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The psychological aspect of guns

Bucky

Bucky

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Some or many people may disagree with me, however, I believe there is a negative psychological aspect towards guns.

I argue gun ownership and gun usage makes people LESS free and less in control of their destiny. IMO it is somewhat similar to alcohol consumption. I have no problem with a person drinking alcohol, however, studies have shown alcohol consumption, even moderate consumption increases your risk for cancer. Alcohol often determines our self-worth, friendships, life experiences, even our destiny.

It is no surprise global alcohol consumption is DECREASING.

There is an intrinsic relationship between guns and violence. Shooting people or animals may not negatively alter some people's mental state but it definitely can for many others. Is this false narrative of feeling safe and being able to defend yourself by owning a gun really worth the mental instability caused by using a deadly weapon?

There is a fringe minority globally that think gun culture is perfectly acceptable and more people show own/use guns. Luckily they are in the minority. There is nothing normal about shooting and killing people. Look at all the soldiers and cops that start losing it.
 
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I don't have your hive mentality. My considerations about gun ownership are specifically about ME - and of course being able to defend others as well. Gun ownership makes ME freer to defend others and myself. It gives ME the ability to defend others and myself against the people YOU are worried about.
 
It also allow me and mine to go where we otherwise dare not go.

For example, this weekend we went offshore in our boat including in the evening because it is not so hot. It is known that people who have gone out there have disappeared to "pirates," ie criminals. There is no one to call for help, no police, no other boaters nearby, and no one could even get to us for over an hour.

We are 100% entirely on our own in lawless international waters. Not a chance in hell we could dare do that unarmed. However, merely being about to see (night scope) we are armed is all the deterrence we need.

Criminally pick easy victims. Not potential victims with M1A .308s shotguns and 45s.
 
The last time anyone disappeared from here was last month. Teenage couple in their parents 21 foot bowrider. Went far off shore at night. Nice boat. Didn't return. The boat was found. Nothing wrong with the boat. No teenagers. They were unarmed.

They're dead, everyone knows it. It is unlikely they died easily or quickly, especially the teenage girl.
 
Bucky said:
Some or many people may disagree with me, however, I believe there is a negative psychological aspect towards guns.

I argue gun ownership and gun usage makes people LESS free and less in control of their destiny. IMO it is somewhat similar to alcohol consumption. I have no problem with a person drinking alcohol, however, studies have shown alcohol consumption, even moderate consumption increases your risk for cancer. Alcohol often determines our self-worth, friendships, life experiences, even our destiny.

It is no surprise global alcohol consumption is DECREASING.

There is an intrinsic relationship between guns and violence. Shooting people or animals may not negatively alter some people's mental state but it definitely can for many others. Is this false narrative of feeling safe and being able to defend yourself by owning a gun really worth the mental instability caused by using a deadly weapon?

There is a fringe minority globally that think gun culture is perfectly acceptable and more people show own/use guns. Luckily they are in the minority. There is nothing normal about shooting and killing people. Look at all the soldiers and cops that start losing it.
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You do have a tactical advantage with a firearm that's not psychological that's factual. If I can kill you from 20 feet away with the twitch of my finger that is absolutely a tactical advantage over and not being able to do that.

You keep saying this word gun culture and I don't know what that is. You didn't define it so I'm not commenting on it.

I know there is nothing normal about killing anybody. I've never met anybody that wants to just go kill people. most people that own guns say the second to last thing they would want to do just have to shoot somebody. The last thing they want to do is watch one of the family members or themselves getting murdered.

I would say this is very healthy psychology. There is an intrinsic relationship between life and violence. Wherever there is life there is violence.

And the results of the solution that violence is never the answer but sometimes it is. Think about the Civil War or world War II. If you weren't willing to go kill people how would you have ever stopped Hitler, Mussolini Or the like.

This pacifist idiot culture that is being bred into most people in the West is going to be what in the West. When barbarians are at the gate you have to take up arms and destroy. I think you've been too sheltered in your life.

I don't think there's any glory in it, it's dirty awful work but you need the people that will do it because you won't.
 
joko104 said:
It also allow me and mine to go where we otherwise dare not go.

