Ozzy is not the person I think of for good ideas, but perhaps accidentally, he has hit on a valid point. The gun guys try to claim that guns are just objects like hammers, spoons and screw drivers or baseball bats.
The reality is that weapons are a very special and distinctive and different kind of object, that without guns people don't succeed at killing people as well or as often, and that guns without people or bullets don't kill people either. It is people having guns that is the problem, as this image humorously notes. It is not just a matter of simplistic good guys and bad guys as Whine La Pierre of the NRA would have us believe either.
The reality is that when ordinary 'good' people have guns, they use them badly, unwisely, dangerously. While the NRA has tried to block statistical documentation of the reality of guns versus the myth and fantasy and even delusion of guns, there have been studies that show what happens when people have guns in their home. From the American Journal of Epidemiology:
We're not talking a slight increased risk; we're talking here about a risk anywhere from five times greater for homicide or suicide, to twenty two times greater. Other countries are not less violent than we are, nor are they less freedom-loving; they are just smarter and more realistic about human beings and weapons, and have acted accordingly. So you can laugh at Ozzy below all you like; but for once, he's right.
The reality is that weapons are a very special and distinctive and different kind of object, that without guns people don't succeed at killing people as well or as often, and that guns without people or bullets don't kill people either. It is people having guns that is the problem, as this image humorously notes. It is not just a matter of simplistic good guys and bad guys as Whine La Pierre of the NRA would have us believe either.
The reality is that when ordinary 'good' people have guns, they use them badly, unwisely, dangerously. While the NRA has tried to block statistical documentation of the reality of guns versus the myth and fantasy and even delusion of guns, there have been studies that show what happens when people have guns in their home. From the American Journal of Epidemiology:
Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study
Data from a US mortality follow-back survey were analyzed to determine whether having a firearm in the home increases the risk of a violent death in the home and whether risk varies by storage practice, type of gun, or number of guns in the home. Those persons with guns in the home were at greater risk than those without guns in the home of dying from a homicide in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 1.9, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 3.4). They were also at greater risk of dying from a firearm homicide, but risk varied by age and whether the person was living with others at the time of death. The risk of dying from a suicide in the home was greater for males in homes with guns than for males without guns in the home (adjusted odds ratio = 10.4, 95% confidence interval: 5.8, 18.9). Persons with guns in the home were also more likely to have died from suicide committed with a firearm than from one committed by using a different method (adjusted odds ratio = 31.1, 95% confidence interval: 19.5, 49.6). Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.
We're not talking a slight increased risk; we're talking here about a risk anywhere from five times greater for homicide or suicide, to twenty two times greater. Other countries are not less violent than we are, nor are they less freedom-loving; they are just smarter and more realistic about human beings and weapons, and have acted accordingly. So you can laugh at Ozzy below all you like; but for once, he's right.
What I would like to see is the number of incidents where a firearm prevented a death versus the number where the firearm caused a death ?
ReplyDeleteHow many in your community ?
I bet Minnesota could go from A to Z … well at least to W.
Do you remember the story of Jeffrey Skjervold of Amboy ?
Skjervold claimed that “someone” had entered his house about 4 p.m. on a Saturday while he was quarreling with his wife, Cindy.
Skjervold reached for a rifle, not realizing that the stranger in his home was a Blue Earth County deputy. A struggle ensued and police used a Taser shocking device on him. Skjervold and the deputies exchanged gunfire, according to his version of the story, and Skjervold was shot in the stomach before the deputies retreated. Skjervold shot two police officers in the head, one of whom was probably saved by his helmet. (The other officer lost an eye in the line of duty and a family who feared the worst while spending Christmas in a Rochester hospital, returned to work after four months of recovery.)
Skjervold's wife escaped the house unharmed.
After a 7½-hour standoff, Skjervold shot himself to death after police tear-gassed his home.
WHAT IF there wasn’t a loaded firearm in the home ?
Do you remember the story of Michael Zabawa and the Kruger family of Waseca ?
According to a criminal complaint, Zabawa entered the Kruger home after his pickup truck got struck in a nearby ditch at approximately 3 in the morning.
Zabawa said after he entered the house, he was confronted by Tracy Kruger in the hallway of the second floor. He said the two struggled and Tracy Kruger pumped the gun. "That's when I turned around and grabbed it, grabbed it so he wouldn't do anything," Zabawa said to investigators. "Then I got it away from him and it went off."
Zabawa said that's when he went downstairs to leave. He said he saw the Kruger's 13-year-old son, Alec, when he dropped the gun and it went off again. Indications are that the shotgun used belonged to the Krugers.
"I didn't know it hit him," he said.
At that point, Zabawa said he left the house and stole the Kruger's SUV.
Hilary Kruger gave investigators a different account of what happened.
She told the jury she was shot first as she lay sleeping with her husband. She said Tracy Kruger tried to pull the mattress up to protect them, only to be shot. He fell to the floor, she said, and "he was not responding in any way and I could see his face was speckled."
She says she told her son to call 911 after her husband had been shot, and that the shooter went downstairs and came back upstairs to shoot them.
She told jurors how she watched as her son was also killed.
Michael Zabawa was convicted of murder ... Hilary Kruger, her husband and son, were shot a total of eight times.
WHAT IF there wasn’t a loaded firearm in the home ? Consider that the family’s firearm was used and there are no indications that Zabawa had ever been in the home, how would he know where the firearm and ammunition were located.
Now, consider how many suicides there are ... heck, even a trained professional in suicide prevention can succumb to the easy access of a firearm.