School Shooting Newtown CT

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by adpimiz

Wow, that's ignorant. My dad keeps his firearms locked up - not accessible to anyone but him, but accessible enough that he could easily get a hold of one in an emergency. Nobody has gotten accidentally shot in the 30 + years that my father has owned handguns.

Would that everyone were as responsible as your father, but surely you know that anecdotes =/= data. DBB said "statistics show," and there are studies that back her up, though many can and do question the validity or accuracy of those studies.

Honest question, not meant to argue with you but meant to help me understand how you see this: If the guns in your house are not accessible to anyone but your father, then how does having them help if an intruder wanting to harm you or others in your family comes when your father's not home?

[adpimiz]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Would that everyone were as responsible as your father, but surely you know that anecdotes =/= data. DBB said "statistics show," and there are studies that back her up, though many can and do question the validity or accuracy of those studies.

Honest question, not meant to argue with you but meant to help me understand how you see this: If the guns in your house are not accessible to anyone but your father, then how does having them help if an intruder wanting to harm you or others in your family comes when your father's not home?

Some people may not be very responsible when owning firearms, but that doesn't mean they should be taken from those who are.

Maybe I should have been more specific. My mother, brother, and I (who are all over 21 and know how to handle a firearm), know how to access them. If none of us were home, fine, but then none of our lives would be threatened. Yes, stuff can be replaced, but lives cannot. It can be scary living thirty miles from any real civilization. I hope that nobody in my family ever needs to use one of our firearms in an emergency, but if someone is kicking down my door at three am and the nearest sheriff is an hour away, it sure is a relief to know that I am able to protect myself.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by adpimiz

Some people may not be very responsible when owning firearms, but that doesn't mean they should be taken from those who are.

And the post to which you were responding didn't suggest otherwise. (In fact, I don't recall anyone in this thread suggesting that taking guns away from the typical owner, responsible or otherwise, would be in any way a reasonable solution.) The post you were responding to was an explanation of why DBB doesn't believe that having guns in the house is the solution, despite coming from a similar background of living where police aren't close by.

You have a reasonable and defensible position on this, but so does she. Sometimes it really doesn't help to read more into what people are saying than what they actually are saying.

Maybe I should have been more specific. My mother, brother, and I (who are all over 21 and know how to handle a firearm), know how to access them.

Thanks.