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Do you keep a gun by your bed?

Do you keep a gun by your bed

  • I lean right and keep a gun by my bed

    Votes: 20 33.9%
  • I lean right and keep no gun by my bed

    Votes: 8 13.6%
  • I lean left and keep a gun by my bed

    Votes: 9 15.3%
  • I lean left and keep no gun by my bed

    Votes: 22 37.3%

  • Total voters
    59
Conservatives think they live in a more dangerous world than liberals think they do. That is odd since conservatives are less likely to live in cities, so they are probably actually less likely to actually experience a crime in their home. My guess is that the amount or type of TV watching is the cause of the difference.

Trying to find evidence of my theory I found this, and little else that was relevant

".....Gerbner’s research also showed that heavy TV viewers are likely to believe that crime is on the rise, when in fact, crime has been on the decline since the 1990s. This is perhaps due to the number of crimes shown on the local news, which is the primary news source for 2/3 of Americans, according to “The Mean World Syndrome.” 61% of the news stories on local news, Gerbner’s research shows, are about crime and violence, which Gerbner believes has a lot to do with how people perceive the world—hence the name “The Mean World Syndrome.” Conservative Americans are more likely to be “tough on crime,” as evidenced by Student News Daily’s comparison of liberal and conservative views on the death penalty. For conservatives, the view is that “The death penalty is a punishment that fits the crime of murder; …Executing a murderer is the appropriate punishment for taking an innocent life.” For liberals, “The death penalty should be abolished… Every execution risks killing an innocent person.” Are conservatives tougher on crime because they feel there is more crime than actually exists, due to the Cultivation Theory? Conservatives are often the ones who tout gun ownership, and, according to the movie, the reason cited is most often “protection.” If crime is on the decline, from whom are gun owners protecting themselves?

All of these comparisons seem to point to the conclusion that conservatives watch more television, or perhaps are more influenced by what they see on television. I had a hard time finding any study that supports or denies this hypothesis; internet articles offered clues to the differences between what conservatives and liberals watch on television, but not how much television they watched. That information didn’t tell me a lot. Liberals watch “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and “30 Rock”; Conservatives like “Swamp Loggers,” “Top Shot” and “The Bachelor." None of this is particularly surprising. But for this study, news and sports were not taken into account, which might tell a different story.


If there hasn’t been a study on this subject—and there doesn’t seem to have been, from what I can tell from my research—I think there should be one. The answer to the question of “Do conservatives watch more television?” would not only answer it at face value, but it might tell us more about the huge divide in American politics today and what the media is doing to drive that..."
http://kirbywrites.blogspot.com/2013/06/do-conservatives-watch-too-much-tv.html
 
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Dude, you're looking at Tacoma...which, if you knew anything at all about the region, does NOT represent the whole region.

Here's a list of America's 100 most dangerous cities from FBI data...and guess how many cities in Washington are there? ZERO.

And the crime rate for the entire state is pretty much determined by Puget Sound, since it's right here that the overwhelming majority of the people of Washington state live. If Puget Sound were as dangerous as you seem to believe, we'd be a lot worse off in the rankings. But we're not. This area is by and large one of the more peaceful areas to live in America.

Okay? You're full of it. You found ONE SITE and built your whole argument around it...and ignored solid stats from elsewhere, and especially didn't stop to wonder why it was that you were thinking Puget Sound was SO dangerous if Puget Sound comprised the great majority of the state's population...and the state has a relatively low crime rate. You didn't stop to think that maybe, just maybe it was a few neighborhoods that's skewing the stats of the whole, did you? Of course you didn't. All you could think of was clinging to what you believed...and could not muster the courage to look just a bit deeper into the hard-and-fast numbers.

The site I found gave the college and Puget Sound an F for a safe place to send your kid to school. Get over it, you live in a crime zone.
 
small places are safer

Which is why people ought to live in them. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
 
Sharon Tate and the La Biancas lived in great neighborhoods and had no enemies..... remember the Manson murders?

Being prepared is not limited to living in a bad neighborhood. Evil may find anyone at anyplace or any time.
true...i should have put a funny face next to the quote....because i was making comedy.
 
I don't buy your line about how much your home is fortified.
I don't give a **** what you buy. You are acting like a paranoid arrogant loon in this forum. I never claimed my home was "fortified" in the first place. I don't even have a fence around my yard. It's not like I live in some kind of fortress as you so hilariously imply. It's quite the opposite. The neighborhood kids play baseball, softball, football and soccer right in my side and back yards fer chrissakes. And they don't get chewed up by German Shepherd guard dogs. Or even yelled at when I'm grumpy. This is not exactly Fort Knox when it come to security. But no errant baseball is going to break my Lexan windows. I can guarantee that.

You bragged that you could get in my home in a heartbeat. I'd just like to know exactly how you think you could do that. Are you going to tell us or not? You said you could kick in my windows. That's laughable. The bottom of the windowsills are about six feet above grade. And of course the grade slopes away from the house. Did you plan on bringing a ladder? Didn't think anyone would notice you carrying around a ladder in the middle of the night? Or do you have one hell of a great high kick there Mr. superman?

