The health risk of having a gun in the home

a reply to: avgguy


Well technically they are people that tend to vote democrat.

a reply to: CB328

I have to take some issue with this statement you have made.

There are countless videos online, news reports as well, detailing moments when armed home invaders and store robbers, have been fought off, or outright taken out, by armed residents and proprietors. There are also instances where poor gun safety lead to some kind of accidental discharge, resulting in casualties. It is unwise to say therefore, that gun ownership itself is bad, but like those who insist on driving drunk or high, those who mishandle, incorrectly secure and fail to keep their children away from their firearms, or fail to ensure that there is no round in the gun when it is being cleaned, there are risks to life attached to ownership and operations of these things.

However, just because there are those who have failed entirely to maintain proper standards of behaviour where their guns are concerned, does not mean that those who do handle their weapons correctly, those who are careful about where they store them, how they store them, when to pull them and when not to, ought to be in any way inconvenienced as a reaction to the idiocy of some others.

originally posted by: CharlesT
From the first link in your post.
Accidental deaths
"To begin with, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious accidental injury and death. As Hemenway points out, death certificate data indicate that 680 Americans were killed accidentally with guns each year between 2003 and 2007. Half those victims were under the age of 25."

This is the point where I always like to mention that this number happens to be very similar to the number of people killed annually on their bicycles. Yet the nanny-state do-gooders don't seem to mind that too much.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Maybe what's really hurting people is irresponsibility, stupidity and carelessness?

Quoted for truth!!!!!!

As I sit here next to my mini 30, its the best my state will allow, and sleep next to my 12 gauge, I have to
at the naiveté of the OP.

a reply to: ttobban

I keep no guns and had a brother visiting, who keeps a shotgun. Crazy at is seems, someone tried my back door late at night while the shotgun was nearby. I 1st thought it was an animal... I opened the door unprotected. The person stepped back a few paces but remained stand offish. My brother came out with the shotgun, cocked a round into the chamber, and off ran the perp like a deer from the mere sound of the gun. I was quite thankful for my brother's visit you could say.

The debate does swing both ways, yes. But I feel all should honor the freedom of choice on these matters. Because the realities are that guns will never be gone, which yields regulation to be for the non criminals only.

I am in the process of adding guns to my possession since the intrusion ordeal. I grew up around them my whole life, was taught to een make my own ammo. A chance of injury from misuse of a gun around me is in no way more likely then a car wreck. I am non stop distancing myself from people driving missle's while on twitter at the same time. My trigger finger is much more reliable than most twitter fingers!

Quoted for reality.

a reply to: CB328

Pretty liberal ideology,funny how all of a sudden they come up with asnine examples,having a weapon is a right as a citizen,if a liberal chooses to break in my home,he will look like a piece of swiss cheese,move to a communist country,then you'll not have to worry about your mental health,you won't have any choice

originally posted by: eriktheawful
Really it's the cars that are the health risk.

Seriously! They are filled with fluids that can be quite toxic and poisonous to humans, animal and plant life!

They emit toxic fumes that can kill people, and apparently are even changing the environment.

That's bad.

They run people over, especially when they are protesting in the middle of the road. That's GOT to be bad for anyone's health.

Look at all the people that die in car accidents all around the world every single day. It's pretty bad.

Worse: people get drunk on alcohol (or other things) and then they try to use these things.

Damn. Cars are a horrible health hazard to everyone. Something should be done about that!

Buses and trains too......while we're at it: those damn power tools! Ever seen what a chainsaw can do to a person?

Wait! I have toxic cleaners in my house.....and prescription drugs in my house too! If kids were to get their hands on those (because, you know, apparently no one is responsible enough to make sure that they don't), we need to get rid of all those things!

Apparently we all need to have our freedoms taken away from us because some people are so scared of those freedoms and the "what if's" that could happen.

/sarcasm

Pro Tip: The world is not a safe place. Never has been. Never will be. Life is not a safe thing all the time. Never has been, never will be. Some people are smart and careful, some people are complete idiots. Some are very responsible, while others shouldn't even be trusted to breath on their own. And: Some people believe in their freedoms and rights, and some believe that rights should be taken away, so they feel "safer".

