Why do so many Americans own guns for home protection?

29 comments

  1. It’s a regional thing. The majority of areas in the US it is uncommon for the average person to own a gun.

  2. Well the nearest police station is about 25 minutes away from me, so if I called them I’d be waiting 25 minutes or so for anyone to get here to help.

  4. Because keeping a police officer in my nightstand would be way more inconvenient and way less fun. Unless he liked boardgames or something.

  5. Asked and answered. Most people who break into others’ homes have guns, and it’s easier to stop a bad guy with a gun as a good guy with a gun.

    Look up “castle doctrine” or “stand your ground law”. Those basically enshrine the right to defense of self and home as an aspect of the Second Amendment.

  6. The national legend of America is that by owning guns, we managed to liberate ourselves from the cruel oppression of the British Empire. The idea that owning a gun makes you safer is an important part of the American culture.

    Likewise, the majority of people who own guns live in rural areas, where not only might they have to deal with wild animals, but where they feel they need to be self-sufficient because they are far away enough from the nearest town that they can’t rely on getting help in case of emergencies.

  9. I think the old saying is “When seconds matter, the police are only minutes away”. This is especially true in rural areas where it can take the sheriff over 20 minutes to respond.

  10. I’m not a Gun Guy but there’s a fundamental truth that if someone enters my home with intent to do harm I personally am unlikely to be able to very much to protect myself or my family without additional means to shift the advantage or at least balance it. Guns are a tool to do that.

    There’s another argument to be had about how likely the threat of this happening and what are the risks of having guns in a home compared to the likelihood of needing one but if you just distill it down to the basic reason for having one- in a threat, I’m physically unlikely to be able to defend without some help and the police station is not next door.

  12. Because I’m 20 minutes from the closest police station and home invaders could also have a gun.

  14. It’s the single most effective tool to defend yourself, your family, your home, and community.

  16. Because it’s the most effective way to stop a threat to you, your family, and other? What does your country of MyCountry©®™ use for self defense or do you not defend yourself when your life is at risk?

  17. I wouldn’t survive fighting my girlfriend hand to hand, gotta even the odds somehow

  18. Because our nation was founded on killing tyrants over taxes.

    Weapons are the way we protect life, liberty and property. Whoever is a threat to that, meets the barrel of a gun. Be it a robber, a rioter, the government, whoever, our nation understand the importance of an armed citizenry

  19. Police have no legal duty to protect you.

    The job of law enforcement is to enforce laws, as they see fit. Multiple cases, up to the Supreme Court, have established that law enforcement has no duty to protect you.

    [Warren v DC](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia)

    [Castle Rock v Gonzalez](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales)

    [DeShaney v Winnebago County](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeShaney_v._Winnebago_County)

    [Lozito v NY](http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2013JUL/3001010882012002SCIV.pdf)

    [And most recently in the Parkland shooting.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/12/19/parkland-shooting-judge-school-cops-no-duty-protect-kids/2360683002/)

    The whole to *”protect and serve”* [is just a slogan that came from a PR campaign](http://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd/content_basic_view/1128).

    [Radiolab has a great episode on this.](https://radiolab.org/episodes/no-special-duty)

    If the police do come to help the average police response time is about 11 to 18 minutes but can be up to 24 hours or simply not at all.

    [While the average police response time in America is 11 minutes it can take as long as 1 to 24 hours if they respond at all.](http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cvus/current/cv08107.pdf)

    [According to the National Sheriff’s Association this average response time is longer at 18 minuets.](https://www.sheriffs.org/content/embracing-technology-decrease-law-enforcement-response-time)

    And we’ve had recent events such as the [national 911 outage](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/03/09/fcc-to-investigate-nationwide-911-outage/) Which can keep emergency services from even receiving your call for help.

    Guns are are the most effective means of self defense and are used defensively tens of thousands of times a year in the US.

    [“Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals…” & ” Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns, i.e., incidents in which a gun was “used” by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender, have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies…”](http://www.nap.edu/read/18319/chapter/3).

