(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



A conversation with a purple voter about guns. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-27

A relative of mine is an interesting character. He lives in a purple state. He’s a natural comedian. He hates Trump, but he was temporarily sold on Robert Kennedy Jr. for President. And he owns handguns.

Here is a summary of a dialogue we shared recently. I’m going to set my responses in DK quote format for easier readability here, but both sides are pretty much direct quotes.

Rel: This guy (...Ring camera photo not shared in this diary) tried to break into our house last year. He saw Ring and ADT signs and he didn’t care. What stopped him? Our security door — why? Because he knew by the time he broke through our door and tripped the alarm the cops would probably be there, and he’d be caught. So, the system worked, but guns are a last line of defense when the other systems don’t work.

Here’s the problem. They don’t care about the consequences of being caught. If they don’t care, a last line of defense is needed at home. You are dreaming if you believe your dog will stop someone in your home. These guys have guns too.

Me: There is a false narrative behind the rise of gun ownership. Burglaries, including smash and grab, are not violent. You don't need a gun to protect you from a burglar. Red states have far worse rates of gun deaths. Yes, the homeless and hungry don't care about property rights, but they don't endanger your life. Throw away the guns please. (To DK readers — It was pretty obvious to me the guy in the photo didn’t have a gun. He didn’t look intense enough to be carrying around that much killing power. I also didn’t see any bulges in his front pockets or under his shirt.)

Rel: When a burglar breaks into your home one night — be sure to give those statistics to him. I’m not going to assume a late night break-in is anything but a life-threatening event and I’ll defend myself and what is mine at all costs. And there is a reason I own revolvers and not semi-automatic weapons. Less likely to make a mistake in firing.

Me: So to be clear, I didn’t advocate government confiscation of your handguns, and yes I would be terrified if burglar was inside my house. I just recommended that you toss them because they probably (yes, that’s statistics talking) aren’t needed. And frankly, when more people believe valid statistics instead of Christmas Cards with smiling children holding AR15s, the nation will be a better place. By the way, risk (aka level of danger) is the mathematical product of (a) likelihood and (b) severity of a negative outcome. But each person calibrates those parameters differently. Some people think skydiving is not very risky and others think leaving their house is too risky. So we can have a plethora of different opinions about what is or isn't dangerous in our country without forcing people to do something they are not comfortable with (or refrain from something that’s not illegal, if they are comfortable). But it's also okay to help educate people whose negative perceptions are so out of proportion to the actual risk, that their behaviors become unhealthy or even deadly.

Rel: When liberals successfully round up all the gangs’ and other bad guys’ guns, I’ll turn over mine.

Some questions for DK readers —

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/27/2195962/-A-conversation-with-a-purple-voter-about-guns

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/