Common Misconceptions and Popular Myths

[gaggedLouise]

That hasn't happened for the most part. A LOT of people in the US have guns, in their homes and on their persons. Yet the scenario you have described hasn't come to pass.

Of course the kind of scenario I sketched - a mid-range violent crime directed at property, not at killing or maiming someone, ramping up into the crooks killing their victims when they think they are running into some hard resistance, because hard resistance typically implies guns, or even because the crook/s just panicked  - doesn't happen all the time. If that happened every other day in most cities, America would break down completely. But it does happen with a fair bit of regularity: anyone can read in the news about break-ins, store hold-ups and bank robberies that ended in the conmen killing one or more of the folks they encountered - and I don't mean among the cops. In northern Europe, this kind of thing is ultra rare, and a key reason for this is the frequency of privately owned guns is low and law-abiding people don't typically have a loaded gun in the bedroom drawer or at the shop counter. Though they may have, but it's not expected.

I'm not saying "if you keep a gun at home then it's your own fault you might land in a fight to the death with an intruder and get killed" - rather, if many people have guns at home and everyone knows it's easy to get one or more guns, then criminals will act on what they know about general habits. Even with people who don't have a gun.

[Zakharra]

 I do not see what you're saying happenng. Right now we have a crap ton of guns in homes. The US is one of the most heavily armed societies in the world. The most heavily armed First world nation for sure.  We're already armed. Most smart criminals just wait until the person is away from home or try to catch them at a time their victims are most vulnerable.  The home robberies that  end up in shoot outs tend to be the gang bangers  and youths I believe. You know, the ones that believe  they are immortal or simply don't care about human life.

Part of the reason why things like that do make a spalsh on the news if because US news is sensationalist. The moment something gory happens, they spread it all over the place. Do things like that happen? Yes. Do they happen as frequently as the news suggests? No.

[Trieste]

Guys, seriously: not a gun thread.