Since I cant give it, this is for you!

For at most a 1/4 of the price of the firearm you can purchase a biometric safe:


www.amazon.com...

You don't need to pass any tests to become a parent. Think about that for one second. With that in mind, there are responsible parents and irrresponsible ones. You can make that argument about anything in the home, not just a gun.

Analytical statistics are inherently open to biased reporting.

I grew up with a gun in the house, several. My parents took "above and beyond" precautions, as well as educating my siblings and I as to what guns are and are capable of doing.

Funny thing is, nobody got hurt.

OP, fair enough you believe what you believe. That's fine. However, we live in a country that constitutionally grants us as citizens the right to own a gun. Live and raise your family as you see fit, and I'll do the same.

Ive had a rifle under my bed for years and never had a single mishap.

My rifles pretty safe since I remove the firing bolt and throw it in a drawer hidden away.

One thing I'd like to add to my earlier statement....

My father also made it vividly clear what their response would be to finding out we ever did go near their guns without explicit permission.

Our fear of is wrath prevented us from ever acting on any desire to go near the guns where they were locked in appropriate gun cases.

a reply to: FHomerK

All my kids learned about gun safety and shooting at an early age. They also know that whenever they want to see any of our family's collection of firearms all they need to do is just ask (this takes away the edge in their curiousity and all firearms we have can be handled by them in a safe and controlled environment).

a reply to: CB328

You know, I don't own a weapon now and the only time I have it was required for my work. After reading your OP, I believe I will go and purchase one as it is people like you, the ones who tell everyone else how to live that are truly the dangerous ones indeed.

I grew up in the south. Guns were all over my house. My dad was a cop. He used to literally leave his service weapon on the TV in the family room. LOADED. Not once as a child did I ever think of playing with the gun. I knew how to move it to a safe spot and knew that they could be dangerous. The gun never jumped up on it's own to shoot someone.

Guns were viewed as a tool like a hammer. Everyone knew how to use them and how to handle them safely.

My pops used to clean his weapon at the dinner table. When I was about six or seven years old, he sat me down. Unloaded his .38 and gave it to me to "play with". His rationale was he just wanted to get the curiosity out of me. After that I had zero desire to ever want to "play with a gun." I knew what they were for and that was that.

Anytime I hear about stats saying guns in the home increase your chances of an accident I just want to scream No Sh*t Sherlock! That is like saying if you drive a car daily, you are more likely to die in a car accident.

originally posted by: joemoe
a reply to: FHomerK

All my kids learned about gun safety and shooting at an early age. They also know that whenever they want to see any of our family's collection of firearms all they need to do is just ask (this takes away the edge in their curiousity and all firearms we have can be handled by them in a safe and controlled environment).

I could not agree more, as that is precisely the way my parents handled it.

Taboos create curiosity of the unknown. Curiosity, can be dangerous when it is handled improperly.

Just like a gun can be handled improperly.

a reply to: CB328

Wrong. My gun, my family, my life, my neighbors and store owners 1St. And last.

Fine... You can use a frying pan...CPL holders and home gun owners will stay safe...

a reply to: CB328

God, so typical.

If your avatar is a give-away, the answer is quite simple. You live in some Leftist "Portlandia" where all your friends and neighbors daily ride your bicycles to the local coffee bar and sip latte's and discuss (one sided of course) politics and then you go off to some crappy part time job at the local library or Art Dealer, and then its off to lunch to eat Kale, whatever. You have at least 2 maybe 3 POC's who were hired from out of state by your local government to polish their "Diversity" credentials and they work at city hall for $100,000.00 a year sharpening pencils. Your local cop is daily stoned on pot and very friendly and the last crime reported in your area was a guy arrested for not picking up his dog's poop.

You have no need for firearms. Good for you.

The rest of us live in crime riddled pits of despair. We have to daily carry and are always on heigtened alert when performing even simple tasks like getting gasoline into our cars and trucks. Home invasions are the local MS-13 Chapter Initiation Rite. No one with a brain goes out after dark......anywhere. The local mall is abandonned and is a place where gangs roam selling drugs and under age sex. We have an obvious need for firearms to protect our homes and families.