    [“A fifth of the victims defending themselves with a firearm suffered an injury, compared to almost half of those who defended themselves with weapons other than a firearm or who had no weapon.”](https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/hvfsdaft.txt)

    [“The survey further finds that approximately a third of gun owners 31.1% have used a firearm to defend themselves or their property, often on more than one occasion, and it estimates that guns are used defensively by firearms owners in approximately 1.67 million incidents per year. Handguns are the most common firearm employed for self-defense, used in 65.9% of defensive incidents, and in most defensive incidents 81.9% no shot was fired. Approximately a quarter 25.2% of defensive incidents occurred within the gun owner’s home, and approximately half 53.9% occurred outside their home, but on their property. About one out of ten 9.1% defensive gun uses occurred in public, and about one out of twenty 4.8% occurred at work.”](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145)

    [According to the BJS from 2007-11 there were 235,700 violent crime victimizations where the victim used a firearm to defend themselves against their assailant.](https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf)

    [The FBI report “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2018” specifically calls out two incidents.](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-in-the-us-2018-041019.pdf/view)

    [The FBI report “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2016 and 2017” lists four incidents stopped by armed citizens.](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-us-2016-2017.pdf/view)

    [The FBI report “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2014 and 2015” list two incidents of armed citizens intervening to help.stop the incidents.](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/activeshooterincidentsus_2014-2015.pdf/view)

    Also while defensive gun use is common less than 0.4% of those uses result in a fatality.

    Guns are also used to defend People, pets, and Livestock from dangerous fauna.

    In rural, and even urban communities, firearms are used to defend People, Pets, and Livestock from all manner of dangerous and invasive species ranging from feral dogs, coyotes, Bob cats, mountain lions, bears, and rabid animals.

    [According to the USDA over 200,000 cattle are lost to predators in America each year costing farmers and ranchers nearly 100 million dollars annually.](http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/CattDeath/CattDeath-05-12-2011.pdf)

    [Feral Hogs have been identified by the USDA as: “a dangerous, destructive, invasive species”.
    Their impact includes “$1.5 billion each year in damages and control costs… & …threatening the health of people, wildlife, pets, and other domestic animals”.](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/wildlifedamage/operational-activities/feral-swine)

    [“Hunting continues to be the most effective, cost efficient and socially acceptable method of population control.”](http://congressionalsportsmen.org/policies/state/white-tailed-deer-management)

    [“Natural predators as well as hunters play a role in keep deer populations at or below carrying capacity of the land.”](https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/habitats/southtx_plain/habitat_management/gun.phtml)

    [“The effective use of the legal hunting season is the best way to control deer populations.”](https://extension.illinois.edu/deer/damage.cfm?SubCat=8890)

    [The US Fish and Wildlife Service even employs full time hunters to control populations like those of feral Hogs.](https://www.fws.gov/southeast/articles/hunting-the-wild-hog/)

  21. So I can efficiently end a legitimate threat to myself or my family. It’s unlikely to occur, but the addage “better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it” is apt.

  22. Montana, for example, is the size of Germany but with only a little over a million people. Police services aren’t as readily available as they would be in a country with 87 million.

  24. Because when you need to protect your home you have seconds to react while the police are minutes away at best response times, and in some places a half hour or more.

  25. Because we are spread out. We aren’t packed in like alot of other countries are. That means that it takes time for the police to show up.

    You have to be able to defend yourself until they show up.. and actual fights in real life only last a few seconds. Guns are the best choice for defending yourself.

  26. For the same reason I keep fire extinguishers in my house. It may be too late by the time the fire department gets here.

  27. When seconds count, the police are minutes away. There’s a good chance that whoever breaks in is stronger and/or faster than me and a firearm gives me a fighting chance. I refuse to live anywhere with duty to retreat. It’s a “I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Some also say that they rather be tried by 12(court case) than carried by six(pall bearers.)

  28. I’m not protecting my house. I am protecting my life, and the lives of others. It’s not a 2a issue, it is your right as a human. I am not a fan of guns and violence, but i’m superbly not a fan of being dead.

  29. ​

    no-knock warrents

    republican-sanctioned white supremacist terrorists

    little white boys shooting up schools

    asian american old people being targeted and killed in their own homes

    cops shooting kids in hoodies

    cops openly admitting to executing black people for funsies and other cops protecting them and their jobs

    men raping, tortuning, and killing women and the 2% conviction rate (estimated, bc most sexual crimes go unreported due to the shit police treatment of them and the victims are default treated as liars)

    a woman walking outside at night is not safe

    in the midwest and the south, the cops ARE the klan

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