yennus said:
I haven't stated my position yet, so I'll do so now. I think everyone should have the right to secure their family, home and property against criminals.
Currently the law prevents you from having the means to defend yourself - defensive items such as pepper spray and wearing a bullet proof vest is illegal. I don't think it's very fair that the criminals can use guns and knives, and your mum can't own pepper spray or even a loud siren.
The ban on bullet-proof vests always seems a bit weird, but it's important to understanding the psychology behind having weapons.
If people - anyone - can own a gun, then you need one too in case one of those other people goes a bit crazy and tries to do you harm. If people can own guns and bullet-proof vests, then you need a bigger, more powerful gun to protect yourself from a crazy person with a gun and a bullet proof vest. If people can own big, powerful guns and bullet-proof vests, then you need an RPG to protect yourself from a crazy person with a big, powerful gun and a bullet-proof vest. And so on.
Defensive items might seem perfectly sensible, but they contribute to the escalation of arms just as much as offensive items.
Your chance of being harmed by someone increases dramatically if you look like you pose a threat to them.
Having done armed robbery holdup training myself - and having had a gun pointed at me in a non-training situation as well - being made defenseless and vulnerable sucks. It's a horrible feeling. Unfortunately, it's also the best way of getting out of the situation alive, because whoever is threatening you has already decided what they want to do and how far they're prepared to go with it. You, on the other hand, have had a grand total of perhaps a few seconds to come to grips with the situation, you've just had a massive dose of adrenalin hit your brain and can't think properly, your palms are sweaty, your limbs are shaking and your heart-rate is going through the roof.
Police and soldiers train for
years to be able to overcome those reactions to physical threats, and even then they still don't always manage it perfectly.
There are so few truly murderous psychopaths around that it's really not worth worrying about and everything else is basically just property crime. In the grand scheme of things, increasing the number of guns in circulation and taking all the accidents, overreactions and heat-of-the-moment arguments that turn fatal that come with that isn't a good trade-off when there's hardly any property that can't be insured and, I'd argue, none that's worth someone losing their life over.
Arguing about the "right" to defend yourself is all well and good, but the reality is that in most situations you're better off waiving that right and letting someone take your stuff. Yeah, it still sucks, but it's better than the body count that comes with the alternative.