Fundman sends this link.
I don't know the answer. If you have kids, a gun in your house
is far more likely to kill your own kid, through accident or play.
We have several guns, but they are locked in a cabinet, with trigger locks inside that. I couldn't possibly get to them in time to defend myself against a home invasion.
If I didn't have kids, tho, I'd probably have a handgun.
7 comments:
On the contrary!
Even if you have children in the house, your gun is still far more likely to be used to defend them than to harm them.
Each year in the U.S., there are about 175 accidental deaths of children involving guns. (See http://www.childdeathreview.org/causesAF.htm) Yet, each year there are 1.5-2 million defensive uses of guns. (See Gary Kleck, "Armed Resistance to Crime: The Prevalence and Nature of Self-Defense with a Gun," Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 86:1 (1995), reproduced here.)
Obviously, this does not mean you shouldn't take reasonable precautions to prevent your children from gaining unsupervised access to your guns. But if your precautions are so extensive they prevent you from accessing your gun(s) in the event of an emergency, you might be actually endangering your children, or increasing the chance they end up as orphans.
Thanks to Different River for straightening that out.
Even the 175 death figure has to be questioned because of the difficulty in controlling for the "your parents were idiots" factor. I happen to know that Munger is not an idiot, so why would he let stats gathered by and about idiots influence his behavior?
Saying that is like saying "Having a swimming pool increases the chances of your kid drowning" or "Having Drano under the sink increases the risk of poisoning".
Duh.
But you have to balance the risk with the reward. Drownings account for sixty something times the number of child deaths each year. Only "poisoning by gas" ranks lower than firearms in accidental deaths.
I have two beautiful daughters. I have 6 firearms. The 3 not used for self defense are trigger locked. The handgun, shotgun, and Rifle are kept out of reach. My girls are also allowed to see the firearms if they ask and know what to do if they find one lying around.
Education takes the mystique away. It helps your kids more than keeping them so secured that they're useless when needed.
I have no kids and a nice unlocked sig sauer 9mm by the bed! I gotta ask Rob Allen though, I can see the handgun and shotgun for self defense and frankly as many guns as you want for whatever reason you want, but I am curious how a rifle can be for self defense. "I saw him coming a mile away and I didn't like his looks , so I got me my rife, scope and tripod and commenced to self defend"
Angus, I live in Florida and have weathered many hurricanes. When entire towns are ravaged, it's easier to take to the streets of your neighborhood with a rifle.
As for scopes, don't need one. I can hit reliably at 50 yards, semi-reliably at 100, offhand using iron sights. I shoot twice a month at least to stay in shape and I don't use a bench because if I ever need it I doubt there's going to be a bench handy.
As far as home defense, carbines are quite adequate for the job. Granted my M44 doesn't hold more than 5 rounds in the magazine, it's no different than the Mossy's capacity.
Plus, it has a bayonet which helps when you're out of ammo.
As for a handgun - that's a poor choice for home defense. Great for portability, but underpowered. Hell, I carry a 10mm but when I get home it's the shotgun I'd rely on if I had intruders.
"Plus, it has a bayonet which helps when you're out of ammo."
My current nominee for comment of the year on KPC!!
I agree. Having a gun in the house is completely not an option for me. Instead, we placed security around the house to keep us safe from intruders.
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