Because this was originally planned as a 2-parter and I will not be influenced or dissuaded by one troll, I will go ahead and post both halves. I posted the first half yesterday and was rather pleased with the fact that most people who commented actually read the diary. I think it is very important information.
I spent a lot of time thinking about and researching both of these diaries. Yesterday's didn't contain a lot of documentation because it's all plain common sense, and they were all valid arguments against carrying a gun. It wasn't "liberal" or "conservative" and wasn't really political at all, even though some people tried to make it political.
The reasons for carrying a gun are also plain common sense to me, but because carrying is a topic that breeds hysteria in some people, I've included documentation on some salient points.
While I will always believe that there are circumstances in which some people really shouldn't be in possession of a firearm, or even have them in close proximity, there are important and valid reasons for being knowledgeable about guns and for owning them. Some are plain old common sense, and some are a bit more obscure. I've left off some of the more common arguments because they are old and worn and infinitely familiar.
Shooting is not just a sport beloved by many, it is an Olympic sport and the United States holds more gold medals than any other nation in the field of shooting. This is because America is a free country and we are allowed the right and the privilege of owning, carrying, and practicing with guns. It's a fine sport in which people get to display their accuracy, skill, and competitiveness enjoyably.
Some people are always going to have some quibble or other with our Constitution and our laws. All the gods know I sometimes do. Instead of enacting violence against the people who are behaving in a lawful manner that I disapprove of, I prefer to behave in a respectful manner. I write my elected employees, call them, write editorials in the paper, pass out petitions, march in protest, donate funds to organizations that are working in a respectful manner to support my views, and educate people concerning my reasons to be against that law. Sometimes, the law changes. Those pesky religious-based Blue Laws have been a particular target of mine for decades and they are going away. They've gone far enough away that in some places, people don't even know what Blue Laws are.
When it comes to the Constitution, those freedoms are the very foundation upon which our country was built and they deserve the utmost respect. It saddens me to see that several of our presidents have seen fit to restrict those rights by forcing us to undergo unreasonable searches and seizures, by taking away some of our freedoms of speech, by restricting our press's access to vital events, and more.
Just because you, personally, don't like it when some other citizen enjoys and engages in the freedoms guaranteed by our government doesn't mean you get to violently and unlawfully prevent them from exercising said freedoms. We all have the same rights and freedoms. This means all of us - not just you. This country isn't about you, it's about us - all of us, even the ones you don't like, like me. I'm a pretty hated minority person, and not just a minority in one aspect of my life, but in several (fat, old, female, half-breed, handicapped, educated). You can hate me all you want but as a recognized citizen of this country, you cannot deny me or prevent me from indulging in the freedoms guaranteed me as a citizen.
That includes the owning of firearms. It is not just a Constitutionally guaranteed freedom and right, it is a freedom that has been upheld by the Supreme Court several times.
That alone should be sufficient reason to accept that you have the freedom to choose whether you own a gun or not. Yesterday's diary was all about why you, a responsible person, would choose to not have a gun. Go read it again. I think it's worth re-reading.
Since it is a protected right, owning a gun for the pleasure of it is, in my considered opinion, enough of a reason to have one or two or a hundred. Guns can be beautiful works of art as well as a useful tool. I've seen guns I've lusted after, working or not, they were so pretty.
I could end this diary right here because that's it. That's enough reason for people to own guns without harassment from those who don't like guns.
But I'm a wordy person, and there are other good reasons to own guns, so here we go!
Some people admire their guns for their precision - they love competing in sporting matches involving marksmanship and are proud of their skill. It's not just an Olympic sport, it's a hobby that - because it's a guaranteed right - they have the ability to enjoy with others who also enjoy competitive shooting. It's really no different than competitive archery or javelin tossing or pole vaulting. To them it's an exciting sport they can get involved in, a sport that's suitable for the whole family to participate in with picnics and audiences and all. It's a family friendly sport and the people participating in it take the safety of all the participants quite responsibly and seriously.
Other people enjoy guns for their workmanship. They take pleasure and pride in building them, maintaining, them , cleaning them, repairing them, improving them, and otherwise just taking care of them. Most of these people take up gunsmithing as a dedicated hobby or even as a career. That guns are legal makes it much easier for people to enter the career field of gunsmithing. A lot of hobbies are perfect for creating jobs, and guns are no exception.
But guns are more than pretty objects to display, or sporting equipment. They can put food on the table.
Sure, we can use arrows, and javelins, and snares to catch the animals we eat, but guns are often faster so the animal suffers less. I dislike wanton cruelty, so when I hunt to feed my family, I want something that is as quick, humane, and painless as possible. I no longer own any guns of my own (too expensive to maintain), but I borrow from friends. I spend a week or so before hunting getting familiar with the tools, sighting in and learning the gun's particular idiosyncrasies. I pay my friends with part of the hunt.
Hunting can be a sport, but I see it as a necessity. I can get valuable protein for a small amount of effort and a very low cost. A couple of hours spent sighting in, a couple of hours on the hunt, a couple of hours cleaning and butchering up the catch and I'm set for a year. In terms of survival, owning a gun is essential. Since our Declaration of Independence spells out that we founded America so we could pursue life, liberty, and happiness, being able to keep yourself and your family fed fits all three of those attributes.
