this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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The need to defend yourself with a firearm is generally very low, even in the US. Most people won't ever need one.
But there are times when if you do need one, you really need one. And at least in the US, the institutions that are supposed to help can often make things worse, especially if you're a minority (U.S. police forces have an incredibly high ratio of white supremacist, racist, and violently abusive pro-fascist members).
In the case of the recent killing of the couple in Arkansas, the killer would've been unlikely to be deescalated, as he seemed to have set out to kill someone at random to begin with.
Help was too far away to offer any assistance when it was most needed, and the end result is two innocent parents dead, and two children who will be traumatized for life. A gun would've drastically increased the odds of the parents surviving.
Ready access to firearms in a society does also bring with it many downsides, such as a higher likelihood of suicide and mass shootings, and the heavy adoption of firearms by right-wing people who then seem prone to developing a culture of violence being glorified or romanticized.
But I think ultimately, if a society has poor options that can't be fully relied upon for an individual in those admittedly uncommon horrific scenarios, then it's unfortunately up to that individual to determine if they wish to have the means to secure their own safety and survival in such an event.
And when the gun comes out you are many times more likely to be killed. You have been fed a lie about defending yourself by the gun lobby to seek more guns and make rich people richer. Guns kill many times more people than they save in the US you are far more likely to kill someone you love than you are to ever use your gun to defend yourself.
SOURCE: 25 years in guns and badges.
This is ultimately dependent on the situation. Pulling a gun on a nervous mugger? Absolutely increasing the chances of being killed.
Holing up your bedroom and pointing a shotgun at a door that will be kicked in? High chance of the firearm saving your life if the person on the other side intends deadly harm.
I agree that access to firearms does increase the chances of it being used in anger against others, or against yourself if suicidal, as I mentioned in my previous post. But you're not addressing that the apparatus in the US designed to help people in those rare dangerous situations are deeply flawed, and can in fact be as deadly as the threat you are calling them to help against, depending on your own skin color and disposition of your local police department.
I think in Europe and Japan, where there seems to be less of a chance of those specific problems within the police, the argument against gun ownership is stronger. But personally I think the argument for the populace to disarm before solving the problems of those institutions is not one I can get behind.
I would also say it's not a great idea to disarm if your government is actively turning toward becoming a fascist totalitarian state, which the US currently is.
I'm sorry that you're afraid it's got to be very stressful.
I'm a little bewildered why you're being condescending toward my comments, but responded "That is fair" to @nagaram@startrek.website who made a similar argument to mine.
Nagaram said that they were afraid and why. Their fears were valid. It's got to be very stressful for Nagaram to be in that situation, doesn't it? I'm sorry that Nagaram is in that situation that makes them afraid.
I'm not being condescending to Nagaram, I have empathy for their situation.
Why are you being so defensive about your fear?