I know we’re all upset about his plan to alter our DNA so we can’t get into heaven, but you can’t blame Bill Gates for everything.
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Claim: It’s not particularly unsafe for responsible gun owners in the U.S. to keep firearms in their home. It’s not like there are any statistics on accidental shooting deaths and injuries caused to gun owners and their families (including their children):
Per @kii:
There were a total of 45,222 firearm deaths in the US in 2020
Unintentional gun death occurs four times more often in the United States than other high-income countries.
Gun violence in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually,[4] and was the leading cause of death for children 19 and younger in 2020 . . . The rate of firearm deaths per 100,000 people rose from 10.3 per 100,000 in 1999 to 12 per 100,000 in 2017, with 109 people dying per day or about 14,542 homicides in total
IWikipedia: Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia
Here are some reports by the CDC: https://health.ucdavis.edu/what-you-can-do/resources/FirearmInjurySlides_WYCD_June20.pdf
“10 Leading Causes of Injury Deaths by Age Group Highlighting Violence-Related Injury Deaths, United States – 2018”
And more
@duketrout provides some examples of the common ways gun owners and their families end up dead of maimed by their own weapons:
Suicide would be the most common example, but every year gun owners accidently kill themselves while handling their own guns. Leaving a round in the chamber during cleaning, goofing around with an unexpectedly loaded weapon, the stupid trend where idiots were pointing handguns at their junk (the femoral artery is located in that line of fire), dropping a loaded firearm while drunk or just clumsy, etc.
Also mistaking a family member for an intruder.
In regard to suicide, @euansmith has stats on how a firearm in the house offers more opportunities in that regard compared to other methods:
All suicides
- Number of deaths: 48,183
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 14.5
- Cause of death rank: 11
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
Firearm suicides
- Number of deaths: 26,328
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 7.9
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
Suffocation suicides
- Number of deaths: 12,431
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 3.7
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
Poisoning suicides
- Number of deaths: 5,568
- Deaths per 100,000 population: 1.7
Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality Data (2021) via CDC WONDER
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Claim: Firearms are an effective tool for personal and household self-defense, used for that purpose over a million times every year in the U.S.
Nope.
On the other hand, burglars and other home invaders are really happy to find themselves robbing the home of a “responsible gun owner”.
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the whole list of conclusions ( with cited studies ) is quite revealing:
Gun Threats and Self-Defense Gun Use
1-3. Guns are not used millions of times each year in self-defense
4. Most purported self-defense gun uses are gun uses in escalating arguments, and are both socially undesirable and illegal
5. Firearms are used far more often to intimidate than in self-defense
6. Guns in the home are used more often to intimidate intimates than to thwart crime
7. Adolescents are far more likely to be threatened with a gun than to use one in self-defense
8. Criminals who are shot are typically the victims of crime
9-10. Few criminals are shot by decent law-abiding citizens
11. Self-defense gun use is rare and not more effective at preventing injury than other protective actions
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A report about this suicide risk, and how Donna’s Law might help to address that problem:
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Perhaps not surprising, but something I want on every billboard in Texas:
that breaks the story and related stories down:
In case anyone is wondering, here’s an estimate for 2023:
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Claim: There’s no harm in responsible gun owners keeping a firearm in their vehicles.
[Archive]
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Way to go Tennessee state lege. Way to go.
It’s harrassment, it’s illegal, yes, and delay delay delay for those Tennesseans demanding accountability from their state reps and senators.
Guns Don’t Kill Americans, Stale Bad Governments Do
ETA:
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Claim: I am a [Democrat|liberal|progressive] but when it comes to [insert sensible proposed gun control measure here] I think [insert BS argument from this topic here].
While organisations like the John Brown Gun Club exist, and while members of vulnerable populations (currently LGBTQ+ people) may have reasons to want to own a firearm for self-defense grounded in reasons other than action-hero fantasies, none of these liberals and progressives argue against common-sense gun control proposals or believe that “moar gunz” is the answer to the problems posed by the far right.
This is a partisan issue in the U.S., and only one American party has made it a foundational plank of its platform. If an American makes BS arguments such as the ones listed in this topic, they are effectively making common cause with fascists and white supremacists and the duopoly party that enables them; actual progressives and liberals and good allies don’t do that.
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The typical so-stale-it’s-fossilized argument Cruz makes, that we need more police in schools to prevent mass shootings or at least “shoot the bad guys,” has several disturbing angles that are telling [on him].
- His obvious refusal to ban assault weapons, chiefly the choice of weapon used in these mass shootings.
- His commitment to solidifying the school-to-prison pipeline.
- His apparent lack of empathy (see below).
- His obvious unwillingness to take an ethical stance because … what? Money? Character? Who knows…
From that HuffPo article:
Ted Cruz was silent on Twitter [re Uvalde]. But gun violence prevention advocates weren’t. Because we know that police and security guards and locked doors don’t prevent school shootings. Even schools with their own police force like the University of Virginia can’t prevent mass shootings.
Yes Cruz was silent. Because Uvalde was all about a significant police presence with tragic results. It puts the lie to his ossified most-repeated argument.
(deleted, see ETA)
Please note that the only tweet in this screenshot list that is not real is the Uvalde one… all the rest have been verified as authentic, having really been sent by Cruz or one of his handlers who has access to his Twitter account. (See more at the Twitter link to get details.)
But yeah, either way, he’s complete garbage.
And: cheap garbage at that.
There are 21 U.S. Senators that have been paid more NRA money than Cruz:
(the list is longer, see more at the link)
ETA
Debunked and many thanks to Daniel Dale, as usual
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This study, just out. Please get your surprised faces ready.
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May.
May?
Was “never” too many letters?
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Don’t know if this belongs here or in the responsibile gun owners topic but I read it and thought… Huh?
According to Skelton any employee who cooperates is violating Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, which penalizes police agencies for helping federal authorities to investigate gun crimes.
That preservation act thingy was found to be unconstitutional.
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