Since I already exposed my right-leaning stance on the minimum wage, I might as well tell you that I support the Second Amendment in it’s unadulterated form (no, they didn’t mean state militias, they meant common citizens). A few years ago, Bill joined the NRA against my wishes as is his prerogative. My argument against being a member: concern that a leftist takeover of the government would turn that membership list into a hit list for search and seizures of any and all citizen-owned firearms.
Surely even liberals would be smart enough to check under the floorboards.
Actually, it was only a few months ago that we became gun owners. It’s not that I was really opposed to having a gun in the house, it was that there was no legitimate excuse to spend hundreds of dollars on a firearm of any kind. We don’t live in a rural area with varmints that need eliminating (although the squirrels in our last neighborhood did qualify, I think there are post regulations against discharging a firearm in housing areas). Bill does not hunt (although he says this is a Catch-22, since he can’t hunt without a gun). And our neighborhood is a safe one. But last year someone gave Bill a shotgun he didn’t want (at least that’s the story), and there you have it. I suppose at some point I ought to learn how to load and shoot the thing, since there’s little point to having something like that around if you don’t know how to use it.
Anyway, via email from my brother-in-law came this funny one last night:
Some Facts, To Ponder.
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171
*(Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Health Human Services.)*
Now think about this:
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (Yes, that’s 80 million.)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188
*(Statistics courtesy of FBI)*
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR. Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.
We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand.
Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld the statistics on lawyers, for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.
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Very funny! David has been wanting a gun, and at first I was opposed, but I can see the benefits of having one around and knowing how to use it. Still saving up the cash for it, though, and I’m really, really looking forward to the shooting range.
I rarely laugh out loud when blog reading. Thank you!!
I actually am not a fan of guns, and won’t be having one in my house any time soon, but your analogy cracked me up.
I’m petrafied of guns. I don’t want one in my house. I nearly died when the pistols for a hail and farwell showed up via ups on my door step (when John was in charge of getting them together for outgoing commanders). And while I have no problems with anyone else owning one I don’t want one in my house. I know that it’s something my son would find a way to play with and with his communication issues, I can’t even explain to him (and know he knows what I’m talking about) about gun saftey. It’s not so much that I’m afraid of him shooting someone…cause when John gets his silly pistol there will be no bullets in our house ever…it’s more of what could happen if Peter got ahold of it and was playing and someone else thinks it’s a loaded gun…wild imagination, perhaps…but with my Peter it’s not a far stretch, as he’s the kid who finds a way into and out of everything and everywhere. I’m dreading the arrival of John’s stupid pistol. —Sorry for the rant. You’re right to stick up for yourself to have one though.
I grew up in a very liberal household where owning a gun was equivalent to owning weapons of mass destruction and loaning them on a regular basis to your terrorist buddies — slightly frowned-upon, let’s say.
Now I’ve married into a family that owns more guns than I have fingers and toes, and I’m just now beginning to understand “the other side” of the gun control argument (and agreeing with this side of the argument, too).
Please, please find the statistics for lawyer-caused accidental deaths. I must know these facts before I mail off my law school applications. If the death rates are too high, a change in career choice might be in order – garbage collector, maybe? They can’t be very deadly… can they?
I’m not a big fan of having guns in the house either, ya’ll. My husband reminds me often that I am ridiculous, since we had a rifle in our house, kept right out in the open all the time. But I never saw bullets and was told the gun was broken (that was a lie and my husband laughed his rear off when my dad told him the truth) and we were strictly ordered to never ever ever lay a single finger or any other fraction of our body on the thing under penalty of death.
Also, grandma lived on a farm where there were varmints that got into the crops and so they had rifles. I even shot one when I was little – maybe 8.
I really think kids raised in homes where guns are about as common as chairs are a lot more aware that they are not toys and are less likely to play with them.
However, our kids are unaware of the shotgun we acquired, and that’s fine by me.
I go back and forth. My now 8 yo boy loves bombs, swords, bows and arrows, guns… and has very poor judgement and impulse control.
My husband DID get a gun for hunting, but it’s a black powder rifle, Civil War reproduction. (He got it because he thinks it’s cool, not for any safety or make Mama happy reason) So to shoot it, you have to pack it with powder and shove a metal ball in the barrel and then have a flint lock… I’m not really worried about the kids getting it any more!
I would like for us to get a handgun, but maybe stored somewhere else – I’d like to have it around for hurricanes, or other natural disasters in case there’s martial law or everyone fend for themselves.
Mama Says