QUOTE(Luna @ Aug 22 2008, 08:04 PM)

okay well guns being in the home increases the amount of spousal and family murders by nature of a deadly weapon being so close to personal conflict. which is another reason having a gun in your home is stupid, which is all i'm really saying.
people kill people all the time in america, yeah. but you just said this isn't about murder but then you say something like that. besides, we've already talked about how most murder victims know their attackers so how would this work exactly? keep your gun ready and when your wife is about to shoot her gun you pop her first? you said yourself that's not how it is. so how does "kill or be killed" enter into it at all? guns don't save you in (extremely uncommon) kill or be killed situations. they're usually not involved. this isn't the movies. more guns doesn't reduce violence.
right so you were talking about robbers, burglars, and muggers. well muggers is kind of a moral thing but i don't think i'd want to kill someone who was gonna mug me. maybe i'm a bleeding heart but killing somebody over my wallet seems sort of barbaric. robbers/burglars sure, but that's in the home and i've already linked studies that say the presence of a gun in the home make you more likely to be the victim of violence than if you didn't have one. so i don't think that's a very smart thing to do either. guns are dangerous, won't protect you when your assailant is also armed, and just make more violence. there aren't any unarmed violent home invaders to protect yourself from. guns don't keep anybody safe in a society like ours.
so these murders are a different subject? murders occur more often in homes with guns because the weapons are accessible. murders happen without the use of guns but without guns we'd have a lot less murder. it's a lot easier to get your gun and kill someone you're pissed at than beat him to death or stab him. guns make murder so easy a child could do it. and hey they do, too.
i'm not for a full gun ban but having a handgun to protect your house from burglars or yourself from muggings/violence is stupid.
Pretty much anything is a deadly weapon, so I don't buy that. None of these gun fanatics have knives in their houses?
For the second point, you're mixing things up. If you want to call kill or be killed situations extremely uncommon, then you have to separate them from murders and make them just the muggings/robbings etc. I agree that guns don't reduce violence.
I wouldn't kill somebody who was going to mug me, either. But there are some muggings where the victim gets killed, and there are a lot where the mugger uses a weapon other than a gun. If somebody pulls a knife on me and I pull a gun in response, he's probably gonna get the hell out of there, and maybe even think twice about mugging somebody next time. If I don't citizen's arrest him.
The studies didn't really give much proof that having a gun makes you more likely to make you the victim of violence. They related a few tales of guys who pulled guns on their attackers and got shot. So it's happened at least a few times, but more likely? Also maybe I'm a little biased by the fact that I'm not retarded, but if I've got a gun and the element of surprise, the chances of my attacker killing me are very, very little.
Murders might happen more often in homes with guns because the weapons are accessible, or maybe it's because the type of people who own guns for self-defense are the same type who're way more likely to use them. I told you before, though you dismissed it, that I'm probably never going to own a gun. I don't really agree with most people who own guns. But I do think they have the right. I'm not likely to move in with some zany NRA chick, either way, so I probably don't have to worry about a wife shooting me.
And just because it's easier to use a gun, that doesn't mean guns make it happen. Isn't Washington DC gun free? Isn't it one of the murder capitals of the world? These are legitimate questions; I'm not really sure.
And guns being so easy to use that kids kill people with them is a silly point. Obviously if you leave your gun sitting loaded in your dresser in a house with kids you don't deserve one.