, but at least it's a hell of a lot harder to get them.
Over 50% of all suicides are committed with a firearm.
On average, 49 gun suicides were committed each day for the years 2005-2010.
From 2005-2010, almost 3,800 people in the U.S. died from unintentional shootings.
Over 1,300 victims of unintentional shootings for the period 2005–2010 were under 25 years of age.
Here is my source
As to the other statistic. 05-10 is 6 years of data, 3800 people means 633 a year. Divide that by the population of the US and thats 1 person in every 500,000 people, and thats assuming all of these unintentional shootings actually are unintentional and not just murderers that got away.