A good guy with a gun

[ochotona]

There are certainly worse proposals.

I take that as a compliment!

[Libertarian666]

There are certainly worse proposals.

I take that as a compliment!

Thank you.

[WiseOne]

The notion that women carrying guns can reduce risk of rape is interesting, so I looked into it briefly. Unfortunately, this appears to be an NRA-generated myth. It may be true but there's no study or set of data that show this convincingly.

It is known that households with a gun are statistically at higher risk of gun violence, that rape often happens with people known to the victim, and that often alcohol or drugs is involved so neither party is in shape to use a firearm safely/accurately. Comparing statistics like rape rates vs gun prevalance is fraught with problems, because of the usual issues with spurious correlations like the correlation between Nicolas Cage movies and swimming pool deaths.

I agree. The definition of "rape" is so fuzzy and all-inclusive these days that you couldn't possibly do a study that would mean anything.

My own experience with guns is quite mixed. There was a time in my life when I carried concealed most of the time. I was working in a high-crime, gang-infested area and had to walk a distance to my car in the dark. It made sense then. The downside, both then and now, is that carrying a firearm is an awesome responsibility. Every minute you have to be thinking, "Where is my purse?" "Are there children in the room?" And because you've essentially taken on the responsibility of responding--potentially with deadly force--to whatever might arise, you have to be constantly aware of what's happening around you. Ultimately, I found it too much to think about day in and day out.

There was one incident, many years ago, when I was walking alone to my car late at night. A car slowed down, pulled up along the sidewalk and trailed me for half a minute or so. The car pulled over 50 feet ahead of me, and a creepy-looking guy got out and started moving toward me without saying a thing. I stopped, planted my feet firmly, drew my pistol with both hands, and said, "You take one more step toward me and I'll blow your balls off." He turned, walked back to his car, and drove away. I'm pretty sure the story would have been different had I not had a gun with me that night.

Great story Maddy, and nice observations about gun ownership. I went to medical school in a high crime urban area, so I can definitely relate. I used to carry around an extra wallet with $40 in it. Several of my classmates bought guns. The university has since walled off the campus & housing area, after spending a lot of time on useless blather about fostering good relationships with the natives etc. (Yes, they built a wall!!).

Libertarian666 - yes, Maddy's story is an anecdote. The NRA's suggestion was that rape rates have dropped, or would drop if more women carried guns. That's not statistically supported. Comparing two unrelated bits of info unfortunately doesn't prove the case, because you have the usual issues where A & B appear to be [anti]correlated because they're both related to an unknown factor C, and you can't prove causality from a correlation.

[Kriegsspiel]

There are certainly worse proposals.

I take that as a compliment!

Thank you.

I liked the county-level militia part. I was just thinking the other day about how it would be cool if the National Guard/Reserves/Active Duty weren't the only options for military-type stuff. Well, I guess you have the other "Militias" but from what I've seen they're not what people would be looking for. A county-level one could be a fun, active hobby for most people, and would give other people something "productive" to do with their energies and feel good about. And in the bigger scheme of things, a country with, essentially, over 3,000 well-regulated LGOPs to control is nigh-on unconquerable in the traditional military sense. IIRC, Switzerland and Israel are set up like this.

[Libertarian666]

The notion that women carrying guns can reduce risk of rape is interesting, so I looked into it briefly. Unfortunately, this appears to be an NRA-generated myth. It may be true but there's no study or set of data that show this convincingly.

It is known that households with a gun are statistically at higher risk of gun violence, that rape often happens with people known to the victim, and that often alcohol or drugs is involved so neither party is in shape to use a firearm safely/accurately. Comparing statistics like rape rates vs gun prevalance is fraught with problems, because of the usual issues with spurious correlations like the correlation between Nicolas Cage movies and swimming pool deaths.

I agree. The definition of "rape" is so fuzzy and all-inclusive these days that you couldn't possibly do a study that would mean anything.

My own experience with guns is quite mixed. There was a time in my life when I carried concealed most of the time. I was working in a high-crime, gang-infested area and had to walk a distance to my car in the dark. It made sense then. The downside, both then and now, is that carrying a firearm is an awesome responsibility. Every minute you have to be thinking, "Where is my purse?" "Are there children in the room?" And because you've essentially taken on the responsibility of responding--potentially with deadly force--to whatever might arise, you have to be constantly aware of what's happening around you. Ultimately, I found it too much to think about day in and day out.

There was one incident, many years ago, when I was walking alone to my car late at night. A car slowed down, pulled up along the sidewalk and trailed me for half a minute or so. The car pulled over 50 feet ahead of me, and a creepy-looking guy got out and started moving toward me without saying a thing. I stopped, planted my feet firmly, drew my pistol with both hands, and said, "You take one more step toward me and I'll blow your balls off." He turned, walked back to his car, and drove away. I'm pretty sure the story would have been different had I not had a gun with me that night.

