The author, a doctor, makes the case that in our climate of daily random violence and desperate drug addicts, a doctor would be wise to have a gun in his office. He brings up the example of emergency rooms having metal detectors and bullet proof glass because shootings have actually occurred there. So he asks:
Would you not see a doctor if you knew he had a gun in his office?
To those who would fear ....... I ask you this, why would a doctor having a gun bother you? Do you live in fear that your physician is trying to kill you? I mean if he really wanted you dead, he could stab you with a scalpel or inject you with something lethal. He could do so with the tools of his profession in a much more efficient manner than with a gun.
You know what??? Those Chainsaw Massacre movies started with a true story. Let's outlaw logging instruments!!!! And, hey, while we're at it, remember Lizzie Borden!!! Just proves the point. Normal people shouldn't own the means to chop wood.
This is a good point. There is no way to ban every lethal object that can be used against someone. If someone is determined to harm someone else, they will find a way.
This is a good point. There is no way to ban every lethal object that can be used against someone. If someone is determined to harm someone else, they will find a way.
Read my post above. Chainsaws, knives, and baseball bats all have many different uses. Handguns have literally one use. They are designed to do one thing, and one thing only.
A few posters in this thread have mentioned the ability to protect their patients as a reason to have a handgun at work. Now, I have gone out of my way to do things for my patients, but risking my life in a gunfight is not in my job description. While I would do whatever I could to ensure the well being of my patients, I do not think that obligation extends to risking my own life to save theirs.
For the nurses who believe that protection of patients is a reason to have guns at work, does this belief stem from a general belief that nurses have a duty to protect and defend their patients at any cost, or is it more of a personal "Not on my watch" mentality?
Read my post above. Chainsaws, knives, and baseball bats all have many different uses. Handguns have literally one use. They are designed to do one thing, and one thing only.
They are not remotely in the same category.
You're right about this. I guess my post was more aimed at people who would ban guns entirely. That would work only if they could be taken away from every single bad guy. But then they would use other things as weapons.
These are all very interesting stories, but again they are anecdotal. (and many of them are impossible to verify as googling many of the names comes up only with exact reprints of the exerpts there)
I'm sure that many times throughout the history of guns, someone has used them to defend themselves against an intruder. But what about the countless other times when loved ones are the ones who end up shot? What about when producing your weapon escalates a situation from bad to worse? These are also situations which must be considered.
Of course news stories are anecdotal. ALL case reports/news stories are anecdotal. Why would you even bother to mention that? That does not mean they cannot be used to destroy your side of this debate. Do yourself a favor. Go to your local shooting gallery, rent yourself a Ruger .22 caliber match pistol. This is what my dad taught me to shoot on when I was 8. It has little to no recoil, but is still fun to shoot. Plus the ammo is dirt cheap. Well, it will be dirt cheap until Obama jacks up the tax on ammunition sales to protect the public. Anyways dude, there is no reason to fear guns, and there is definitely more than one use for a nice pistola. Aside from killing scumbag humans, they are also good for shooting bottles, paper targets, bambi, birds....pretty much all of God's creatures if they are in season.
Also, you mention, "What about when producing your weapon escalates a situation from bad to worse?" What is your solution when someone is threatening your life or the life of someone you love? Are you gonna offer the dude...some incense, fruit, flowers or light? If it is me I am gonna offer him a magazine full of hot hollow point .40 cal lead courtesy of my Glock 23. I think I will get the more favorable result.
I tend to believe that if more good and honest people such as yourself carried a firearm, there would be a hell of a lot less crime. Criminals don't like it when victims fight back.....(do I need to cite a double blinded study in a peer reviewed journal of your choice to back up this statement? Or can I just assume that if the scumbag knows that I am carrying a hand cannon and knows that you are carrying a bic lighter and cell phone, he will probably opt to steal your skittles first?)
I would see a doctor who was carrying a gun. It wouldn't bother me. I occasionally carry myself. (though not in a work situation, Guns are not permitted in the last place I worked.)
I would see a doctor who was carrying a gun. It wouldn't bother me. I occasionally carry myself. (though not in a work situation, Guns are not permitted in the last place I worked.)
*Chuckle* Yeah- I'd rather see the *doctor* who was carrying than I would the dealer who was carrying in the waiting room....
Wait a minute. I just want to revisit the notion of data collection. The data that John Lott used was the EXACT same data that every policy making organization in the United States uses including all levels of government, city, county, state and federal. There is not a supermarket of crime statistics out there through which you can browse. There is just the one. It's the Justice Department of the United States.
Lott's data stands. His critics did not criticized his data, nor his analysis which consisted of basically graphic presentations of Justice Department figures. His critics disagreed with his conclusions but they NEVER claimed the data and analysis were phony or inappropriate. There was nothing exotic about his statistical analysis.
For this reason, Yale, and other gun control interests have been put in the position of explaining why black is white and hot is cold and night is day, because any straightforward examination of crime statistics proves that "must issue" states have reductions in violent crime rates that START in the years where the concealed carry laws went into effect.
MORE IMPORTANTLY neighboring municipalities that border "must issue" states, only a few miles from where the permits are being issued... DO NOT see a similar trend. If anything, their crime rates goes up slightly.
The data is what the data is. If anyone on this thread can willy-nilly pretend that crime is static or rising or falling when in fact the only authority on the subject is saying otherwise, then... that person is in their own little parallel universe.
Can't we at least agree on where the crime statistics are coming from and all sing off the same page in the hymnal???
Do yourself a favor. Go to your local shooting gallery, rent yourself a Ruger .22 caliber match pistol. This is what my dad taught me to shoot on when I was 8.
Dear RedCell,
This is a cultural thing. People who fear and loathe guns will not handle them and do not want to learn how to use them. They won't go to a range. They will deny till they draw their final breath that there is any legitimate sport involving guns (even though the International Olympic Committee gives medals for several shooting events every 4 years during the Summer Olympics.)
Don't tell them how many gun ranges there are in America or the numbers of men and women who use them. If you told them about things like "combat shooting leagues" and gun clubs... you might distress them. Don't mention the wide variety of guns that are manufactured to be great target weapons and lousy man-killers. That would just confuse people and cause stress and anxiety.
Nope, nope, nope. These folks have already explained to us over and over that guns are only designed to kill people. Don't say anything further. The other side is putting their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes and saying "La-la-la-la-Lah to block out all reason and all fact.
Hopeless. Give it up.
(My dad also started me out on a .22 auto. I think I was pre-school and he took me into the woods to plink cans.)
Nope, nope, nope. These folks have already explained to us over and over that guns are only designed to kill people. Don't say anything further. The other side is putting their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes and saying "La-la-la-la-Lah to block out all reason and all fact.
Hopeless. Give it up.
(My dad also started me out on a .22 auto. I think I was pre-school and he took me into the woods to plink cans.)
I'm assuming this was directed at me. Did you actually read my post? I specifically mentioned handguns, not just 'guns' in general.
I myself have been to a firing range many times and done skeet shooting, which I find enjoyable. I rent a shotgun, shoot some clay pidgeons, give it back and go home. I am not afraid of guns themselves, or even most people who carry. That has not once been something I have stated or argued about.
What I said was that handguns have exactly one purpose, and if you disagree...please enlighten us as to what purpose they serve other than to kill human beings.
(though not in a work situation, Guns are not permitted in the last place I worked.)
squeakykitty
934 Posts
This is a good point. There is no way to ban every lethal object that can be used against someone. If someone is determined to harm someone else, they will find a way.