What is the point of owning guns?

[Jon Miller]

I have been thinking about this issue (gun control).

I remember reading somewhere (the Economist?) of the idea of insurance for guns. Basically, how things are done now, the cost of having a gun (the chance that it will be used (maybe not by yourself) to cause damage/kill/etc) is not included in price that you pay for the gun. This encourages people who favour guns (purchase them/etc), to think that the cost is much lower than it is in reality.

There are medical costs, prison costs, costs of lives, costs of crime, and so on.

JM

[Jon Miller]

I have been thinking about this issue (gun control).

I remember reading somewhere (the Economist?) of the idea of insurance for guns. Basically, how things are done now, the cost of having a gun (the chance that it will be used (maybe not by yourself) to cause damage/kill/etc) is not included in price that you pay for the gun. This encourages people who favour guns (purchase them/etc), to think that the cost is much lower than it is in reality.

There are medical costs, prison costs, costs of lives, costs of crime, and so on.

JM

[DaShi]

It is an externality that gun owners currently expect the rest of society to pay for them.

[regexcellent]

So, I feel like this should go in this thread since it directly addresses the title.

Some people I know, who are in the Air Force ROTC program here and live in my neighborhood, were attacked by an armed robber at their apartment. They chased him off with their privately owned guns.

They could have been in body bags right now, but they were armed, so they are safe, and all of their property is secure.

I have put buckshot in my shotgun just in case.

[SlowwHand]

There you have it, boys and girls. Something outside of the norm happened and the people were prepared.

[kentonio]

That anecdotal story does indeed prove that everyone in the world should own a gun. Well done.

[regexcellent]

It's not that you should own a gun. It's that if you choose to, for your own safety, you should be allowed to. You should be allowed to take positive steps toward enabling your own self-defense.

I am glad they had guns. If they hadn't, they would have definitely lost property, probably been injured, and possibly lost their lives.

[DaShi]

There should be a bullet tax.

[DinoDoc]

Regarding the OP: What's the point of freedom of speech or the right to petition and assembly?

[DaShi]

Strawman

[DinoDoc]

There should be a bullet tax.

[Jon Miller]

It's not that you should own a gun. It's that if you choose to, for your own safety, you should be allowed to. You should be allowed to take positive steps toward enabling your own self-defense.

I am glad they had guns. If they hadn't, they would have definitely lost property, probably been injured, and possibly lost their lives.

I am glad that (some people) have cars.

Doesn't mean that I think that everyone should have cars, or that someone should be able to get a car without a test/etc, or that cars should not be regulated, or that people should be able to drive cars without insurance.

JM

[Jon Miller]

It's not that you should own a gun. It's that if you choose to, for your own safety, you should be allowed to. You should be allowed to take positive steps toward enabling your own self-defense.

I am glad they had guns. If they hadn't, they would have definitely lost property, probably been injured, and possibly lost their lives.

I am glad that (some people) have cars.

Doesn't mean that I think that everyone should have cars, or that someone should be able to get a car without a test/etc, or that cars should not be regulated, or that people should be able to drive cars without insurance.

JM

[DaShi]

[regexcellent]

The reason we don't have licensing and registration for guns is because the potential for abuse by the government is very very high.

And as it turns out, the vast majority of guns used in crimes are already illegally owned anyway so licensing and registration wouldn't do anything to help that.

Murders aren't solved by finding where the gun used in the crime was last legally owned, nor are they prevented by grabbing criminals who are illegally carrying weapons.