Advice on buying some Pistols

[jem]

I have spent a good bit of time learning since the start of this thread. I had been thinking about needing to protect my family when the SHTF as it will like in CA... either because of the democrat party policy or earthquake.

I thought it would be totally irresponsible for me as a dad to not to be prepared.

I have been going to the range, and learning.

Each time I learn something I realize how good the advice was on the first few pages.

 

[bigarrow]

Just be careful jem, especially if you have young kiddo's running around the house. During my years of raising kids and grand kids I ended up selling guns and those I kept I locked up or in storage. It's probably a hell of a lot safer living where I do though. I was more worried about a gun accident or a misguided teen than I was about a home invasion, I think the statistics back up my thinking. I have been wanting to get back into hunting and also take up golf to fill up my free time so I'll be buying some more hardware.

 

[BSAM]

Quote from bigarrow:

...I have been wanting to get back into hunting and also take up golf to fill up my free time so I'll be buying some more hardware.

Brother Big, you do realize that it's a different kind of "iron" that you use when you go to the golf course, right??? :eek: :eek:

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from bigarrow:

...I was more worried about a gun accident or a misguided teen than I was about a home invasion, I think the statistics back up my thinking....

They don't.


Myth: Handguns are 43 times more likely to kill a
family member than a criminal
Fact:Of the 43 deaths reported in this flawed study, 37 (86%) were suicides. Other deaths involved criminal activity between the family members (drug deals gone bad).
Fact:Of the remaining deaths, the deceased family members include felons, drug dealers, violent spouses committing assault, and other criminals.
Fact:Only 0.1% of the defensive uses of guns results in the death of the predator. This means you are much more likely to prevent a crime without bloodshed than hurt a family member

Fact:The federal government lists the total firearm related deaths for children at 301, or less than one per day, in 2010. 81 were suicides.
Fact:Four children die every day in automobiles.
Fact:Four children die each day in the U.S. from parental neglect and abuse.
Fact:For contrast: 1,917 children die each day from malaria
around the world and 15 men, women, and children per day are murdered by a
convicted felon in government supervised parole/probation programs in the U.S

 

[bigarrow]

Quote from Lucrum:

They don't.


Myth: Handguns are 43 times more likely to kill a
family member than a criminal
Fact:Of the 43 deaths reported in this flawed study, 37 (86%) were suicides. Other deaths involved criminal activity between the family members (drug deals gone bad).
Fact:Of the remaining deaths, the deceased family members include felons, drug dealers, violent spouses committing assault, and other criminals.
Fact:Only 0.1% of the defensive uses of guns results in the death of the predator. This means you are much more likely to prevent a crime without bloodshed than hurt a family member

Fact:The federal government lists the total firearm related deaths for children at 301, or less than one per day, in 2010. 81 were suicides.
Fact:Four children die every day in automobiles.
Fact:Four children die each day in the U.S. from parental neglect and abuse.
Fact:For contrast: 1,917 children die each day from malaria
around the world and 15 men, women, and children per day are murdered by a
convicted felon in government supervised parole/probation programs in the U.S

If it's your kid that dies from a gun accident then that fact would out weight all the statistics combined. I made the right decision and it was my decision to make. Most of those years I was big strong and athletic and would of been at an advantage with an unarmed intruder so all we are talking about is the small percent of time (odds) an intruder would of broken in while a family was at home and harmed a family member. With the guns locked and stored there was 0% chance of a gun death accident, a considerably smaller chance of the guns being stolen and used to harm someone. A good statistician can make the numbers say what they want and both the pro-gun and anti-gun people have good statisticians.

A family member suicide death by a gun is a valid argument not to have guns around teens, especially with all the bath salts, meth and alcohol and emotional problems teens have. That validates what I did.

 

[AAAintheBeltway]

Great stuff, Lucrum.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and they were interviewing a DC City Councilman about an incident that has gotten a fair amount of play. A woman home alone in a nice part of DC called 911 because a guy had broken into her house. They put her on hold for a minute or so, during which time she was freaking out. People have suddenly realized they can't depend on 911, but DC still has some of the nation's most restrictive gun laws.

The radio hosts started grilling this councilman about why shouldn't the woman be allowed to have a gun. Of course, he came back with the standard liberal reply that you are far more likely to be injured or killed by a gun in the house than be able to use it to protect yourself. The hosts were skeptical but didn't have your stats to fire back at him.

Frankly, I think people underestimate how difficult it is to use a gun to protect yourself. They can't imagine how difficult it is to function when you are so scared you can't talk. Unless you keep your guns staged for quick access, not easy when you have children around, you may have a tough time using them anyway. Still, I think people should have the option. The NRA's magazine has stories every month of people, most of them untrained, who use guns to protect themselves or their families.

 

[jem]

The trade off between kids vs being ready for home invasion is tough.

However, the reason I might have my shotgun is a safe is for break downs in law and order - L.A. riots type concerns, post earth quake or nuclear reactor getting hit by a tsunami problem.

Or... perhaps if the govt labels people who go to churches which preach love and turn the other cheek... extremists.

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from bigarrow:

If it's your kid that dies from a gun accident then that fact would out weight all the statistics combined.

NO, it would not. One incident does not change the statistics. Only your emotional perception of them. The Newtown victims families for example. They're making all sorts of emotional pleas for gun controls they know absolutely NOTHING about.

I made the right decision and it was my decision to make.

For you? Sure. I just wish you'd stop trying to force your decision on everyone else.

...With the guns locked and stored there was 0% chance of a gun death accident, a considerably smaller chance of the guns being stolen and used to harm someone.

Myth: Trigger locks will keep children from accidentally shooting themselves
Fact:31 of 32 models of gun locks tested by the government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission could be opened without the key. According to their spokesperson, "We found you could open locks with paper clips, a pair of scissors or tweezers, or you could whack them on the table and they would open.”
Fact: In 1996, before laws requiring trigger locks and when there were around 80 million people who owned a firearm, there were only 44 accidental gun deaths for children under age 10, or about 0.0001%.
Fact:California has a trigger lock law and saw a 12% increase in fatal firearm accidents in 1994. Texas doesn't have one and experienced a 28% decrease
in the same year.
Also: trigger locks render a firearm inaccessible for timely self defense.
Fact:Children as young as seven (7) years old have demonstrated that they can pick or break a trigger lock; or that they can operate a gun with a trigger lock in place.
Over half of non criminal firearm deaths for children over age seven are suicides, so trigger locks are unlikely to reduce these deaths.
Fact: If criminals are deterred from attacking victims because of the fear that
people might be able to defend themselves, gun locks may in turn reduce
the danger to criminals committing crime, and thus increase crime. This problem is exacerbated because many mechanical locks (such as barrel or trigger locks) also require that the gun be stored unloaded.

A good statistician can make the numbers say what they want and both the pro-gun and anti-gun people have good statisticians.

And an objective informed intelligent person can usually tell the difference.

A family member suicide death by a gun is a valid argument not to have guns around teens, especially with all the bath salts, meth and alcohol and emotional problems teens have.

So...it's your contention family members cannot commit suicide without a firearm in the house?

That validates what I did.

NO it doesn't. It only "validates" it to YOU.

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

....The NRA's magazine has stories every month of people, most of them untrained, who use guns to protect themselves or their families.

A criminologist estimated back in 1997 I think it was, that an average of nearly 7,000 crimes a day were thwarted by private gun owners. In the vast majority of cases no shots were even fired.

 

[Lucrum]