EDIT - Why is my off-topic comment with an argument being down-voted in a reply to a off-topic statement with no argument is not? There must be a lot of gun lovers on Hacker News...
I tend to believe that people who see a tool as one that can only be used in one direction, to be the ones most likely to use it in that direction.
You remember that news story from a couple of years ago in Seattle (I think)... Four professionally trained and armed policemen sitting at a coffee shop and one person walks up and shoots them all dead? Their guns were useless...
If we were living in movie world I would say guns are great defensive weapons because the good guys always know the bad guys are coming and have their guns drawn (or have super human reaction and aim). In real life? Not so much...
It's not about shooting back with lightning fast reflexes. It's dissuasion, or sometimes against wild life too. It also doesn't mean its going to save you every time either. Nothing works every single time, we'd know by now.
Of course its also used to kill. For homicides, what not. Heck flower pots are used for homicides too.
The point is that the decision is in the hands of the human behind the trigger, if guns didn't exist, they'd use swords. If sword's didn't exist, they'd use blunts. and so on.
I am not making a moral judgment about guns. I am merely stating they are not defensive weapons as they not designed for that...
Swords? Well, if you had a sword and I had a sword it is possible for me to block your strikes with my sword. Guns? No gun blocks bullets...
Walking around with a gun offers one no protection (unless you have it drawn and ready to fire at all times then maybe) but a false sense of security as my real life examples illustrated. Now, if you want to shot someone dead, guns (I would not suggest flower pots) do work really well for that...
For my part:
Personally owned firearms are used for defense far more often than for aggression. The easiest scenario to picture is the one in which a sidearm is merely revealed (rather than brandished or fired) in order to deter an attacker.
The vast majority of successful uses of guns for personal protection do not involve discharge. I think it's reasonable to call these purely "defensive" uses.
I agree that, on its face, discharging a firearm with the intent to kill or injure another person is offensive. However, this is an over-simplification of the (largely positive, in my experience) role that firearms play in our society.
A sufficient distribution of concealed carry permits creates (or at least can create) a sort of herd immunity against certain types of violent crime.
Volunteer open carry provides an example of how protective force might be delegated in a community without the need for a police force.
A culture of firearms safety and training, along with widespread ownership of effective tactical arms, can cause an entity, even a state actor, to opt against brute-force repression of a community.
If you want a crash course in firearm culture amidst unending dedication to peace and compassion, check out Porcupine Festival. (And for what it's worth, there are also very intense tech talks and hacking sessions that will blow your mind).
I didn't mean, though, to be empirical for the most part; I was just trying to jog the imagination about what "purely defensive" uses of firearms might look like.
>The easiest scenario to picture is the one in which a sidearm is merely revealed (rather than brandished or fired) in order to deter an attacker.
Huh? Where do you live where this scenario ever happens? I am 45 and lived in a major city half my life and not really in the best part of town. I have never had the need to reveal a weapon to a would be attacker. If someone is going to mug me their weapon will be already pointed at me and revealing any weapon I have is just going to get me shot. I think maybe you watch to much TV...
>A sufficient distribution of concealed carry permits creates (or at least can create) a sort of herd immunity against certain types of violent crime.
Source? I just looked at murder rates for NY (where I live) with a low concealed carry permits ratio to Texas which has a high concealed carry permits. Gee, Texas has a higher murder rate...
>Volunteer open carry provides an example of how protective force might be delegated in a community without the need for a police force.
Ok, I am not a huge fan of police forces but I am also not a huge fan of more random people walking around with guns. The majority of people are to violent, mentally unstable, to just plain to dumb to be carrying weapons around.
We already try the wild west thing and it didn't work out...
I don't speak from personal experience; I've never owned a firearm. However, a number of my friends have had this experience. One possibility is that this is more important for women? A women, being threatened by an unarmed man, can change the complexion of the power balance by revealing a weapon.
I don't have a good source for this; it's very possible that I'm wrong.
Even if it rarely happens, it's still an easy way to picture the 'purely' defensive capacity of a sidearm.
Funny, this was just in the news the other day... A man purchased a new gun and was flashing it. You guessed it, he was mugged at gun point by someone who wanted to upgrade his piece.
What the hell is wrong with you?
This is shockingly presumptuous and divisive.