But what if you wanted to shoot a gun? Surely that would make that situation better.

Glory to Mankind

Been confronted in the woods by angry rednecks twice in the last year or two. Simply amazing how polite they were to my scrawny ass when I was visibly armed. LOL, one dude was so fucking mad he was vibrating, yet oh so polite.

Cops at my door were also extraordinarily polite after they walked up and say my pump shotgun leaning on my desk.

MAGA neighbor came stomping down the street to kick my ass. (OK, I started that one.) I spun on my heel, walked inside, grabbed my Colt .45 and waited. He got the idea and went home. (He never saw it, and I never threatened.)

Contrast those with other such encounters where, well, let's say it went much worse for me. And if you don't believe that, you've never had your ass kicked or had the cops fuck you up.

While guns can be excellent deterrents, please no one think they're magic "get off me machines". You never draw your concealed weapon to "scare them off". If you draw, you shoot to kill. And if you weren't scared enough to kill, why the fuck did you draw a weapon?! The court will be asking, I assure you.

Conceal carry instructor told the class, "If you shoot someone to stop a thing from happening, you better be sure stopping that thing was worth risking life in a concrete and steel box, because that might well be the outcome." Said instructor was a right-wing gun nut. Thought I'd mention that since you all seem to think those folks are constantly on the lookout to kill.

I've definitely had some rural evenings that would have been better with the ability to shoot some cans.

I don't think that's the kind of "better" you were talking about

I have. I've been in places and situations where being able to get someone to back down and slow their roll would have been a better outcome than what I was able to get without being armed. Shit just happened around me, and I couldn't exit the situation in good conscience. It's terrifying to try to stand up to stop shit from going really sideways knowing that if it does, there's not a lot you can do except be a meat shield for someone else. Almost all defensive gun use doesn't involve shooting; it involves having a gun, knowing how to use it, and using the threat of force to stop someone else from escalating a situation.

People say that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away, and fuck me, that is extremely optimistic. I've never had the cops show up in under five minutes; the closest was about ten minutes, and that was after a shooting in my 'hood in Chicago. CPD showed up after the ambulance.

They say every gun enthusiast has their scenario they're planning for: home invasion, civil war, post apocalypse/disaster, mass shooting event, mugging, etc. When I think about what my scenario might be there isn't a single one where I don't end up dead, with or without a weapon. There is no number of weapons or amount of ammunition that would change that for me.

I struggle with that reality when I think about my own relationship with guns, but I can't help thinking that "prepared" is better than "helpless", even if the outcome is the same.

outside of the movies, there is RARELY (as in astronomically small percentage) one... the problem is that most Muricans live in a fictional reality with the reasoning capacity of a teen boy

Same, been in multiple life or death situations and none were improved by a gun. Staring down the barrel is so fucking funny when the only reason you're there is because it is freedom or death. Like they don't expect you to pick death if you don't get freedom?