Why Guns Are Neither USED nor USEFUL for Self-Defense – The Standard Model Part 2 of 5 (Light Over Heat #42)

Last week I discussed some work I am doing systematizing the dominant academic approach to understanding Gun Culture 2.0, what I call “The Standard Model of Explaining the Irrationality of Defensive Gun Ownership.”

The model has 6 points. In this 2nd of 5 planned videos, I discuss point 2: That guns are neither USED nor USEFUL for self-defense.

I also offer some critiques of this point in the model.

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9 comments

    • I’d say this is a narrow reading of facts, insofar as the right own Alex Jones and QAnon. Seeing everything as a left/right issue is more heat over light, which is the last thing we need

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  1. So in 96 cases out of 100 where a DGU user uses a gun in self defense due to feeling one’s own, or someone you can lawfully defend, life was at risk, the good guy wins. Nice odds.

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      • It shouldn’t be too hard to tally the number of times a legal carrier stopped a deadly threat against themselves or another, and compare it to the number of times a carrier negligently injured or killed themselves or another innocent person. Included in the former should be every instance of a carrier stopping a mass shooting, applying the average number of casualties in a public mass shooting.

        The same comparison could be done for legal firearms in the home. (And, considering my ‘lived experience,’ protection against deadly wild animals should be included.)

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  2. It depends on the definition of use. Speaking for myself, I have had two incidents of what I would consider defensive gun use which involved no shots being fired or even a gun being drawn. In one case, while moving to cover, I exposed the gun and the aggressor backed off. In the other case, I simply put my hand in my pocket. The aggressor had no way of knowing whether there was a gun there (there was) but the general availability of guns made him decide he didn’t want to find out. In both cases, it was obvious they had lost the element of surprise so that may have been a factor too. Both were substantially younger and stronger than me so could have overcome me even without surprise.

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