Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Terrorists? Nothing to Worry About! Guns? Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!

This was linked to on Facebook, and the person posting wrote "Fuck Gun Owners!"

Here's the article: In Gun Culture America, Children Kill More Than Mass Shooters And Terrorists

Spurious logic from an ignorant gun hater. The number from the story, while tragic, is an estimate of 237 per year for 2015, that's in a nation of over 300 million. Meanwhile, back in realityland:

"There were 30,057 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2013 in which 32,719 deaths occurred. This resulted in national motor vehicle crash death rates of 10.3 deaths per 100,000 people and 1.11 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled."

One may as well say "Fuck car owners" and have magnitudes more justification for saying it. Also, think about the contradiction. "Liberals" (at least those who have some concern for civil liberties) have been saying for years that your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack are vanishingly small, so you shouldn't let fear let you be swayed by those who would seek to decrease your liberty in the name of safety. Yet, when the topic turns to guns, suddenly the solution is to bring in big government and ban them, because otherwise, some toddler might shoot you!

Further comments from me in reply to the FB poster:

Gun Hater:The problem, of course, is that no one actually needs guns. Cars do actually provide some benefit, guns do not, despite carrying a heavy cost and making those who own or are around them less safe.

Logical Person (Me):I've never felt "less safe" around guns, and have been around them all my life. As for your claim that no one "needs" guns, you'd have to provide evidence for your claim, not merely assert it. People have guns for various reasons, many of them (though not all) quite good in my judgement and there are many reasons to consider gun ownership a net benefit. But then again, if you reasoned logically, that wouldn't fit well with your usual practice of begging the question.

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