A “study” claims guns being stored unsafely: what would Mark Twain say?

Oh, dear. People have to understand that this sort of "study" is a survey. The statistics collected do not represent how people store guns, they represent what a sample of people has said about how they store guns. It is a measurement of what people state, not what is real.

A genuine "study" of the matter would involve a physical inspection of people's homes. Obviously that's considerably more difficult and quite a bit more expensive than calling them on the telephone and asking questions. In a matter as emotional and fraught with fear as this particular one people are prone to mistaken impressions, and it can err both ways. Were I to state that I keep loaded firearms in my house and the question not continue on to reveal that they're locked in a safe, the wrong impression will be gathered. On the other side, someone convinced that every firearm they own is disassembled and locked in a trunk whose child finds the one he or she forgot about - well, you read about that sort of case with tragic frequency.

You can do truly exquisite and detailed statistical analysis of this sort of thing, the mathematics unquestionable, but the results no better than the data measured. In this case it's pretty shaky. IMHO.

If the majority of families with guns stored their weapons unsafely, there would be a lot more deaths than there actually are. One must therefore conclude that the majority of families with guns do store them safely; any addition of “unsafe storage” which applies to a supermajority of families with guns must therefore be patently unreasonable.

That is one very fortunate boy. Had i done that, there would have been no “time out”, unless you consider being grounded until the next Ice Age a form of “time out”.

And the direct consequences would have been swift and exceeding unpleasant.

You must live in a very secure area. Where i live, I keep my Redhawk at hand 24/7 because of mostly four legged predators.

I have no desire to have a bear or cougar decide to break in and get between me and a loaded gun.

As for the need for a gun while in the Big Sh*tty, little or nothing should be said.

I live in a very rural area, but as I state my carry gun is available or on my person 24/7.

One aspect of personal security is risk avoidance.

In my opinion, again, MY opinion, anyone that chooses to live in a high-crime situation probably ought to be in the military (USA/USMC) and deployed to a combat theater, personal risk would be lower!

Add a family, and I just think one would have to be less than rational....

God Bless

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