Mr Darrenlobo: As I stated before, your use of the term "gun rights hater" is way off the mark. I am a gun owner, including handguns. I don't often carry, because I have no need to. I respect your personal choice to legally carry a firearm. There are plenty of your fellow citizens who do not see the firearms issue the way you do, and for very sensible reasons. They see the potential for violence in society, they see a better way to conduct ourselves, and they see examples around the world (Japan, England, and Australia, just for starters) where citizens are able to live productive, safe, even peaceful lives without everyone packing a gun. They are not wrong. They just have a different viewpoint on this topic than you and I do. One of the cornerstones of our democracy is that EVERY citizen's opinion counts. When we make policy, every person's opinions, needs, and desires are accounted for, not just yours. If your attitude is one of "my way or the highway", then you are espousing the very sort of intolerant tyranny that many people rail against. In a democracy we all get to vote, we all get to decide. And your decision to label anyone who doesn't agree with you as a "gun rights hater" exhibits the same sort of close-mindedness that you complain about.
As far as your statistics and the "2.5 million times per year", I suggest you go back and redo your research. That number and others like it have been proven to be so exaggerated as to be absurd. The 2.5 million number came from a study by Kleck and Getz in 1992 where they randomly phone sampled 5000 people, took their numbers, then extrapolated the figures out for the size of the US population at the time. Many articles have been written debunking that study and those numbers. Their methodology was flawed, as they have admitted. They failed to account for all kinds of sampling errors. And when you compare their projections to the actual number of crimes and gun owners in the US, the 2.5 million figure is mathematically impossible. And Kleck/Getz also admitted that somewhere between 36-64% of the defensive gun use incidents were probably illegal under our laws. So let's talk real stats. The CDC took a look at 2010 and found that there were roughly 105,000 people killed or injured by firearms. Of those, 73,500 were injured, about 32,000 were killed. Of the 32,00 deaths, 61% were suicides.. A recent Bureau of Justice survey found that there were about 67,000 defensive guns uses per year. Other studies have placed that number as high as 100,000. But none of these figures is anywhere near 2.5 million. Other stats that might be handy: 9 times more people were victimized with a gun than were defended by a gun. Among teenagers that figure was 13 times (the stupidity of youth). A gun was 6 times more likely to intimidate a family member than to defend them. An excellent article to read would be "Debunking the defensive gun use myth" on the Armed With Reason Website.
Again, I fully uphold your right to legally carry a firearm. But if we're going to have a reasonable dialogue about this and come up with some solutions that work for ALL of our citizens, we need to do two things. First, drop the name calling. Your fellow citizens deserve the same consideration that you do. Second, use facts, not inflated BS or lies. There are many studies out there that deal with REAL crime and gun use statistics. Let's all use good numbers so that we can have an intelligent, productive conversation.
Best of luck.
