Thread: Darwin is getting slow in his old age.

I have carried handguns for self-defense in various parts of the World. They have always been fully loaded, either a revolver or a semi-auto. Single-action autos (ie; M1911, etc) I have always carried cocked and locked. D/A autos and revolvers have always been carried 'good to go'. The US is basically a fairly polite society until you become a 'minority' interloper in various (predominantly poor) areas. Vigilance and confidence, coupled with sensible choices, have kept me from harm or having to reveal that I was carrying a weapon. Carrying one that is not ready for instant action is just plain stupid. The alternative is only chosen by those that have a victim mentality, rather than confidence in their own ability to protect themselves or their family. Such (fortunately rare) life-threatening events happen so fast that instant action is the deciding factor!

Originally Posted by Koshogi

Violence is not increasing, it is decreasing. The US is at a 40 year low for violent crime. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24crime.html

Gun crime has been dropping in the US (like everywhere else) since the 90s, which is when Americans started the push towards more CCW rights. Are they related? I would say they've helped, but wouldn't be the major factor. Correlation doesn't mean causation.

The fact is though is that there are more guns in the USA than ever before and gun crime has fallen. Gun crime has many more factors than merely the availability of guns.

The intensity of the violence has increased over the years, rather the actual numbers.

And for the USA, if a good guy carrying a gun can beat a bad guy carrying the gun, the USA should be the safest country in the world

For a sheer numbers perspective, unfortunately this story is jut a blip on the radar.
Gun-death tally: Every American gun death since Newtown Sandy Hook shooting (INTERACTIVE).

Every icon is clickable to find out how/where they died. And that report ended Dec 2013.

We could go round and round in circles debating what happens in another country, but I'm very happy to live in good ol' NZ tbh

Originally Posted by gundoc

I have carried handguns for self-defense in various parts of the World. They have always been fully loaded, either a revolver or a semi-auto. Single-action autos (ie; M1911, etc) I have always carried cocked and locked. D/A autos and revolvers have always been carried 'good to go'. The US is basically a fairly polite society until you become a 'minority' interloper in various (predominantly poor) areas. Vigilance and confidence, coupled with sensible choices, have kept me from harm or having to reveal that I was carrying a weapon. Carrying one that is not ready for instant action is just plain stupid. The alternative is only chosen by those that have a victim mentality, rather than confidence in their own ability to protect themselves or their family. Such (fortunately rare) life-threatening events happen so fast that instant action is the deciding factor!

victim mentality ? ....I fukkin hope that isn't aimed at me

Originally Posted by Koshogi

Violence is not increasing, it is decreasing. The US is at a 40 year low for violent crime. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24crime.html ...........................

My immediate response is to show the date of your link.....Published: May 23, 2011

I consider this irresponsible and if you are sincere, you should not use data 3 1/2 years old.

Funny thing about the "right to bear arms" is it's a throw back from Brittish occupation when they confiscated muskets etc.. from the general population - think Boston tea party era.

Not really relevant in todays society - unfortunatly with such a large population changing laws , amnestys etc just wont work.

I guess there's no relation between their liberal gun laws and their very high shooting rate then....

I can see this thread getting ugly.

Originally Posted by Kiwi Sapper

My immediate response is to show the date of your link.....Published: May 23, 2011

I consider this irresponsible and if you are sincere, you should not use data 3 1/2 years old.

So are you saying that the violent crime rates have not continued their downward trend since this 'old' 2011 article?

I wasn't using 'data', I was using an article from the NY Times as a reference point.

If you want data, here is a point taken from the overview from the most recent data collected by the FBI in their Uniform Crime Report 2013.

When considering 5- and 10-year trends, the 2013 estimated violent crime total was 12.3 percent below the 2009 level and 14.5 percent below the 2004 level.

FBI — Violent Crime

The article is still relevant irregardless of it being 3 years old.

Originally Posted by Kscott

The intensity of the violence has increased over the years, rather the actual numbers.

That is purely subjective. Humans have always been incredibly violent. One only needs to read a history book or "the book" to see that. We just get to see it now in 1080p.

Originally Posted by Banana

Do people really need to wear seatbelts?

The effect is NET though, so with a seat belt you dont tend to have a risk of ending up dead from using it, and it could save your life and/or reduce injury.

Originally Posted by steven

and it could save your life and/or reduce injury.

One could say the same about CCW.

Ultimately I'm very happy living in NZ

Originally Posted by steven

The effect is NET though, so with a seat belt you dont tend to have a risk of ending up dead from using it, and it could save your life and/or reduce injury.

Seatbelts can cause death, but they're more likely to save you than kill you.

Questioning CCW based on a single accident or even all the rare occasions where it has caused the death of the carrier and ignoring the lives saved/injury prevented by CCW, is like questioning seatbelts based on the tiny number of cases where they caused the death of the wearer.

Whether it is concealed or not doesn't matter a damn, you are the person responsible for the weapon and it should be in your command at all times. How the hell do you explain to a toddler by the way you killed your mother due to her stupidity.

I heard a cop over there accidently shot his wife.

Originally Posted by Dundee

I heard a cop over there accidently shot his wife.

I heard a hunter in New Zealand accidentally shot his mate.