Great story Maddy, and nice observations about gun ownership. I went to medical school in a high crime urban area, so I can definitely relate. I used to carry around an extra wallet with $40 in it. Several of my classmates bought guns. The university has since walled off the campus & housing area, after spending a lot of time on useless blather about fostering good relationships with the natives etc. (Yes, they built a wall!!).

Libertarian666 - yes, Maddy's story is an anecdote. The NRA's suggestion was that rape rates have dropped, or would drop if more women carried guns. That's not statistically supported. Comparing two unrelated bits of info unfortunately doesn't prove the case, because you have the usual issues where A & B appear to be [anti]correlated because they're both related to an unknown factor C, and you can't prove causality from a correlation.

It is not necessary to have statistics to support statements that are known to be true from a priori data.

In this case, it is undeniably true that the average man is far stronger than the average woman. Thus, without an equalizer (weapon) to mitigate this disparity, women are extremely vulnerable to rape. With such a weapon, their vulnerability is decreased.

However, for those who still want statistics, here is an analysis:

"Abstract
What are the consequences when rape victims resist rapists? Analysis of a nationally representative sample of rape incidents reported in the National Crime Surveys for 1979 to 1985 yields the following findings: (1) Victims who resist are much less likely to have the rape completed against them than nonresisting victims, a pattern generally apparent regardless of the specific form of resistance; (2) The form of resistance that appears most effective in preventing rape completion is resistance with a gun, knife, or other weapon; (3) Most forms of resistance are not significantly associated with higher rates of victim injury. The exceptions are unarmed forceful resistance and threatening or arguing with the rapist; (4) Even these two forms of resistance probably do not generally provoke rapists to injure their victims, as ancillary evidence concerning assaults and robberies indicates that resistance rarely precedes injury. Attack against the victim appears to provoke victim resistance, rather than the reverse; (5) Only about three percent of rape incidents involve some additional injury that could be described as serious. Thus it is the rape itself that is nearly always the most serious injury the victim suffers. Consequently, refraining from resistance in order to avoid injury in addition to the rape is a questionable tradeoff."

(https://www.jstor.org/stable/800645)

[Kriegsspiel]

I feel like, if I was a female, I would just want to have the choice to carry a pistol, the statistics be damned.

(also, WiseOne, what was your extra wallet with $40 for?)

[Mountaineer]

I feel like, if I was a female, I would just want to have the choice to carry a pistol, the statistics be damned.

(also, WiseOne, what was your extra wallet with $40 for?)

She carries $4000 in the other one.

[WiseOne]

I feel like, if I was a female, I would just want to have the choice to carry a pistol, the statistics be damned.

(also, WiseOne, what was your extra wallet with $40 for?)

It was for if I got mugged. $40 was theoretically enough to appease a mugger, and that way you wouldn't lose your driver's license, credit cards etc. There was a horrid story of a grad student who was killed because he was only carrying $5 (which is often all I had in my real wallet). A cheaper solution than a gun, that thankfully I never had to use. Probably because I moved to a safer neighborhood after the first year. Interestingly, my cousin the perennial idealist took a job in the same city, and chose to live in a neighborhood so dangerous even police wouldn't go there. His place was robbed too many times to count and he was repeatedly mugged, and after a couple of years we all talked some sense into him and got him to move.

The better solution was to go somewhere else where I didn't have to constantly think about protecting myself from criminals. It was such a relief to remove that issue from my life. I guess the university finally did something about the problem once they realized the effect that the crime issue was having on prospective students & faculty. Political correctness be damned.

[Libertarian666]

I feel like, if I was a female, I would just want to have the choice to carry a pistol, the statistics be damned.

(also, WiseOne, what was your extra wallet with $40 for?)

It was for if I got mugged. $40 was theoretically enough to appease a mugger, and that way you wouldn't lose your driver's license, credit cards etc. There was a horrid story of a grad student who was killed because he was only carrying $5 (which is often all I had in my real wallet). A cheaper solution than a gun, that thankfully I never had to use. Probably because I moved to a safer neighborhood after the first year. Interestingly, my cousin the perennial idealist took a job in the same city, and chose to live in a neighborhood so dangerous even police wouldn't go there. His place was robbed too many times to count and he was repeatedly mugged, and after a couple of years we all talked some sense into him and got him to move.

So there really are such people? Wow. My experience has been that those who scream the loudest about bigotry are the first to protect themselves by living in areas where they don't have to worry about inconvenient truths.

[Mountaineer]

Have you no human decency?

"The average police response time in large cities can range anywhere from five minutes to an hour. In rural areas, it can take even longer."

http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/10/men ... n-colbert/

[Libertarian666]

Have you no human decency?

"The average police response time in large cities can range anywhere from five minutes to an hour. In rural areas, it can take even longer."

http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/10/men ... n-colbert/

"When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."