Lew Rodd might consider this.

[Thefabulousfink]

I just got back from having a CT scan of my chest (don't worry it's nothing serious). They had to inject me with a "Contrasting Agent" and while I was signing the release forms I read that "rare occurrence, 1 in 1000 people might have a severe reaction to the agent. Very rarely, 1 in 10,000 might have a life threatening reaction to the agent."

This got me thinking, these numbers are about on par with most stats that I have read for accidental gun injuries. How many anti-gunners do you think sign off on these kinds of risk for medical procedures without even a second thought? These people would probably say "well the good of the procedure outweighs the risk." Well I (and probably most people on this board) say "the benefits of living in a Free society outweigh the risk."

Then I saw this thread by Lew Rodd (an Anti who has come to our site to discuss with us)http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=202191

Well Lew, would you sign up for a procedure that you have a 1 in 1000 chance of having a sever reaction, or a 1 in 10,000 chance of having life threatening complications? Does it bother you that there is nothing you can do to increase your odds, you are either going to react or not. No amount of knowledge or training on your part or the doctor, no amount of safe storage of the agent can reduce the risk. It is purely biological, and the only way to find out if you will react is to try it. That seems pretty risky, but people do it every day.

Now lets look at what you can do to reduce the risks with firearms.

1. Obey the 4 rules. They are set up so that if you follow them religiously, there is no way, short of mechanical failure, that your gun will shoot anything you don't want it too.

2. Store your guns safely. This dramatically reduces the risk of a child finding a gun and hurting themselves and/or others.

3. Teach gun saftey to those around you. This way, if a child finds a gun, they will know how to handle it safely and not shoot themselve or others.

4. Get training. Proper self defense training will not only teach you how to use your gun to defend yourself, but also teach you restraint and how to avoid or get out of bad situations.

5. Be aware of your surroundings. By being aware of whats going on around you and thinking pro-actively you can avoid or deter 80-90% of situations that you would need self defense for.

By following the above options, you drastically reduce you risk of becoming a victim of "gun violence." In fact, you would be much more likely to suffer from complications in a stanard medical procedure.

So Lew, why are you really so hung up on guns?

Edit: Mods, I started this as a new thread because I had allready intended to start a discussion about the risk of guns vs medicine and then I saw the post by Lew Rodd and thought that he might benefit from this discussion so i addressed it to him. If inappropriate I can remove references to Lew Rodd.

 

[Offwhite]

I agree my good man, I agree.

 

[Low-Sci]

That does put the situation in an interesting perspective.

But I admit that I sometimes sympathize with the anti-gun crowd when it comes to accidental deaths, in that maybe a harmful reaction to medication can't possibly be predicted sometimes, but guns are different. Gun accidents are very often preventable, but the way that prevention manifests itself it is where I part company with anti-gun folks.

They think the way to prevent gun accidents is to prevent the legal distribution of guns.

I think the only way to prevent gun accidents is education and training, followed by proper security.

Sure, taking guns away from everyone would garauntee an almost-zero number for accidental firearm deaths, but aside from being constitutionally incorrect, it would also be shockingly expensive, extremely dangerous to actually try to take firearms from people (especially some of the folks here), and would create one more negative sentiment to further divide people, because that wouldn't be just a violation of the second amendment, a gun grab would also violate the fourth amendment.

And since anti-gunners tend to be a shade liberal, its probably fair to say they'd rather spend all that money on education. Education that would reduce accidental firearm deaths should be a double-whammy. And it would have the added benefit of not hara-kiri-ing any of our constitutional rights.

I think the term "dangerous" implies unpredictability. Something is dangerous because there are many things that can go wrong. In which case, there's nothing remotely dangerous about a gun, as it is extremely predictable. It can only do so many things. The dangerous aspect of guns is the unpredictability of the person put behind it. The better educated that person is, the more predictable his behavior is likely to be.

 

[hso]

Low-sci,

As a safety professional I look at the rates of accidents and their causes. When the rates are low, my company had 14 injuries last year our of 40,000 employees, we understand that the safety measures are working. The same applies to firearms deaths. The statistics on accidental firearms deaths don't support any action being taken. The numbers for accidental firearms deaths involving children are so low that they are not considered statistically reliable. The total numbers are so low that they don't represent a credible public health risk. If the numbers don't support any action then what's basis for all the concern? Emotionalism seperate from fact.

 

[Low-Sci]

Hso, I agree with you, it is emotion-driven. My only point was that if some action has to be taken, there are reasons that appeal to both sides of the arguement for that action to be education.

 

[Thefabulousfink]

Hso you are correct, and I think the reason is the the majority of gun owners aren't the reckless gun-crazies that the anti's try and paint us as. I don't know of a single household that has guns in it where the parents haven't taught their children some level of gun safety. What gets me is that people expect us to get worked up over the relatively low risk of "gun violence" when we live every day with much higher risks and don't give them a second thought.