Tell us how you can break into my home in a heartbeat Mr. braggart.
 
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Which is why people ought to live in them. What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

l feel a deja vu right now .l had heard this chinese joke before
 
I don't give a **** what you buy. You are acting like a paranoid arrogant loon in this forum. I never claimed my home was "fortified" in the first place. I don't even have a fence around my yard. It's not like I live in some kind of fortress as you so hilariously imply. It's quite the opposite. The neighborhood kids play baseball, softball, football and soccer right in my side and back yards fer chrissakes. And they don't get chewed up by German Shepherd guard dogs. Or even yelled at when I'm grumpy. This is not exactly Fort Knox when it come to security. But no errant baseball is going to break my Lexan windows. I can guarantee that.

You bragged that you could get in my home in a heartbeat. I'd just like to know exactly how you think you could do that. Are you going to tell us or not? You said you could kick in my windows. That's laughable. The bottom of the windowsills are about six feet above grade. And of course the grade slopes away from the house. Did you plan on bringing a ladder? Didn't think anyone would notice you carrying around a ladder in the middle of the night? Or do you have one hell of a great high kick there Mr. superman?

Tell us how you can break into my home in a heartbeat Mr. braggart.
So much anger.
 
So much anger.
Dodging the question again I see.

Well, are you going to tell us how you are going to break into my home "in a heartbeat" or are you going to STFU?

Or what?
 
Dodging the question again I see.

Well, are you going to tell us how you are going to break into my home "in a heartbeat" or are you going to STFU?

Or what?
Its getting like you just want to invite me over.
 
Its getting like you just want to invite me over.
No. I'd be afraid that you would hurt yourself trying to do a run and jump Bruce Lee high-kick right through one of my windows that are six feet off the ground. And may dent my siding with your head when you fail miserably :lol:
 
I do but then again I have a loaded gun in every room in my house.:lol:

EDIT: I'm interested in how your politics relates to this decision too.
Glock tucked between the mattress and the runner edge of a platform bed with the handle up, no rounds chambered. The way I'm set up, and the way I practice is with no round in the chamber. I both have time to do so due to the physical obstructions that will slow down anyone, and practice to load a round quickly.
 
Glock tucked between the mattress and the runner edge of a platform bed with the handle up, no rounds chambered. The way I'm set up, and the way I practice is with no round in the chamber. I both have time to do so due to the physical obstructions that will slow down anyone, and practice to load a round quickly.

Not good enough.
 
"The 2010 Census enumerated 308.7 million people in the United States....300.8 million lived in 116.7 million households for an average of 2.58 people per household."
https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-14.pdf

"An estimated 3.7 million burglaries occurred each year on
average from 2003 to 2007.
impacting 1.2% of the US population, 2.33% of the households

*A household member was present in roughly 1 million burglaries
impacting .32% of the US population, .6% of the households

and became victims of violent crimes in 266,560 burglaries.
impacting .09% of the US population, .16% of the households

*Serious injury accounted for 9% of injuries sustained by household members who were home
and experienced violence during a completed burglary.
impacting .008% of the US population


*Simple assault (15%) was the most common form of violence when
a resident was home and violence occurred. Robbery (7%) and
rape (3%) were less likely to occur when a household member was
present and violence occurred.

*Offenders were known to their victims in 65% of violent
burglaries; offenders were strangers in 28%.

*Overall, 61% of offenders were unarmed when violence occurred
during a burglary while a resident was present. About 12% of
all households violently burglarized while someone was home
faced an offender armed with a firearm.

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

Special Report

National Crime Victimization Survey

Victimization During Household Burglary

September 2010 NCJ 227379

Shannan Catalano, Ph.D.,
BJS Statistician
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/ascii/vdhb.txt
(percentages in bold added by Hard Truth)
 
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Not good enough.

What's not good about it? A Glock is nearly impossible for a young child to chamber a round. Its safety latch is questionable. Best way to assure it isn't discharged accidentally is to not chamber a round. Additionally I then dry fire it so all I have to do is look at the gun, and I know it has no round in the chamber because the trigger remains depressed after a dry fire.
 
Not good enough.

Why? Not everyone has to be Omar about it.
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I don't keep rounds chambered because my shotgun doesn't have a drop safety, w/ its sling & 15 shells its HEAVY. If one of my nieces or nephews were somehow able to gain access to my gun room, god forbid they knock it over.

The Glock doesn't have an external safety, just the safe action trigger which a child could pull despite being too weak to rack the slide. The Glock safety lock also has to be chambered, so either way I cannot leave it chambered. I prefer to keep my Glock with the trigger pulled (uncocked) as well. I don't mind that it'll cost me 1/2 a second to rack either, or that the sound would give away my position. In fact, racking my shotgun was the reason a man trying to break down my front door ran for it; I want the sound.

