If you make guns easier to get, you end up with more of these cases. You also end up making it easier for people to unlawfully get access to a gun. In Australia you have to be a reasonably "hard" criminal to get access to a gun illegally. There just aren't that many guns around since the Port Arthur massacre, and gun deaths have decreased as you'd naturally expect.
Do you know how many guns I saw in my life that did not belong to a uniformed or undercover Police officer, soldier guarding an embassy or security guard guarding taking money to or from ATM?
Exactly zero. And I am 38.
Here in Poland it is quite difficult to get a gun. Basically, you need exceptional circumstances to be allowed to own one and even then you are not allowed to just carry it around.
There are people who own a gun but most of them, from what I understand, will not take it anywhere.
Do people get beaten or stabbed here like in US? Sure. There's just no guns involved even for the ones that do own gun legally, because they would prefer to get beaten than bring out a gun.
Because of gun regulation, people learned to not consider guns to be a solution to their problems. Maybe if they fear their house might get robbed rather than buy a gun they will put bars on their windows and better security system.
And I strongly feel that this also affects you if you own a gun, in that it causes you to think more critically rather than just whip out a gun when you think a little bit threatened.
Less guns and less gun culture means less gun deaths. It's not rocket science.
I sometimes wish people should be required to post when downvoting to explain their point.
The data also shows that for every person that has saved themselves or some other person there are many, many people that died due to an accident or a conflict escalating due to a gun present.
It’s not legal in the US to “whip out a gun” if you feel a little threatened. You must literally fear for your life for you to use deadly force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv0iN5J-9mk
Here you have a guy who felt a little threatened and shot another person for it claiming self defence, with a legal gun.
In this case the ability to own a gun and parade with it changed how the guy was thinking about possible conflict and risks.
That's largely because guns are so commonplace in US and not really treated with enough respect and thought for consequences.
Again you can not brandish (“parade”) a gun without a lawful reason.
I have a concealed carry permit in a state that allows open carry. I have no interest in drawing attention to myself. Nor would I draw my weapon without real fear for my life. Beyond the fact that I would hurt someone, which I am not interested in doing if there’s a viable alternative, the costs of defending yourself (lawyers, probably losing my job, etc) after a shooting would bankrupt most people.
For me, the idea of using a gun is as the last line of defense.
Does it make you sad or disappointed you feel the need to carry a gun in your regular life just to feel safe and secure in your society?
I've lived ~20 years in Canad and ~20 in Australia. My sister has lived ~20 in Australia and ~20 in the UK. The idea we would ever, ever feel the need to carry a gun is preposterous.
The number of handguns either of us has seen in those countries in our life is exactly zero.
I've spent time in 55 countries around the world, including almost all of Latin America and Africa, and I have never once felt the need for a firearm.
The idea of living in a place where I feel the need to carry a lethal weapon is extremely hard to grasp. It's hard for me to read your comment and not think something is very wrong with a society when regular, peaceful and intelligent citizens feel the need to carry a firearm.
FWIW, I own a hunting rifle here in Canada (.30/06, Remmington 700) and I enjoy hunting very much.
It's funny, I think hunting is pretty inhumane (though I understand the need to manage the population, etc.) I'm not an advocate for making it illegal, it's just not for me. That's how I feel how guns should be looked at. If you don't want to own/carry a gun, that's your business - but don't try to stop me from doing so based on your preferences/opinions. Do guns wind up getting used to hurt people illegally - certainly. So do a lot of other things (alcohol, knives, vehicles, etc.) We don't ban them, we simply regulate them. We already have plenty of gun laws, and most people (99.999%) are law-abiding citizens.
Are you disappointed or sad that you should need/want to carry a gun in your daily life?
Are you happy your kids will live like that?
I just... I just, feel like that's a really sad state of affairs, and it would be something I'd much rather work to get away from. I see it like having to build shelters for the homeless, or having safe injecting rooms - they're good stop-gap measures and help society, but the goal is to fix the problem so they aren't needed long-long term.
People say they need guns for defense. I can empathize with this, but I also understand that is just because there are other stupid people around carrying guns. There would not be a problem if nobody around had a gun.
In countries like that there are outlets for people to be able to shoot guns. In Poland you can go to a shooting range and you can also get a permit for hunting or sport rifle. In either case the use of the gun is restricted so that general population doesn't have to worry about being around people with guns.
I never felt a need to have a gun, ever. You don't have to worry about stupid entitled people either, they are harmless.
Your understanding is incorrect. I don't carry a gun because I fear others have guns at all. You all seem to think that a gun is the only way that someone can hurt you. When I was a younger man I was the victim of an attempted car-jacking. Fortunately quick thinking got me out of that situation. Regardless of whether this individual attempting to steal my car with me in it had a gun or not, he was physically larger than me and would have caused me harm (I did not grow up learning to fight.)
The idea of other people having guns is not the primary reason I carry. I'm happy for you that you never felt the need to carry a gun. I'd rather have one and not need it than need it and not have one. I respect your opinion, but the fact is we all have different, valid life experiences that affect our behavior and actions. I feel safe not carrying (I don't live in a warzone,) but I feel much safer carrying when and where I can lawfully do so.
People who own a gun in such countries know exactly why they own a gun. In any of those countries you would very unlikely be allowed a permit.
For example, here in Poland there are only two reasons for getting firearms permit: constant, hightened danger to your own life or when your actual job is to protect other people. In both cases the reason must be proven and documented.
I think we underrate the influence that small frictions in a process can have.
Japan has extremely small homicide rate, regardless of whether involving a gun. So it makes sense to disallow owning a gun because there isn't really need to own one. And the low homicide rate is not a result of gun regulation.
If you want to do a crime with a gun, you definitely don't want a legal one. That's just stupid.
And people intent on doing crimes most of the time don't really need guns for it, it is just suspicious to carry a gun around and if you are doing something shady you want to bring as little suspicion as possible. And adds charges for illegal gun possession in case you are caught with one.
Gun regulation is mostly to stop stupid people act stupidly with a gun they already lawfully own, to stop people who for various reasons shouldn't own a gun from owning one legally and also to cool down the police so that it doesn't feel it has to shoot suspects on sight. (Notice stress on the word "feel")
I am all for gun regulation, I just feel it is a bad example for regulation.