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Comment by ux-app | Hacker News Reader

> My intention is not to preserve "human life" but the lives of my family and myself.

The irony of course is that (statistically speaking) you would be vastly lowering you and your family's chances of surviving the event.

The chance that the intruder is there to murder you is ridiculously minuscule. It's so small that the people that do indiscriminately enter homes to murder get special nicknames like "Zodiac Killer" and Hollywood makes films about them.

Worrying about this type of intruder is irrational. Pulling a gun turns what is almost certainly a routine burglary into a life and death situation.

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First, your statistics are moot.

As I just said, a statistic is still a risk. A risk I will not take when it comes to family. You play it your way; I'll play it mine.

> You play it your way; I'll play it mine.

Of course. I just find the idea of guns making you safe so laughably absurd (and provably false). I'm sure they make you feel safer though. Maybe that's worth something.

Here's a good comedy skit about gun ownership (NSFW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl--YVnni0I

Guns don't make me feel safe. Being properly trained on how to use defensive force makes me feel safe.

The error in your logic is that you're imagining yourself with a weapon, which indeed, is laughable and provably unsafe.

Edit: not going to bother replying and further make this thread a gun debate. Just want to state that YouTube videos of comedic skits and accidents doesn't nullify any argument. Humans will make mistakes; that's a fact of life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YqcvuRRggM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUonA66btgI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_1yDAqsnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvfbikv0gBc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WChMcDCMgGw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjCczTWqKx8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycTwaROa1I0

2mins of youtubing. These examples never end! But you, your wife, your kids. You'd never make these kinds of stupid mistakes.

edit: there must be thousands of these self proclaimed gun pros out there here's another beauty

https://youtu.be/v-i8dtulUYU?t=165

love the facial reaction.

edit 2: these videos literally never end on YouTube. Here are another 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv89_3rrW8Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTGDKe-uy3E

> Humans will make mistakes; that's a fact of life.

I agree. This is a fact of life. This combined with the utterly vanishingly tiny chance that you will be the victim of a serial killer make gun ownership for the purpose of safety absurd.

Own a gun all you want. But at least realize that you and your family are actually less safe because of it!

You're making incredible judgements about an individual who clearly spends the time to learn how to be a responsible gun owner. What you're equating is someone who says they know karate because they watch a lot of kung fu movies. This is a guy who regularly trains at a dojo.

Not everyone who owns a gun has the proper discipline to learn how to use their weapon. I call those people statistics, and they set a bad example for the rest of us who respect our tools.

> You're making incredible judgements

I'm not passing judgement at all. I'm saying that having a device that is designed to suddenly and explosively discharge a projectile is inherently unsafe. To back up my claim I posted numerous videos, many of highly trained people, who have experienced accidental/negligent discharge.

Accidents happen. Even to the most highly trained and careful. The issue with gun accidents is that they have an incredibly high risk of being fatal. Enjoy guns all you like. Just stop pretending that you are safer around them or that you are immune to mistakes. No human is.

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