Just got this pic w/the below marketing advice in my inbox. I have no idea how I got on this list. But it did remind me of some pretty static statistics that have resonated with me for years. More on that after the pitch that came with that image.
Whether he – or she – is concerned about personal protection and home safety or simply wants to take up shooting as a hobby, most new gun owners (and potential owners) share similar concerns about making that important first purchase. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), more than half of first time gun buyers purchase because they enjoy shooting activities; the next largest group of buyers is women concerned about self-defense.I suppose this is only tangentially related to the Q's neighborhood, but every time a shooting takes place nearby I hear mutters of "maybe I should get a gun." To most liberals, of course, that's anathema. One useful statistic: a gun is 11 times more likely to be used in a suicide attempt than shot in self-defense. Plus the gun is way more likely to be used in homicides and criminal activity than ever shot to deter an intruder, who quite often isn't an intruder at all but rather someone showing up at your house at the deathly wrong moment. Or, as we hear way to often, an accident happens, often involving a kid. That's why the most lethal item in my house is a kitchen knife. You really gotta work hard to kill someone with that. I'm told (er, I read) that it takes serious effort and perhaps a hunter's skills to kill someone with a knife. I can also imagine that pulling a trigger is less jarring to the soul than repeatedly plunging a knife into someone's back or ribcage. These are the things that fill a blogger's mind at night.
But the more ominous statistic to me is one that lies just behind that picture, the loving scene of (presumably) husband and wife enjoying guns together, knowing that both can rest easier with firearms and and gun safety and shooting competence on their side. And yet, women are nearly 3 times as likely to be killed by gun violence if they have a gun in the home than if they don't. Because when the honeymoon goes south, and domestic disputes turn violent, the dude has a lethal weapon at his disposal that will allow him to make a miserable and un-doable choice. These are also the things that fill a blogger's mind at night.
Why am I writing this? I dunno. Cuz I opened the email I guess.
1 comment:
A friend who lives down in the Carolinas once related to me that he owned a rifle and a shotgun but that he will never own a handgun for the reason that handguns were made for one thing and one thing only - to shoot another human being. People moan and groan about assault rifles but the majority of gun deaths in this country are caused by handguns.
--Joshua
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