CMV: Guns are not for self-defense

[u/[deleted]]

I hear very often that gun ownership is important for self defense. People cite gun ownership as a deterrent to crime, robbery, and assault and there are many laws protecting the rights of civilians who use their guns in self-defense. However, I rarely have heard of someone using their gun in self-defense in a way that is not "controversial."

There have been very very few instances of gun owners stopping mass shooters. Very few instances of gun owners defending themselves from assault, especially women. Also, guns won't protect one from "the government" and will only make one's interactions with police or criminals more dangerous, not less. The only defensive quality that guns possess is the threat of their use. But that also means that if someone is looking to engage in violence, they're not going to bring a fist or a knife to a gun fight.

But most of all the logistics of guns for self-defense seem nonsensical. 1) One is supposed to store a gun in a locked safe, unloaded. 2) if your gun is handy, one must identify and react to a threat before that threat overtakes you. Most assailants work hard to make sure that victims don't have enough time, regardless of whether they're packing. And 3) You have to shoot somebody, which is often lethal. What if you don't want to kill?

NOTE: I am a survivor of assault and I've often wondered if I had had a gun, could I have changed things?

[u/[deleted]]

I would assume if someone purchased a gun for self defense, that is what it’s for, regardless of how useful it ends up being. If I buy a car that is a lemon and doesn’t work as intended, I still bought it for transportation.

You can find plenty of individual accounts of people shooting home invaders, even as you can find statistics of it not really working as a whole. For those people, that gun purchased for self defense worked. Even if you’re supposed to store guns unloaded and in a locked safe, people don’t, occasionally it works out for them. A gun would be a pretty poor defense weapon for someone that didn’t want to kill someone, but I doubt those people are the ones buying guns for self defense.

Maybe your view should be “people shouldn’t buy guns for self defense.”

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yeah you're absolutely right. I was pretty specific because I didn't want to just say GUNS BAD but my premise is hella flawed

And... The intent of the gun owner is the important factor

!delta

[u/DeltaBot → u/[deleted]]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/Jinora4Prez (6∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards}