Comment on Intruder
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoI’m a gun owner, and I have absolutely no interest in shooting someone ever.
You know how people who say people should eat less meat get a lot of flack because of those annoying vegans who spray-paint leather jackets?
That’s most gun owners. Perfectly reasonable people who have no interest in violence, take gun safety seriously, and store their guns safely.
The thing is part of responsible gun ownership is not wearing a shirt that says “fuck you, I have a gun.” We don’t make guns our entire personality, and we understanding that advertising our gun ownership will make people think we’re like the redneck jackasses you see on TV AND make it more likely to have our cars and homes broken into.
The number one way to get your car windows smashed and everything in it cleaned out is to put a Glock sticker on the window.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Nah, sorry mate. I’d say your stats are wrong. I think the majority of gun owners in US are hateful idiots that would love to shoot someone - preferably a Mexican. There’s no great way to prove this, but it would be foolish to give Americans any benefit of the doubt that leans toward responsibility when stupidity clearly prevails. You might not be a shithead, and perhaps all gun owners are not, but I think the majority of gun owners are. Your Vegan analogy will hold water when the Vegans overwhelming vote for a convicted criminal nitwit platforming on hate and vengeance.
pimento64@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
“Source: my ass”
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There are around 400 million civilian-owned guns in the US. That’s almost half the entire world’s civilian-owned firearms. The US doesn’t have anywhere close to half the world’s homicides.
With the recent uptick in gun gomocide rates, we reached nearly 20,000 in 2022. That’s obviously very high. But if if we had 20 years straight of those horrifying death numbers, the odds of any specific gun being used in a homicide would still be less than 1/1000.
We have a violence issue in the US, no question, but if 0.01% of guns were used in homicide annually, the murder rate would be doubled. The fact is that the vast, vast majority of gun owners aren’t what you say they are.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I didn’t call them homicidal maniacs. Most gun owners in the US are under educated hateful bigots because most people in the US are. The only convincing stats on what I was talking about would be percentage of gun owners that experienced a home instrusion, had access to a firearm during the intrusion, and did or did not discharge the firearm. I wasn’t able to locate such data but this would be interesting. American gun owner’s don’t need positive assumptions being made about them in the absence of data.
porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
The US does have a homicide rate 3-5 times greater than other developed countries and a gun death rate 20-50 times greater than other developed countries, and in line with Guatemala, El Salvador etc.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
3-10x the homicide rate, yes. The US has a printmaking with violence, and the presence of guns makes violent people more effective.
But saying that makes gun owners more violent than non-owners on average is a leap. In fact, if American gun owners were more prone to violence than the average person worldwide, the homicide rate in the US would be way, way worse. The fact that the homicide rate is as low as it is despite the incredible number of guns is incredible.
I’m all for increasing regulation in the right places.
Background checks need to be fixed. Fake IDs have a 100% success rate against NICS because it checks against blacklists but doesn’t verify the buyer is a real person. If I want to sell a gun privately, on the other hand, I’m not allowed to run a background check on the potential buyer. WTF?
Straw buyers need to be prosecuted. People who attempt to purchase a gun illegally need to be prosecuted. It’s illegal to attempt, but nobody ever gets arrested for it even though there’s an FBI record at NICS for the attempt.
The actual guns used in most crimes need to be better regulated. ARs are less than 1%. Cheap, disposable handguns designed to be bought in bulk by straw buyers like the HiPoint C9 ($100 9mm murder gun) need to be taken off the market.
We need to end permitless carry in the states that have it. Licensed handgun owners have been shown to me asking the least likely people to break the law. Preachers, police, and teachers all get convicted of murder at like 10x the rate of a Licensed gun owner. So bring back the licenses.
But more importantly, we need to address the social issues that breed violence. Poverty, social stratification, institutional racism that drives people into gangs and drugs because there’s no legitimate path out of poverty.