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Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

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Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#61

Guns are the great equalizer. Women don’t have equal rights until they are equally capable of defending themselves.

All the countries that have greater gender equality have strict control of firearms. (Sorry for the inconvenient facts down voters) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Inequality_Index

Doesn't 'strict control' imply that few legally detain guns?

Gender Inequality Index: #1 (best nation) is Switzerland. This country is shock-full of firearms, there is an assault rifle in many (most?) homes (a weird way to 'control', in my opinion).

#2 is Norway, where 9% of the population legally owns 1.3 million guns (population: 5.4 million)

#3 Finland. 12% of Finns legally detain a firearm

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You live in a place where none of that happens? Really?

People around the world are living in places where guns are not used as a solution to crime. There are many in fact that view guns as more of a problem than a solution.

Nice job not answering the question. If you're being raped or mugged, would you rather A) wait until it's over to call the police who may or may not do anything or B) defend yourself with a gun before you are raped or mugged? There is a third answer C) have physical/martial training to fight your way out of it, but never bring a fist to a gun or knife fight.

A gun is not a "solution to crime" as you said. In the hands of a potential victim, it is a "preventative from the crime ever happening".

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#63

I suspect that those women are realizing they can't reasonably rely on men for any kind of protection, as any kind of physical protection is basically illegal, taboo, and effectively bred out of the middle class now anyway, so it makes sense more women would take responsibility themselves. Gun purchases also correlate to perceptions of changes in social order as well, where there's a "get 'em before they're gone!" cy…

Is it illegal, taboo, and bred out though? We live in a culture of glorified violence seen widely in film, print, pop culture. We've got an enormous catalog of shooter videogames going back decades that our youngster clamor to purchase and play. We've got a set of laws that allow you to take steps to defend yourself in your own home, with varying degrees of strictness and leniency. Anecdotally, I know many people in…

Maybe the comment refers to the changes in gender roles over the past decades. Our society no longer widely accepts the idea that women are fragile and men have the responsibility to protect them.

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#65
If it ain’t censorship, I don’t know but this went from front page to page 3 in 5 minutes or less.

This is why I’m growing more and more discontent with HN.

Either it was unpopular with the crowd, or the mods. Either way, though, f** manipulated discourse and whoever is instrumentally responsible.

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#66
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The community has thus far been extremely supportive of women. Some of the most popular competitive shooters are females. Sporting clays is extremely popular with women now. Lena Miculek especially has made quite a name for herself. Despite what the media likes to portray, the gun community isn't a bunch of racist rednecks and tends to be a very open and welcoming group. Just don't bring up politics...

I grew up attending a Rod and Gun club where that was certainly not the case. Women were outright not allowed to register unless they married in, and the misogyny was palpable. That's just my personal experience, but I have yet to meet another group that rivals their level of gatekeeping.

Surely this wasn't the birthplace of Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Belle Star, Harriet Tubman, etc etc etc.

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#67

If it ain’t censorship, I don’t know but this went from front page to page 3 in 5 minutes or less. This is why I’m growing more and more discontent with HN. Either it was unpopular with the crowd, or the mods. Either way, though, f** manipulated discourse and whoever is instrumentally responsible.

I guess I get systemic downvotes for this.

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#68

I wonder if part of the driving force behind this is simply that men have purchased more guns in the past. Firearms are heirlooms in most families, and a hunting father is always want to expose their son to the craft. Men simply have more avenues to get guns from, with the strange way our social structure is organized. It will be interesting to watch the concept of weapon ownership be emasculated over the next few ye…

>Firearms are heirlooms in most families,

I assume that cheap stuff outnumbers nice stuff by a few orders of magnitude, just like every other consumer facing industry.

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#69

Everyone should own a gun, and most more than 1. If we were to maintain public education (which... just no, please) gun education should be standard.

Strange take. In 40+ years, I've never needed a gun to defend myself. Nor do I even _know anyone_ that needed to use a gun to lawfully defend themselves.

So why should we all have something that A) the lawful uses of such are exceedingly rare, and B) ends up involved in a lot of unlawful or unintentional killings.

Re: Women are nearly half of new gun buyers, study finds

#70
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that you don't hear about those defensive uses because your sources of news simply don't report them? 1. https://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stories/teen-tries-to-rape-... 2. https://www.foxnews.com/us/south-carolina-mother-of-3-shoots... 3. https://www.azfamily.com/news/us_world_news/police-woman-sho... 4. https://www.al.com/news/anniston-gadsden/2015/04/17-year-old... 5. https://myfox8.com/news/nc-…

"Police: Woman shoots, kills man peeping into her bedroom window" Maybe she could have just called the police? Or take a picture of him and post on NextDoor, which is what happens in our neighborhood. Of course, it always turns out to be a misunderstanding; the Amazon delivery guy trying to figure out if someone's home so they can leave a package. But at least they are just publicly shamed on the web instead of dead…

The article is short on details but it's possible she did call the police. Other articles explored the possibility the woman knew the man, which would bolster a claim of self defense (a stalker, abusive ex-lover, etc)
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