• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Perhaps the people who own guns are more prone to violence, or live in more violent areas? Believed that stat for years, but since I started shooting, I’ve read a lot more and now question it.

    • TruthAintEasy@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      The responsable gun owners outnumber the nutters by a wide margin.

      It comes down to the nature of probability. Say there is a 5% chance of something happening. At 5% you could see 100 or more potential instances that never come to fruition, or it can happen the first time the potentiality comes into play.

      Being a responsable owner, who only would ever rely on the gun when all other options are exhausted greatly reduces the risk but it can never go all the way to zero.

      The other side of this coin is guns make it so easy to commit impulsive suicide over something that isnt going to bother you anymore in a few weeks if you actually had faced the situational depression or whatever it is. Making suicide inconvenient stops a lot of people stuck in an ‘I give up!’ headspace, and of course it does, they will give up on that too if it isnt easy to pull off.