re guns in backcountry no thanks in article apr midway uchicago edu pkgeragh gsbphd uchicago edu kevin geraghty writes wrong about the whole guns for protection mindset it ignores the systemic effects of cumulative individual actions if you want fire insurance on your house that s prudent and it has no effect on me but if you and a bunch of other paranoids are packing handguns in the backcountry it makes me and anyone else who doesn t chose to protect himself in this manner pretty f king nervous why if you re not a threat you re not affected at all i mean take this to its logical conclusion suppose we all carried handguns all the time for protection from all the other people carrying handguns would we collectively be or feel safer hell no we d feel a lot more insecure why i note that the available psych info says that feelings of security increase the victimization stats say that that increase is rational another systemic effect of all the good people protecting themselves is that the bad people are going to modify their behavior in response yes they are but how they re going to be much itchier and much more willing to kill people in the course of routine muggings if they think their nope that doesn t happen instead the switch among those who change behaviors to property crimes that s an improvement even if the economic take is unchanged sure not everyone switches but they were killing before andy