You stay where you are and enjoy your crime free/gun free life.

Otherwise.........leave us the hell alone! We aren't interested in your making us casualties.

a reply to: CB328

More of this? That article is a complete crock. Guns are not a "health risk". To claim they are is nonsense, and everyone knows it. No, people who own guns are not going to die more often than people who do not. In fact, less often, because when the violent criminals come after them, they are able to defend themselves. Don't even get me started on your obvious bias against Conservatives, or anyone from "flyover country", whatever you think that means.

Your claim on that area is less than honest, as well. That tiny neighborhood might me "low crime", but the area it's in isn't free of violent crime or murder, as shown here.

If you truly believe that guns are a threat to your safety, by all means, don't own any. Post signs, too, that your home is a gun free "safe zone", so that anyone visiting knows there aren't any sneaky guns lurking inside that might attack them, or cause them to catch some dreaded gun disease. Meanwhile, in the real world, plenty of us prefer to be able to defend our homes and families.

a reply to: TonyS

The rest of us live in crime riddled pits of despair. We have to daily carry and are always on heigtened alert when performing even simple tasks like getting gasoline into our cars and trucks. Home invasions are the local MS-13 Chapter Initiation Rite. No one with a brain goes out after dark......anywhere. The local mall is abandonned and is a place where gangs roam selling drugs and under age sex. We have an obvious need for firearms to protect our homes and families.

Thats one hell of an advertisement for the land of the free, how the hell is it freedom if that's how you have to live ?

This is the conundrum that people like myself are in when it comes to this issue .

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

It should be obvious, I think, that he doesn't speak for all of us?? It is, isn't it?

As an example, I live is a fairly large farming community, that houses a large penitentiary. It should be, again, obvious that here and there, within the community there would be relatives of those convicts currently incarcerated on the Hill, as it's called around here.

Some of those relatives, though not the majority by any stretch of the imagination, are actually more dangerous than the felons--because they're smarter, in some cases, lots smarter--on the Hill. Some of them, again, not the majority by any stretch of the imagination, are just as criminal minded as their dumber relatives, only, as I said, smarter. It would behoove one then, to have the means to defend oneself against a criminal minded individual bent upon possibly doing harm.

Since my sister works on the Hill as a corrections officer, and has received in her time, multiple death threats, she carries, her husband doesn't but he has immediate access to at least one loaded weapon at home. Since I, and her daughter, are immediate family we, too, are armed, my niece while at home, and I'm licensed to carry, and do so. My sister, of course, has had many years of training in the use of firearms, and I've a lifetime of experience around them as well as specific training as a result of carrying. My niece has learned from both of us, and other things I've taught her that I learned from very dangerous fellows I've met in my own excursions into the darker side of society, and the rougher ones--they are not necessarily the same.

It's just good common sense to have what amounts to a fire extinguisher in case of fire. Don't necessarily need it, but one day I might, or my family might. I am not about to depend upon poorly trained, for the most part, LEO's for their safety, assuming that they'd even show up to a call in time to do anything other than clean up the mess. Should that day ever come, I fully intend to have been the one having made the mess, than to be the mess. Y'know?

I've never made a secret of the fact that I'm licensed to carry, and that I do. I'd rather that warn off potential trouble than have to kill someone to do the warning. Or cause some sort of feud with a gang.

But over all, our community here is fairly benign. Like any other, it has its seamier dark side that one should always have at least half an eye open for.

Land of the Free, indeed, because I am allowed the means to defend me and mine...and will do so as necessary.

I'd much rather use my firearms for more enjoyable pursuits like punching holes in paper a couple hundred yards down range, or walking the fields with friends hunting pheasant or grouse...even geese occasionally down along the confluence of the Snake and Columbia--though in nearly 45 years of goose hunting I've never even come close, they laugh at me now.

As you can see there are many uses "guns" can be put to.

To call the topic of this particular anti-2nd amendment screech fest silly would be giving it far too much credit.