Why People Fear Guns

Detroit News ^ | January 02, 2004 | John R. Lott Jr.

[jimkress]

People fear guns. Yet, while guns make it easier for bad things to happen, they also make it easier for people to protect themselves.

With the avalanche of horrific news stories about guns over the years, it's no wonder people find it hard to believe that, according to surveys (one I conducted for 2002 for my book, "The Bias Against Guns," and three earlier academic surveys by different researchers published in such journals as the Journal of Criminal Justice) there are about two million defensive gun uses (search) each year; guns are used defensively four times more frequently than they are to commit crimes.

[FreedomPoster]

Irrational, "feelings"-oriented Liberals should not own guns for this reason. This is *far* from sufficient reason for thinking people to not own guns.

[MosesKnows]

People fear guns.

An armed society is a polite society.

Fear that a gun will harm you makes as much sense as fear that a pencil will misspell a word.

[Mackey]

These days a great number of people have been brainwashed into the delusion that self-defense is somehow immoral, and that only the government has the authority to protect them.

We can see that in the UK, and the same thing is occurring here.

There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.

--Marcus Tulius Cicero, 106-53 BC

[FreeAtlanta]

I have often thought the same. Those libs who doubt if they can control themselves in a moment of passion/anger/whatever, shouldn't have guns. Unfortunately, they think we are all like them, or they think we are worse and more unstable.

I have met several looney lefties (including in my extended family) and I am glad they support gun control. Those freaks shouldn't be allowed to look at any weapons.... I know I don't let them near mine ;-)

[Gritty]

BTTT

[4CJ]

In February, 2002, the South Bend, Indiana Tribune reported the story of an 11-year-old boy who shot and killed a man holding a box cutter to his grandmother's neck. Trained to use a firearm, the boy killed the assailant in one shot, even though the man was using his grandmother as a shield.

Kudos to him!

The media would have wanted him to dial 911 and wait _______ minutes/hours. </sarcasm>