When and how guns make you safer

[CreekDog]

1) Only when you can use them safely, accurately, in full good judgement and without error.

2) When you are able to shoot the right person before they shoot you

3) When you are able to hit your target and not hit anything else

4) When you can clearly identify that the person you are shooting is a danger after they are a threat, but before they have harmed you

5) When nobody can access your gun EVER who at any moment of access could use it irresponsibly

6) In the home, when your gun is accessible enough to use quickly, but only if you use it without mistaking something not threatening for something threatening, in a situation with light to determine whether or not someone is a threat, quick enough to prevent a threat but not so fast that your judgement is impaired, say from just waking up or being intoxicated.

7) When your gun cannot be stolen

8) When your gun is not accessible to you or anybody who loses control or their good judgement

9) When your weapon and ammunition are stored so securely that it takes time and effort to retrieve them

10) When your gun causes a threat to you to back down without harm, but not when your gun makes the person threatening you to be more aggressive towards you than if a gun wasn't pointed at them

11) When you have more time to react using your gun than a person threatening you has to threaten you with theirs

12) When your gun is accessible enough to be used by you to protect your family and children, but not when it is accessible enough that they can access it themselves

more?

[SunSeeker]

1. 13) When the gun is not in your home. nt

[GP6971]

2. Or locked

in a secure safe. If anyone broke into my home, I would have no time to open the safe. So my home defense weapons are a baseball bat and a brass putter. With 6 grandchildren (5 boys), I think it's not wise to have anything around.

My disclaimer....all my weapons were passed down to me. I have never, nor will I ever purchase a gun. I have no interest in that.

As a gun owner, I believe in very strict controls concerning the subject of obtaining of guns. Any responsible gun owner has no problem with this either, IMHO

[SunSeeker]

3. Oh, and there's 14) When you NEVER get depressed, angry or inebriated.

We have kids in the house too. And since we can't guarantee we can comply with #14, we have no guns.

[bluedigger]

4. Since you asked...

13) When you are looking for your friend's escaped beagle after dark and there's a local mountain lion alert.

Happened to me last week, and I regretted not having a gun with me when my dog alerted out in the middle of an empty field. It was probably just a prairie dog, but in the moment, yeah, a gun would have been reassuring. Some of us live in places where humans are not always the apex predator.

And there was a happy ending, we found the beagle, without getting et...