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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

#751

Post by evilos »

onemiketwelve wrote: post #730
KorematsuFredt wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS: I am strong supporter of Gun rights and proud gun owner. I fully agree with anti-gun crowd that having vast majority of guns in hands of citizens (legally or illegally) leads to more deaths. USA's comparison with Angola is actually more serious than the numbers tell you because you need to realize that USA has far better medical response and doctors trained to handle gunshot wounds. So to truly compare Angola and…

Let me start off by saying I love playing with guns, and really frankly anything gun related. I don't know why it is but I've just been fascinated with them since I was a kid. Ok that said, I don't understand how guns protect us from the government. I think the biggest threats area slow and mundane. Ie erosion of rights or increasing power of some portion of the government over decades. There's no one cataclysmic eve…

IMO citizens being well armed is deterrence. It makes the likelihood of 'evil martial law' government less likely by increasing the perceived cost. If you truly disarmed the entire country (something I consider basically impossible), it makes a military coup/governance much more feasible. One of the main lessons of modern history is that insurgencies are incredibly cost effective ways to fight a stronger opponent. You basically have to be willing to commit terrible crimes against humanity to overcome them.

Of course this is all theorizing. I don't America is in danger of that sort of civil war just yet.

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

#752

Post by kelnos »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #149
ajay-b wrote: post #64

The entire police force can do nothing for you on the phone. I think it is the reductions in police that are convincing more women to purchase.

Have you ever tried to call the police for an emergency? In my experience they've never been very responsive, no reductions needed. A friend of mine had literally held someone down who assaulted a woman on a train and the police took 20 minutes to arrive. I was in a hit and run that rendered my car unusable and the police told me to walk to the station and file a report. I've got a lifetime of stories like this. I do…

Eight years ago I was mugged on the street, phone and laptop stolen after getting slammed into a concrete wall for not forking my stuff over as quickly as they would have liked. I walked a few blocks to the closest police station, and the cop at the desk exuded a complete lack of interest. I asked if I could have help getting home, and he said "we don't do that". I ended up walking six blocks to a bus stop (right back through where I was mugged) and took the bus home.

Actually, my memory is fuzzy, but I think I didn't walk initially; a friendly bystander drove me to the police station. Surprise, random stranger took better care of me than the police.

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

#753

Post by giantg2 »

majani wrote: post #292
motohagiography wrote: post #50

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…

I agree on the illegality and taboo nature, but I strongly disagree with the breeding out. Stats show that Western societies are getting taller and heavier with time. All these giants walking around us could easily conjure up knockout power if they get enough adrenaline coarsing through their veins.

I think they meant it in the literary sense that people are being raised that way, not that the genetics are trending that way. Although, testoterone levels have been dropping over the past 50 years in the US, so there could be some physiological influence.

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

#754

Post by evilos »

adamredwoods wrote: post #537
booleandilemma wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they can shoot the men trying to rape them maybe they won’t have to?

Have you ever tried to pull a gun on someone attacking you? I think most people find it easier to fantasize these 'armed defense' reactions then to actually experience one.

There's tons of footage available on the internet. Usually from Brazil.

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

#755

Post by NoImmatureAdHom »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #556
NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The US is not that bad compared to other New World countries. Yeah, I'd add that France doesn't have a long, porous border with the developing world. Nor nearly as much heterogeneity in its population.

France is quite heterogenous. The "homogeneous = less crime" argument is a bit xenophobic/racist at best, and not quite true. Societies with an impoverished underclass is what causes higher crime rates, regardless of whether or not the underclass is mainly comprised of ethnic minorities. France (heterogenous) and Japan (homogenous) take better care of their poor than the US (heterogenous) and Guatemala (homogenous),…

I don't think France is very heterogeneous. I'd guess it's 80-85% "white" (mostly French, some Italian + other Europeans), remainder mostly North African immigrants, half of whom live in Ile-de-France (Paris metro area). Anywhere outside of a couple cities in France is suuuuuuper homogeneous.

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

#756

Post by NoImmatureAdHom »

InitialLastName wrote: post #445
NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it quite likely Angola's reporting is broken. Coming up with accurate numbers even for a developed country is challenging. >Furthermore, i find US fascination with their theoretical ability to fight their government with small arms adorable and misguided. Afghanistan, a fractious nation mostly comprised of illiterate peasants, has been able to fight off not one but two superpowers using mostly small arms.

The Afghanistan thing is an easy narrative, but it isn't really an accurate one. More accurate: > Two superpowers found that Afghanistan, a fractious nation mostly comprised of illiterate peasants and devoid of exploitable industrial or natural resources, wasn't worth the price of occupying indefinitely.

Fair! It's a two-variable function though. How much is it worth to have? How much does it cost to keep? The Afghanis made the cost very, very high relative to what might be expected.

