Exactly, mom2twogirls. People break into homes where they think they can get valuables. That may include guns, drugs, electronics, cash etc. Maybe part of the solution is a stronger war on crime/drugs.
I can understand a thief looking for guns, but not a robber. There has been research on it, criminals do not want to get killed.
Excellent piece in the NY times. Several short films, about 3 minutes each, that cover many different perceptions of the gun issue. A funeral director, a victim of multiple gunshot wounds, an Olympic sharpshooter, a child in a devoted hunting family, etc.
And the distinction between a thief and a robber is…
And this was quite striking when I read it two years ago, and still is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?pagewanted=all
Due to the diligence of the journalists, they discovered that the toll of children killed by guns is about twice what had been thought - because coroners sometimes classify the deaths as accidents, and sometimes as suicides, and sometimes as homicides.
The article goes into detail about what attracts children to guns they may find, what ages are the most dangerous, how they just can’t resist(!!!), yet they know it’s bad so they hide their activity until it’s too late.
It makes you wonder… you may have no guns, your kid’s friend’s parents may have no guns, but what if Grandpa or Aunt Jane is visiting and has one? It doesn’t take much to cause a tragedy, and these tragedies could be prevented.
Hunters will often have storage sites where they hunt. You can rent them out or buy them.
I’d love to see some numbers on subsistence hunters. If it’s still something that’s widely practiced, maybe I can recommend it to the people I know who are poor. I know of people in Alaska who practice subsistence hunting but considering that in many places you have to travel a distance, get licenses, etc it wouldn’t see viable for the average poor Joe to do it.
And substinence hunters are also trappers without need for guns. Of course this is all off topic and irrelevant to this discussion.
romani,
I don’t know how prevalent subsistence hunting is, but a quick google of Tennessee (where the child shooting occurred) brought up eligibility requirements for SNAP in TN, and vehicles used for subsistence hunting were specifically omitted from the asset test, so it must be happening there.
Adding that I have to believe that people who live in extremely rural areas don’t have many protein source options other than subsistence hunting, but that is just a guess on my part.
Whitetail populations are at the point we could probably reduce the costs of SNAP, if there was a little more promotion of subsistence hunting.
You’d shoot someone who was stealing a handbag? What was in it, again?
Someone in my house stealing my stuff? I would happily shoot him.
Take some measure of comfort in the knowledge that they probably only like milk chocolate.
@jym626, I was just about to ask that very same question!
Have you been able to come up with that, yet?
Someone once broke into our house while we were home asleep, took handbag and kid’s backpack. Until this moment it never crossed my mind to shoot them, nor would I even now that I have thought of it.
Nrds,
Definitions vary across jurisdictions, but the short answer is that stealing from a house while a person is present is robbery; when no one is at home it is theft.
bookmama,
If you are in FL and someone enters your home and poses a threat, youcan shoot first and ask questions later. Defend your ground. Even if your ground is a purse filled with dirty tissues and candy wrappers.
nrdsb4,
My understanding is that theft and robbery are pretty similar (though I believe robbery involves interacting with another person, whereas theft alone may not) Regardless, they are very similar. Its burglary that differs. So I believe, in bookmama’s case, since she was home and confronted by the robbers who took something from her, she was robbed. If she had not been home, she would have been a victim of a burglary, as they entered her home with the intent to commit a crime.
Some guns should be prohibitively expensive…assault weapons for example.
The 2nd Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms. That doesn’t mean without regulation or restriction of any kind and it doesn’t mean you’re entitled to whatever weapon man devises for mass killing just because you want it.
The makers and sellers of AK-47s and other assault weapons should be held to a high liability standard ---- they should have to buy insurance like malpractice insurance just in case to cover the scenario in which one of the guns they made or sold is used to shoot up an elementary school for example. Let the cost of a assault weapons soar.
The cost of a tax stamp for a fully automatic weapon is $200.
Just like it was in 1934.