Do you feel safe in your house?

your friends obviosuly only visit jo'berg and possibly cape town then. the country is absolutely gorgeous and a fantastic place to visit, so much so that i'm going next summer

take a gun

the lassie from my work is from cape town as was the dudes ex wife.

I'm not sure where the other dude came from, he owned some land so i dunno if it was rural-ish or not.

If everyone you knew who'd been to glasgow had been robbed would you want to come?

The area of Newcastle i live in is generally safe...but at the minute there's this travelling gypo carnival going on, that attracts all sorts of unsavoury elements to the area and chavs from all over the region descend on our neighbourhood. On the way into work today this little git asked if I wanted to sniff his sweaty balls... traditionally its a time when burgalaries go up...the fella 3 doors down from us got his car knicked last week, so I'm on high alert at the minute...broken glass on the top of the back yard wall, door double bolted, butcher knife under the pillow....if I could get a gun, I probablly would.

What if your dad accidentally fired on someone of your own family, mistaking them for somebody else? What if he went momentarily crazy and started firing on any moving things around? Or himself?

I wouldn't feel at all comforatble with a gun at home.

I live in the city centre and despite the fights and stuff from time to time I have never had anything happen to me. My dad, though, once saw a burglar enter my neighbour's house from the balcony when they were not in a couple of years ago. He phoned the police immediately and the burglars were caught

A little further up my street there's a square where people deal with drugs and there's prostitution too but the police don't seem to do much about it, apart from the odd visit though.

the thing is there's this perception by gun owners that it's only "the bad guys" who don't shoot in self defence when in truth, lots of people = lots of guns and even old ladies can wind up shooting someone over something trivial or a lawyer with too much bevvy in him etc...

Well, statistically, you have much more of a chance being shot mistakenly by the late-arriving police than you do being shot by a homeowner mistaking you for an intruder (30<350).

As for shooting himself "accidentally," the statistically "normal" victim in a negligent discharge is a man under twenty five with a history of crime and substance abuse - they form the overwhelming majority of gun accidents, NOT your average gun owner. We also take the common-sense precaution of storing the gun unloaded but with several full magazines nearby - safe, but ready in a few seconds.

Third, do you think my father is a loony that's going to go "momentarily crazy?" I've asked just about every anti-gunner this question and I can never get a straight answer out of them. This is a man who teaches children all day long, works in his yard, drives the speed limit, pays the mortgage, loves his family - the stereotypical father - and you think the mere PRESENSE of a gun in the house is going to turn him into a slavering maniac shooting at his family. Seriously, do you think my father is a lunatic?

Life doesn't work that way, and there are 280 million examples of it nationwide. If you fear this reaction in YOURSELF do not by a gun, if you fear YOU may behave uncontrollably violent in the presense of a firearm do not buy one. Do NOT restrict my right, or my father's right to defend ourselves because you can't trust yourself.

Adrian

anyone can go crazy mate. Hell neitzche saw a guy hitting a horse and that alone turned him mental.

I was making the point that if you carry a gun you can use it and alot of the time it isn't on some dude with a stripey t shirt, mask and bag with £ sign on it.

Ah, now you're talking about carrying guns. Would it change your mind if I got out some numbers on concealed carry in the USA for you?

Adrian

Stats may say whatever they want, but they're just numbers, not stories. And I'm sure the people that have been shot accidentally don't care whether they had more or less possibilities of that happening to them.

I obviously don't know your father and what I said wasn't aimed specifically at him, but in a general way. Anyone can go momemtarily crazy. It happens everyday to people whose relatives and friends thought normal. It would be so easy if people who could go momentarily crazy displayed any symptoms. But they don't. Something triggers that in them, and it's always unexpected. Again, this is not your father I'm talking about.

So the stories of the people who have accidentally shot themselves are more important than the tens of thousands of lives by people who have used guns in self defense? That's not very nice math. How about the stories of people who have used guns in self defense? Would you like to hear some of those? I have several dozen if you'd like to hear them.

That's not a straight answer, but interestingly, it's pretty close to what I was looking for. You don't know my father. You know absolutely nothing about him, yet you would take away his absolute right to defend his family based on what you fear YOU would do. I'm no psychologist, but I've heard that referred to as "projection" before.

The thing is, it WAS my father you were talking about. And me. And my brother, down the road. And my uncle. And every guy behind the counter at any of the sports stores that I visit. And every one of the 280 MILLION people in this nation who own guns. You know, percentage wise, virtually none of them, and you would trust them with your life on the highway, your life on an operating table, with the educations of any of your children, with your financial security, yet you only worry about them flipping out when they have an innanimate chunk of steel and wood (ok, nowadays it's likely to be steel and polymer) in their hands. And again, statistically, you have a better chance of being let down by the human race in ANY of the areas listed than you do being mistakenly, or purposefully, killed by me and my gun, or any of the other millions of people who lawfully keep and bear arms per their Constitutionally enumerated right.

Adrian