re andy how do we stop people with a gun in article apr freenet carleton ca ac freenet carleton ca nikolaus maack writes come on a gun kills people rather people kill people with guns the sad truth is sometimes that is good or at least better than the alternative but let s ignore guns for defence and or crime and look at gun accidents ok there are about fatal firearm accidents per year and the number has been in decline since early this century most of these accidents involve rifles or shot guns not handguns but seriously a gun is designed to fire a bullet this is not so you can shoot cardboard cut outs down at the range in fact there are both guns and bullets designed specifically for that the idea that my ruger mark ii bull barrel a semi auto caliber handgun was designed to kill or hurt people even for self defense would i m sure come as a surprise to its designer it certainly isn t why i have it it certainly would hurt someone if you shot them with it and might even kill them but it is simply wrong to say it was designed to kill people this is not designed to act as a tool for home defence where you show someone that you have a gun and they go gee perhaps i should leave in fact that is what happens most of the time most self defensive uses of firearms don t involve firing any shots most criminals would prefer not to be shot and will go to some effort not to be including doing what you say when you point a gun at them if you were called on to design a tool that could be easily carried to immediately stop someone attacking you what would it be a handgun is about the best anyone has come up with and experience shows it does work the best no you see the gun was designed to fire that little bullet into a human body and hurt them not a tough concept to swallow for most certainly no one argues that handguns of the type we are discussing aren t deadly weapons however it simply isn t true to say that all of them were designed to kill people moreover what exactly is wrong with having deadly weapons there are times when it is perfectly legitimate to use deadly force e g in self defense i consider it not just my right but my duty to defend myself and my family and that includes having and knowing how to use the tools to do that the strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government t jefferson i think what jefferson said is still true and the trouble with having such an item is often the little bullet goes off into the wrong fleshy target not very often compared to other use or else uncle frank gets pissed and blows away his wife this isn t that common either at least when compared to other uses it is very rare that a non violent person will suddenly get pissed and kill someone gun or not in most cases the people who murder have long histories of violence if you have good reason to believe that these people wouldn t kill if they didn t have a gun feel free to present it having a thing specificly designed to kill means it is much easier to kill things right right but there are times when killing things is called for i hope i never have to shoot a person but i ve had to kill a number of animals from rodents to cows and when i do i don t want them to suffer any more than is necessary i prefer they die instantly but failing that i want them to drop so i can quickly finish them with the next shot and failing that i don t want them to go fast or far i try to choose the best weapon and ammunition i have to try to achieve that goal for the size of animal i m after but it doesn t always work as i plan without belaboring the point people who are overly impressed with the killing or shopping power of guns particularly handguns haven t used them much for that purpose accidental deaths in deaths by auto deaths by fall deaths by drowning deaths by fire deaths by poison deaths by food deaths by firearm source statistics department national safety council accidents facts edition national safety council n michigan avenue chicago il rkba declining trend of accidental deaths by firearms version last changed on at description the accidental deaths by firearm per capita has been declining steadily for almost sixty years in the accidental deaths by firearm per people was in it was the decline has been steady consistent and a fairly straight line when plotted at the rate of the last sixty years it will reach zero sometime around ad conclusion firearms have been a declining factor in accidental deaths for over sixty years despite rising per capita gun ownership year population accidental deaths accidental deaths per sources u s bureau of the census historical statistics of the united states colonial times to bicentennial edition part washington dc u s bureau of the census statistical abstract of the united states th edition washington dc sic u s bureau of the census statistical abstract of the united states th edition washington dc kleck gary guns and self defense crime control through the use of force in the private sector social problems pp orstcs opac bug stevef i am the nra steven r fordyce uunet sequent ether stevef the only fair tax is no tax
