Quote:Forgive me, but I'm unsure of your point here. Weren't we speaking about the defensive use of firearms compared to accidental deaths? Not all defensive uses end in a death, frequently they don't even result in a shot being fired. As someone pointed out above, most criminals aren't looking for hard targets. I've never had to fire my weapon, never had to remove it from concealed carry in public and only had to brandish it one time while on my own property. That instance isn't recorded anywhere as I'm sure many others aren't, so it really makes any kind of statistical analysis flawed.

 

But in the numbers you listed, I agree that the accidental deaths would go away if guns were removed, but do you believe there would be fewer murders or suicides or would they simply move to another means? I think the violent crimes stats in other countries show that people will still find a way to kill others or themselves even without a gun.

Maybe? Who knows really since at best it's pure speculation. It's also very irrelevant since without an amendment (which is never going to pass muster) our constitution protects private gun owners. 

 

I think there are plenty of people that are truly pro guns that would support some form of mitigation such as stricter background checks or a myriad of other things. I think there are plenty of people that are anti gun that don't want to see guns taken away at all because that's not American. You are never going to stop all the violence and penalizing legal and responsible Americans is a poor way to attempt to solve any problem. What's annoying about the conversation that comes up every time a tragic shooting, mass or otherwise, takes place is the extreme sides pop out to scream and drown out anybody trying to be reasonable on either side. TAKE ALL THE GUNS or ARM EVERYONE is what it usually boils down to. 

---