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Originally Posted by Sleepyjack
i find this all a little scary. I have never considered carrying a gun. I live in Australia and i imagine that gun crime/deaths against population would be far less than some places in the US. Although the only proof i have of this is bowling for columbine, but i don't know how far from the truth that documentary was?
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Bowling for Columbine is an amusing film, but it doesn't have much basis in reality. Basing your political argument on BFC is kind of like basing your political argument on the original Star Wars.
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It seems to me that the large reason ofr carrying the gun is fear. Is that right? you're scared something bad will happen to you, so you carry a gun to hopefully protect yourself. That is fear, which isn't neccesaryily a bad thing, it could also be replaced with caution, which has a more comforting or reasonable conatation to it.
Anyway, i guess i am "lucky" to not feel so scared or worried, such that i need a gun to help reassure myself.
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You seem to have the misconception that people who carry guns walk around with their sweaty little hands on the gun, looking around crazily for their soon to be arriving attacker. Nothing can be farther from the truth. When I go out, I carry my wallet, which contains among other things my various insurance cards (vehicle, medical, et cetera). This doesn't mean that I go out terrified that I'm going to be in a car wreck or have a heart attack. In my car, I have a fire extinguisher. That doesn't mean I live in mortal fear of fire. Just as my carrying a gun, all it means is that if something bad happens, I have the appropriate resources on hand to deal with it.
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Finally, i don't mean to sound too silly, but i don't fully agree with this "It is much better to have a weapon and not need it than to need it and not have it". Its true to an extent, but i guess the same thing could be said that i need to have a helmet on all the time, in case a brick falls on my head, cause it'll be better that i have the helmet and not need it, than to not have the helmet and have a birck fall on my head. Just basically, i guess i am a little naive having never been to america and not knowing too much about the amount of crime and such, but its hard for me to imagine a whole lot of people needing to draw a gun often.
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i just think, maybe all this fear, may start to become counterproductive to the way we live our lives in hopefully a free society.[/QUOTE]
you don't need a helmet to prevent bricks from falling on your head unless you happen to be going through a construction "hard hat" zone. If you're going to be riding a motorcycle or a bicycle, a helmet is also a really, really good idea, too.
The idea is to evaluate the risks, and plan accordingly.