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

#757

Post by abrokenpipe »

philwelch wrote: post #268
sofixa wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the U.S. murder rate is not all that remarkable, really The US is at 4.96/100,000 for 2012. For reference, Angola is better at 4.85. Bulgaria and Romania, the poorest countries in the EU, are at 1.3. France is at 1.2. If by not remarkable you mean 3 as bad as other developed countries, sure. The numbers are only for intentional homicide, not even counting accidents and suicides which are also made worse by the…

The US is not that bad compared to other New World countries. From your link we see Brazil at 27, Mexico at 29, Argentina at 5, Uruguay at 12, Greenland at 5, Panama at 9, and Costa Rica at 11. Canada is the biggest outlier, but the US still has less homicide than even relatively nice New World countries. If you’re going to tout France’s low homicide rate of 1.2, I’d invite you to observe that Japan’s homicide rate i…

I don't think it's bad in general considering the size of the country and especially considering the fact that we have hundreds of millions of civilian owned guns (23 million sold last year, and even more sold this year already). When you compare guns to other stuff like drunk driving it shows how blown out of proportion the problem is.

- CDC stats (2018) -

US Firearm Homicides: 14,414

US deaths caused by drunk drivers: 10,511

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

#758

Post by ctdonath »

onemiketwelve wrote: post #730
KorematsuFredt wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS: I am strong supporter of Gun rights and proud gun owner. I fully agree with anti-gun crowd that having vast majority of guns in hands of citizens (legally or illegally) leads to more deaths. USA's comparison with Angola is actually more serious than the numbers tell you because you need to realize that USA has far better medical response and doctors trained to handle gunshot wounds. So to truly compare Angola and…

Let me start off by saying I love playing with guns, and really frankly anything gun related. I don't know why it is but I've just been fascinated with them since I was a kid. Ok that said, I don't understand how guns protect us from the government. I think the biggest threats area slow and mundane. Ie erosion of rights or increasing power of some portion of the government over decades. There's no one cataclysmic eve…

The biggest threats are slow and mundane because the population is heavily armed. Anything fast and oppressive (ex.: Australia's Covid lockdown) would be seriously opposed. The "Waco" incident was a fast and oppressive move (violent SWAT-type raid on a group for a small paperwork/tax violation), those targeted fought back, gov't didn't do it again for decades.

Government isn't going to attack lots of individuals via tanks/artillery/etc scattered thru innumerable suburban neighborhoods.

Every year >20,000,000 US individuals partake in live-fire live-target drills, acting practically as lone wolves, as well- and self-equipped snipers in Operation "Deer Season". Just 0.001% of those, sufficiently motivated, would paralyze an oppressive government.

Yes, most "plinking" aren't practicing for serious combat. But they are practicing, and even with a high attrition rate they would, as a diffuse group, take down and/or demoralize violent oppressors. And that's not counting the small but far-from-trivial number taking CQB training seriously.

This year's legislative freak-out over thousands of unarmed & mostly-peaceful protesters occupying the Capitol wasn't so much what they did, but that they represented an enormous number who are well armed.

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

#759

Post by [deleted] »

sofixa wrote: post #96
chmod600 wrote: post #73

There's something admirable about the idea that a government would not take away all the guns. The idea that people should not have to give up all of their ability to fight. The idea that people should not be entirely dependent on police for their defense. And the idea that physically weaker people (often women) can defend themselves against the strong. Does this idea work? Surprisingly well. If you had to guess the…

> But the U.S. murder rate is not all that remarkable, really The US is at 4.96/100,000 for 2012. For reference, Angola is better at 4.85. Bulgaria and Romania, the poorest countries in the EU, are at 1.3. France is at 1.2. If by not remarkable you mean 3 as bad as other developed countries, sure. The numbers are only for intentional homicide, not even counting accidents and suicides which are also made worse by the…

[deleted]

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

#760

Post by tonyarkles »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #486
philwelch wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is not that bad compared to other New World countries. From your link we see Brazil at 27, Mexico at 29, Argentina at 5, Uruguay at 12, Greenland at 5, Panama at 9, and Costa Rica at 11. Canada is the biggest outlier, but the US still has less homicide than even relatively nice New World countries. If you’re going to tout France’s low homicide rate of 1.2, I’d invite you to observe that Japan’s homicide rate i…

I winced when you started the comparison with Brazil and Mexico. Those countries may be New World, but anybody who's visited Mexico knows not to go random places alone. In other words, if Brazil and Mexico are our points of comparison, we're... not in a situation I'd want to be in, to put it diplomatically. Reddit's running joke is that every gunfight happened in Brazil. In fact, I often wonder if most of the gunfigh…

> but anybody who's visited Mexico knows not to go random places alone

Canadian here... isn't that true in most of the highly-populated areas in the US as well? And, to be honest, some parts of Canada as well; I definitely know a neighbourhood not to far from where I live where I'm highly unlikely to walk in the dark.

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