The Gun Myth

I fully support the 2nd Amendment... But if angels descended from the heavens and offered to destroy all guns and all gun manufacturing capabilities forever, no matter how well they were hidden... I would be all for it. Not positive about that... But I'm pretty sure I would. However, being that will never happen, I'm forced to contend with the idea that a ban on guns is not only a bad idea, but it also will not stop firearm atrocities.

All that said, I want to address a major pro gun myth. This pro gun myth alludes that if anyone breaks into your house, even if you are in the shower, you will have the gun within arms reach. This same gun myth alludes that anyone in possession of a gun is instantly a marksmen capable of shooting anyone before they shoot you and you will always shoot the right person. Unless of course the gun owner is a criminal, because everyone knows that criminals are horrible shots due to their defective D.O.C (Department Of Correction gene) DNA marker. LOL

This myth of course flies in the face of reality. For every case where someone's life is saved BECAUSE they owned a gun, 10 are caught without their gun. For every life saved by a gun, 5 people have their own gun turned on them or they kill a family member by accident. We can't all be Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry) or Charles Bronson (Death Wish)... If we could, the criminals would be too. Reality is, people get nervous and shoot the wrong person most of the time, they freeze up, etc... People are so paranoid of someone breaking into their house and killing them. Criminals so very rarely break into houses with someone home. They want to avoid an encounter at all costs. Simply making noise in the house is usually enough to scare them away. Loudly pretending to be on the phone with 911 is more than enough to scare intruders unless they believe you own something SO valuable it's worth a police encounter, OR it's a personal vendetta.

A week or two ago I heard a great analogy. A news story only makes the headlines because of how uncommon it is... If 20 people are killed every week in your neighborhood, no singular murder would never make the news. In reality that is not the case, when ONE person is killed, it makes headlines. Why? Because it's out of the ordinary. Ever wonder why they report stories like the one in the picture above? Because it almost NEVER happens. The reason they don't report all the failures??? It ain't newsworthy... It happens ALL the time.

Like I said... I believe in the 2nd amendment and do not want to see guns banned... But I also believe in being realistic and NOT subscribing to myths.

Cybergodd