(02-15-2018, 07:42 PM)DarloJAG84 Wrote:

(02-15-2018, 07:34 PM)HandsomeRob86 Wrote: In some ways I wish that the US didn't have guns, but at the same time I view that as a fallacy. Every nation has guns, even if its just the government. Thinking that no one else has guns doesn't make you any safer. If a robber broke into my house and he wasn't armed I wouldn't know. But I feel a whole lot better about my odds of coming out of it okay if I have a gun. Just to illustrate I will point out a basic safety plan if you house/apartment is broken in to and  you do have weapons so you can understand what I mean.

If a intruder broke in, I would get all my family in a back room with only one door and preferably a hallway in front, I would have them in the corner and I would stay off to the side loaded and watching. I would call the police, keep the phone on speaker and announce my presence and the fact that I am armed, but I would not move. If anything is going down, they are coming to me. Hopefully a robber would run at this point, but if they came in my line of sight I would open fire. Ideally I would have cover, but reality is that nothing in a house is really cover.

Now if you do that same scenario, without a gun, how helpless are you? You have no chance, better off jumping out your window. Thats how it would be in England or Australia, and you hope your robber doesn't have an 'illegal' weapon or is just in it for money rather than to rape, murder, beat you etc.

Believe me, I totally understand your argument. I'm grateful of the fact that break ins of this nature are few and far between where I live. Maybe I'm sheltered, maybe I'm boring but I hope that never changes.

Edit:

Further to that, a scary fact: Over here, if we have a firearms incident, we have to wait for a special unit from the police to attend as our regular officers do not carry firearms. This is a scenario in which your police have an upper hand on ours.

Unfortunately, as and when these incidents DO occur, the firearms unit may only be there for damage limitation. Especially if the incident is in a particularly rural patch. Incidents of this nature would require our regular police officers to hang back as they do not have the facility to intervene without disastrous consequences.

Hopefully that last paragraph will show people that I DO understand the argument for firearms, but it doesn't change my stance on it, again because this is an irregular occurrence.

Is it worth it to those who are murdered or raped in that 'irregular occurrence'? In the US, we get to make up our minds on whether we are sitting ducks or not. Some may still choose to be, cause the thought of planning for something like this is unpleasant, or for whatever reasons. People don't like planning for bad things, but that doesn't stop bad things from happening. You can go on youtube and listen to 911 calls from people whose house was broken into and they had no weapon. Its not pleasant, and it still happens.

But for your own sake, if someone ever breaks in, just run, without a gun, your chances of something really bad happening are very high. I hope it never does, but a baseball bat or a knife is not good protection.

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