• azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
      91·
      1 year ago

      Statistically, yes. Individually, guns are not bullet magnets, but they make their owners take more risks and try less hard to escape dangerous situations, which is a grave mistake.

      Assuming concealed carry and the proper mindset of only using a gun as an absolute last resort (big assumption), a weapon is just a tool, and having it in the toolbox would be more useful than not.

      'tis the heart of the debate. Individually, guns are tools. Yet societally, the damage caused by the mentally unsound gun owners vastly outweigh the individual benefits, which is why all developed countries besides the US heavily restrict their use (though guns are not as rare here than Americans might believe, especially in rural areas where they are used as tools to protect against or hunt wildlife, or in some countries with conscription where reservists might own a gun, but aren’t normally allowed to carry it in public).

      • verdigris@lemmy.ml
        2·
        1 year ago

        I really recommend the video game Receiver 2 for anyone who would like to learn about responsible gun handling without actually buying one and taking courses.

      • DessertStorms@kbin.social
        12·
        1 year ago

        [citation needed]

        I’d love to see this comparison between homeless and housed people, but let me save you time - A. homeless people shoot significantly less people and B. most shootings aren’t done by those with mental illness.

        But don’t let reality get in the way of your bad and privileged take…

    • FubarberryEnglish
      51·
      1 year ago

      You’re approaching this from the wrong direction.

      A lot of people who live in unsafe situations/locations buy a gun to try to protect themselves. It’s not that buying a gun makes you more likely to be shot, but rather that people who are already likely to be shot buy guns.

      • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        31·
        1 year ago

        That’s accounted for. There’ve been lots of studies; here’s a story about one.

        In particular, the researchers found, people who lived with handgun owners had a much higher rate of being fatally shot by a spouse or intimate partner. The vast majority of such victims, 84%, were women, they said.

        Living with a handgun owner particularly increased the risk of being shot to death in a domestic violence incident, and it did not provide any protection against being killed at home by a stranger, the researchers found.

        People who lived with handgun owners “did not experience such fatal [stranger] attacks at lower rates than their neighbors in gun-free homes”, the researchers wrote, noting that stranger homicides at home were “a small minority” of the homicides observed in the study.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
          32·
          1 year ago

          Lmfao, brings up DV stats about housed men shooting the women they live with after years of ongoing violence and abuse all directed towards the one person they end up shooting, to prove, what point exactly, about homeless people???

          Maybe get your head out of your ass and admit you might not know what you’re talking about?
          No?
          I didn’t think so, but it was worth a try…
          Either way, you’re full of shit, and at the very least are a wilfully ignorant classist who thinks they know better than those with the actual lived experience.
          You don’t.

        • FiskFisk33@lemmy.world
          22·
          1 year ago

          I’m not pro gun but I don’t understand this research.

          I mean, people with bathtubs has a significantly higher risk of falling in the bathtub…

        • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
          21·
          1 year ago

          You’re completely missing the point. The point is that suicide is inflating the statistic of owning a gun increasing your chances of being shot. If you don’t have issues with depression, that increase in risk is significantly less.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
      12·
      1 year ago

      Well being homeless isn’t safe either, and while it’d be much nicer if no one was homeless, they are, and they deserve the same level not only of safety, but also autonomy.
      I bet you’ve never bothered piping up about guns not being safe when housed people are being discussed, that’s what you should be focused on, not your paternalistic urge to control what others you feel superior to, do.

      • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
        4·
        1 year ago

        I bet you’ve never bothered piping up about guns not being safe when housed people are being discussed

        You’d lose that bet.