MikeB302000 and I agree about one thing: a lot of police officers are not up to the task of safely handling firearms. How many police officers behave like Travis Unholz, as chronicled by Deputy convicted of abuse, gun charge? No clue. I have only anecdotal evidence. So I’m not going to put percentages on the problem of abusive or rogue cops. Nor am I going to condemn all police based on obvious transgressions, or lobby for changes in the law based on the behavior of some seriously bad badged apples. But MikeB302000 is happy to condemn “a large percentage” of gun owners based on anecdotal evidence of irresponsible behavior, and work to abridge gun rights to address these shortcomings. Like this . . .
This guy is a perfect example of the kinds of people you find among lawful gun owners. The overall percentage is low, but not nearly as low as they claim. Unfortunately, brutal, wife-beating, low-lifes are to be found in all groups. Perhaps among gun owners the percentage is actually higher than in the population at large. The testosterone-driven aggression, the adolescent belligerence, the terrible difficulty with authority, all lend themselves to anti-social behaviour.
I wish I had a nickel for every time one of the gun defenders said they don’t know a single gun owner like that, that being anything negative like the description I offered above or anything else. They swear they don’t know one who drinks too much or has a problem with anger.
MikeB302000 seems to have a problem analyzing firearms safety in any statistically credible fashion. I could unleash linkamania to try to set him straight on the odds of a gun owner committing any kind of felony, but I grow tired of such sport. Talking numbers with MikeB302000 is like the old gag about trying to hammer a mouse under a carpet. You hit here, it pops up there. You hit there, it pops up here.
Why can’t gun control advocates understand that there was, is and always will be collateral damage whenever free men exercise their rights? Don’t they see the greater, often cataclysmic damage that occurs when freedoms are lost? What do we have to do to convince these people that sometimes you have to be grateful for what you have, instead of constantly wishing for what will never be?