That said, I wouldn't practice with my Glock at all. I have another gun for that, that is NEVER loaded for dry fire practice. I only practice with my Glock @ the range, with snap caps, to practice clearing malfunctions and to fight anticipating the bang (seeing if I flinch or jerk the trigger to the right.)
 
What's not good about it? A Glock is nearly impossible for a young child to chamber a round. Its safety latch is questionable. Best way to assure it isn't discharged accidentally is to not chamber a round. Additionally I then dry fire it so all I have to do is look at the gun, and I know it has no round in the chamber because the trigger remains depressed after a dry fire.

Worse case scenario you can get a mag in and slide charged with a man within inches of you?
 
Worse case scenario you can get a mag in and slide charged with a man within inches of you?

As I said, it's a combo thing. There's no way anyone gets within inches of me at night without waking me. Not possible.
 
really
Slow to reload, slow rate of fire, heavy, and way to expensive.


Looks pretty fast to me. and while pythons are over priced, good revolvers can be had for 300-400 dollars

 
So much fear. So scared.

What if what if what if....

Not everybody wants/needs/chooses to live in constant fear.

Plenty of people live in very low crime-rate areas.

Simply not living in constant fear of the ultimate "what if" scenario (when those scenarios are few and far between in many places) is not "volunteering to be a victim".

It's simply living life with a different outlook. And that outlook isn't always pathetically ignorant, just in case that's the direction you care to take after reading this.

Lots of people live happy, safe, and violent-crime free lives, and die of old age in comfort and warm surroundings without ever having to need a gun for protection.

But, but there's a .09% chance you will be seriously injured in a home invasion robbery in any given year.
 
Google and read the studies - they're concerning guns owned by the person living in the house.

actually that is bs. the most famous one had something like 435 incidents and in 432 of them the intruder brought the gun that did the harm
 
What's not good about it? A Glock is nearly impossible for a young child to chamber a round. Its safety latch is questionable. Best way to assure it isn't discharged accidentally is to not chamber a round. Additionally I then dry fire it so all I have to do is look at the gun, and I know it has no round in the chamber because the trigger remains depressed after a dry fire.

1) true

2) glocks have no SAFETY LATCH

3) IDF carried their browning HPs that way and I have seen IDF operatives shoot ALMOST as fast as I can from a holster (and I have my 1911 loaded). Almost as fast is probably good enough since the security of that carry makes sense in crowded urban areas where Jihadists might grab the gun from the IDF soldier and very few IDF soldiers are going to have to play quickdraw with an IPSC master level-or even Class C level shooter(i.e. people who have spent years practicing drawing and shooting quickly
 
1) true

2) glocks have no SAFETY LATCH

3) IDF carried their browning HPs that way and I have seen IDF operatives shoot ALMOST as fast as I can from a holster (and I have my 1911 loaded). Almost as fast is probably good enough since the security of that carry makes sense in crowded urban areas where Jihadists might grab the gun from the IDF soldier and very few IDF soldiers are going to have to play quickdraw with an IPSC master level-or even Class C level shooter(i.e. people who have spent years practicing drawing and shooting quickly
#2 I know, but it has a safety thingy, and I've never known quite what to call it. I guess because I don't see anything "safe" about it's extra trigger thingy. It seems more to avoid accidental discharge from things like being dropped than from children or carelessness.
 
really


Looks pretty fast to me. and while pythons are over priced, good revolvers can be had for 300-400 dollars



I have a python. Bought it 30 years ago. It's the only handgun I own and I love the thing and wouldn't part with it for all the tea in China. When my dad passed earlier this year he willed his Hi Standard Victor to me and I should be getting that in a month or so. Also been thinking of getting a Sig 40 cal.

To the OP. The only time I slept with the handgun in really easy reach was after Hurricane Sandy. We were without power for 2 weeks and there were sadly some break ins not far from us. It's normally stored not too far from the bed but I can't get to it with getting up. I also have a hunting knife and a metal club in easy reach as well as a noisy as all hell dog.
 
really


Looks pretty fast to me. and while pythons are over priced, good revolvers can be had for 300-400 dollars


Buddy of mine had a 4" Python and I have a 686 SW and we used to always have contests against each other. He was killed in the line of duty and the gun ended up with another friend on the Palm Bay PD. Unfortunately he was killed with that weapon after being over powered by a couple of thugs.
 
The site I found gave the college and Puget Sound an F for a safe place to send your kid to school. Get over it, you live in a crime zone.

Guy, go back to your reference - what does it use as reference material? Where does it draw its numbers from? Good luck finding them - I browsed several sites on that domain and I could find nowhere that gave a link to any kind of source for crime data.

However, I gave you numbers from the CDC and the FBI. Your reference has zero hard numbers - my reference has the hard numbers in spades.

But it's obvious you're not interested in finding out and presenting facts - all you're doing is cherry-picking for information that supports what you want to hear, and refusing to even consider contrary information no matter how good its pedigree is.
 
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