Another reason many people own guns is for self-defense. According to the CDC report on crime prevention (couldn't find it on line, but I'm sure it's there) last year, half a million people claim to have successfully scared away burglars and intruders with firearms, out of 20 million reported crimes (combined property and assault crimes - they are pretty evenly divided with a slight emphasis on assault crimes). Would owning firearms reduce crimes? Probably not, but neither would it increase crimes. I'm pretty ambivalent about owning a gun for crime prevention or property protection purposes. Owning a gun for sport, for pleasure, or for hunting is more important to me than having one for protection. I don't care about sport shooting, I can't afford the pretty ones, and I no longer hunt as much as I used to, so I choose to not have any guns anymore.
And since this is America and gun ownership is legal but not mandatory, I can choose to not own a gun, just as my ex can choose to own many guns.
According to the CDC, owners of hand guns reported that 74.4% were for self-defense, 0.5% for hunting, 10.8% for target or sport shooting, and the remaining 13.5% for other purposes (ooh - shiny!). Among owners of long firearms only (i.e., rifles and shotguns), 14.9% reported owning for self-defense, 69.9% for hunting, 6.1% for target or sport shooting, and the remaining 9.1% for other purposes. Rifles are purtier than a lot of handguns so the oohh- shiny quotient rises. Many people inherit their parents' or grandparents' rifles or shotguns - there are plenty of Civil War rifles about.
Let's see - self-defense, sports, hunting, collections, pretties. What's missing from this list? Oh, right. They were talking to ordinary, law-abiding citizens who had perfectly reasonable desires to won guns. Not one of these people want guns for the purpose of killing and maiming others. Aberrant people might choose that, and those are the very people yesterday's diary said shouldn't own guns.
In 2009 (the latest year for which we have complete statistics), there were 2 1/2 million deaths in the US. Death by guns was not in the top 10. You have to slide down to 15, and then, it's included in the all the deaths by homicide, of which death by shooting is only a portion. And death by homicide (regardless of means) has been dropping. It peaked in 2001 at 7.1 per 100,000 people and is now at 5.5 per 100,000. That's a pretty significant drop in homicide deaths. Approximately 39,000 deaths in 2009 were caused by auto accidents. Over 15,000 deaths were homicides by means other than guns, and 11,000 were homicides involving guns.
In comparison, 24,000 people died from falls, 32,000 people were poisoned (most were accidental, but plenty were deliberate), and there were 37,000 suicides.
So where are our suicide prevention programs, our poison education programs, our driver's education programs? All that money being spent on trying to ban firearms would be far better spent saving those 132,000 accidental deaths by non-firearms means. Crime control is already reducing deaths by firearms in the commission of crimes - the stats are falling there.
The gun ban in Washington, DC had no discernible effect on gun-related crimes - they continued to happen anyway and sometimes exceeded the gun crime in other equivalent cities across the US that didn't have gun bans.
Gun bans are not the answer. I'm not positive what is the answer, but I am pretty sure that at least one answer is to mitigate the desperation that leads to gun crimes - treating the cause, not the symptoms.
Norbert Elias attributes the decline of homicides to a "civilizing process", which seems to be in abeyance in the US right now, what with the Tea Party and a vocal faction of the Republicans agitating for all manner of violence against people they deem "other". It's not the guns, knives, cudgels, and so on that cause murder. Ordinary, law-abiding adults - by far the vast majority of Americans - don't commit murder and don't even usually consider it in more than a passing, unacted-upon moment of rage or in a moment of high-spiritdness ("Why I oughta...." - to quote from The Three Stooges). Aberrant people commit murder, and they do so with whatever weapon they have to hand. aberrant people are not common, as indicated by the statistics cited above.
Civility and manners reduce crime more surely than any laws ever will, so let people have guns, just make sure we all also have manners.
And educate people in the use of guns. Ignorance is dangerous. Every single accidental death involving guns is preventable just through education. Every single death committed by children who find unsecured guns is preventable by education (mostly of the adult gun owner, but certainly the children deserve to be educated towards safety, too).
Switzerland has one of the world’s highest gun ownership rates and also one of the lowest homicide rates. In contrast, the countries with the world’s worst homicide rates—South Africa, Columbia, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan—also prohibit law-abiding citizens from owning guns.
Gun control laws don’t increase safety. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences failed to identify even one gun control measure that had a statistically significant reduction in violent crime, suicide, or gun accidents. The Center for Disease Control reached the same conclusion in 2003. I suppose it's reminiscent of the Prohibition - if you forbid it, more people will do it just because they can. More people will smuggle guns into an area where it's forbidden, more people will feel the need to have guns for protection from all the illegal guns floating around, and guns actually become easier to get under a ban.
Criminalizing law-abiding citizens in order to force them into a mode of behavior just a few people think is "right" is wrong. Punishing an entire citizenry for the aberrant behavior of a few is also wrong. Forcing others through the power of government to abide by the laws of a single religion, or worse, a small sect of that religion, is wrong. These all go counter to the spirit of America.
To me, it makes no sense to ban guns. Educate people about their use. Encourage sportsmanship and responsible ownership for those who choose guns, instill manners into society, and then prosecute the criminals, the few aberrant ones.