For example, this weekend we went offshore in our boat including in the evening because it is not so hot. It is known that people who have gone out there have disappeared to "pirates," ie criminals. There is no one to call for help, no police, no other boaters nearby, and no one could even get to us for over an hour.

We are 100% entirely on our own in lawless international waters. Not a chance in hell we could dare do that unarmed. However, merely being about to see (night scope) we are armed is all the deterrence we need.

Criminally pick easy victims. Not potential victims with M1A .308s shotguns and 45s.
Click to expand...

Most of these perceived enemies are not real threats. They are non-existent threats used to push a political agenda.
 
Bucky said:
Some or many people may disagree with me, however, I believe there is a negative psychological aspect towards guns.

I argue gun ownership and gun usage makes people LESS free and less in control of their destiny. IMO it is somewhat similar to alcohol consumption. I have no problem with a person drinking alcohol, however, studies have shown alcohol consumption, even moderate consumption increases your risk for cancer. Alcohol often determines our self-worth, friendships, life experiences, even our destiny.

It is no surprise global alcohol consumption is DECREASING.

There is an intrinsic relationship between guns and violence. Shooting people or animals may not negatively alter some people's mental state but it definitely can for many others. Is this false narrative of feeling safe and being able to defend yourself by owning a gun really worth the mental instability caused by using a deadly weapon?

There is a fringe minority globally that think gun culture is perfectly acceptable and more people show own/use guns. Luckily they are in the minority. There is nothing normal about shooting and killing people. Look at all the soldiers and cops that start losing it.
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simple solution-if you are afraid to own a gun, then don't. However, stop projecting this sort of silliness onto others. As long as I have been on this board-and for decades before that, I have never ever said others HAVE to own guns. As "Dirty Harry" said in Magnum Force-"A man's got to know his limitations". If someone is not mentally and/or physically, use a gun properly, then they should not obtain one.
 
Bucky said:
Most of these perceived enemies are not real threats. They are non-existent threats used to push a political agenda.
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Just as the anti gun left treats the NRA and law abiding gun owners. yet the left pushes all sorts of laws designed to restrict and harass the NRA and lawful gun owners.
 
Bucky said:
Most of these perceived enemies are not real threats. They are non-existent threats used to push a political agenda.
Click to expand...

Well.. that's exactly why you are wrong. Your perception that gun owners are psychologically damaged and thus dangerous is a non existent threat used to push a political agenda.

The number of gun sales in this country skyrocketed the last several years. Meanhwhile violent crime went down as did firearms accidents.
 
Bucky said:
There is an intrinsic relationship between guns and violence. Shooting people or animals may not negatively alter some people's mental state but it definitely can for many others. Is this false narrative of feeling safe and being able to defend yourself by owning a gun really worth the mental instability caused by using a deadly weapon?
Click to expand...
As someone who is in favor of gun control: I haven't seen any actual psychological or psychiatric research which supports this conclusion.

You might be right, but I'd need to see some hard evidence to classify it as anything more than mere speculation.
 
CLAX1911 said:
People have used their fire arms defensively so that is an absolute lie.
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Lets see-used a shotgun to prevent some mope from breaking into my parents's home. Mope fled, police couldn't find him

Stopped a drunk asshole from breaking into my apartment when I was a law student. Put a Walther PP in his back and told him to stop trying to pry open the door with a screwdriver. Police arrested the mope-charged and convicted of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief

Shot a mugger when I was a grad student. Mope sent to prison.
 
jaeger19 said:
Well.. that's exactly why you are wrong. Your perception that gun owners are psychologically damaged and thus dangerous is a non existent threat used to push a political agenda.

The number of gun sales in this country skyrocketed the last several years. Meanhwhile violent crime went down as did firearms accidents.
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A person that drinks alcohol isn't psychologically damaged either. That doesn't mean they are doing harm to themselves.
 
Bucky said:
A person that drinks alcohol isn't psychologically damaged either. That doesn't mean they are doing harm to themselves.
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Tell us of your experience using guns and if it has harmed you. I have now over 3/4 of a million rounds of experience and at 60, my hearing is above average for someone of my age. So I haven't been harmed by being someone most likely in the top one percent of firearms usage in this country (and probably the world).
 
Bucky said:
A person that drinks alcohol isn't psychologically damaged either. That doesn't mean they are doing harm to themselves.
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That is some of the most tortured and convoluted comparative logic I have ever read.
 
TurtleDude said:
Lets see-used a shotgun to prevent some mope from breaking into my parents's home. Mope fled, police couldn't find him

Stopped a drunk asshole from breaking into my apartment when I was a law student. Put a Walther PP in his back and told him to stop trying to pry open the door with a screwdriver. Police arrested the mope-charged and convicted of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief

Shot a mugger when I was a grad student. Mope sent to prison.
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That drunk civilian would have most likely been stopped if you just called the police. By putting a Walther PP in his back you probably increased the likelihood of someone actually being killed or hurt.

You are NOT the law. That is the job of law enforcement.
 
TurtleDude said:
Tell us of your experience using guns and if it has harmed you. I have now over 3/4 of a million rounds of experience and at 60, my hearing is above average for someone of my age. So I haven't been harmed by being someone most likely in the top one percent of firearms usage in this country (and probably the world).
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I know a good friend that drinks a full bottle of wine every day and is still alive, working and in relatively good shape in his 60s. He smokes cigarettes every day as well.
 
Bucky said:
I know a good friend that drinks a full bottle of wine every day and is still alive, working and in relatively good shape in his 60s. He cigarettes every day as well.
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Yes but those are aberrations, you cannot find numerous cases of people who use firearms, as intended, who have been harmed by then. Both my parents were smokers-dad died of naso-pharanx cancer, mom died of a combination of COPD, pneumonia after surviving throat cancer. My aunt died of numerous cancers-it started in her mouth, she was a smoker. Two members of my extended family died of lung cancer-both were smokers. I think just about anyone 40 or over, knows someone who has died of smoking related diseases or issues related to drinking (my wife's aunt died from being an alcoholic).
 
TurtleDude said:
Lets see-used a shotgun to prevent some mope from breaking into my parents's home. Mope fled, police couldn't find him

Stopped a drunk asshole from breaking into my apartment when I was a law student. Put a Walther PP in his back and told him to stop trying to pry open the door with a screwdriver. Police arrested the mope-charged and convicted of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief

Shot a mugger when I was a grad student. Mope sent to prison.
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But were you sure they weren’t just perceived threats? ;)
 
RaleBulgarian said:
But were you sure they weren’t just perceived threats? ;)
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Well the surgeon who reconstructed my nose a couple years after that mugging seemed to think it was worth doing the surgery and the EMT who stuck cotton in my nose to stop the bleeding after the mope hit me in the face (which is why I shot him) was most likely not imagining any blood. :2razz:
 
TurtleDude said:
Well the surgeon who reconstructed my nose a couple years after that mugging seemed to think it was worth doing the surgery and the EMT who stuck cotton in my nose to stop the bleeding after the mope hit me in the face (which is why I shot him) was most likely not imagining any blood. :2razz:
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Ok, that’s sound pretty real to me. :thumbs: Wonder if Bucky would agree.
 
RaleBulgarian said:
But were you sure they weren’t just perceived threats? ;)
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turtledude did everything law enforcement would advise against! I am guessing TD would advocate torture as well.
 
Bucky said:
turtledude did everything law enforcement would advise against! I am guessing TD would advocate torture as well.
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Funny how someone as ignorant of this subject as you are would make such a claim, given I spent years teaching cops, and others the tactical use of firearms. So what exactly did I do wrong? BTW when I shot the mope, I wasn't even handcuffed or placed under arrest. Think that through.
 
TurtleDude said:
Funny how someone as ignorant of this subject as you are would make such a claim, given I spent years teaching cops, and others the tactical use of firearms. So what exactly did I do wrong? BTW when I shot the mope, I wasn't even handcuffed or placed under arrest. Think that through.
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that poor drunk guy was no threat and you should have just called 911 and let the police handle the situation.
 
Bucky said:
turtledude did everything law enforcement would advise against! I am guessing TD would advocate torture as well.
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Law enforcement would say take an ass beating or murder??
 
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