Guns - Defense
Keep in mind...
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower – April, 1953
New York Times articles
(2015 Dec 3): How Often Do Mass Shootings Occur? On Average, Every Day, Records Show
2018 Mar 12: Congress Quashed Research Into Gun Violence. Since Then, 600,000 People Have Been Shot ...by Sheila Kaplan, The New York Times. Excerpt: Guns in the home protect families. For decades, that has been an essential part of the National Rifle Association’s mantra in defending firearms ownership, repeated at congressional hearings, in advertisements and on T-shirts. Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who once headed research on firearm violence at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wondered if there was any evidence backing the N.R.A.’s assertion. “So we looked at the question, does having a gun at home protect your family or not?” Dr. Rosenberg recalled. He was amazed by the answer. The landmark study in 1993 showed that bringing a gun into the home puts everyone at much greater risk. “They were saying if you want to keep your family safe, if you are a real man, you will have a gun at home,” Dr. Rosenberg said. “Bringing the gun not only didn’t protect you, it put you at much, much greater risk.”....
As with many conflicts, advocates of both sides are partly to mostly right.
Gun control advocates are right to insist on
strict control of gun sales and ownership.
Gun-owner-rights advocates are right that
strict control of gun sales and ownership will not eliminate crime.
These views are not incompatible at all.
What is incompatible is the NRA leadership's insistence on minimizing gun control laws, even when the majority of its own members and gun owners in general support more reasonable gun control laws.
2017 Oct 2 - Jimmy Kimmel for President: