Hi, Shrewd!        Login  
Shrewd'm.com 
A merry & shrewd investing community
Best Of PoliticsBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m Weekly ¤Learn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd
Search
Shrewd'm.com Merry shrewd investors
Search
Best Of PoliticsBest OfAll BoardsThe Shrewd’m Weekly ¤Learn to InvestHow to Become Shrewd


The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", sykesix asked the members: "What do you do if you arrive early at movie besides go to the snack bar?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
Answer this questionContinue to Shrewd'mThis note won't appear again
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (103) |
Author: albaby1 ✶❂🐝 GOLD
SHREWD
  😊 😞

Number: of 88930 
Subject: Re: She Had No Face
Date: 05/09/23 10:55 AM
Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
No. of Recommendations: 4
If they leave fine, if they are a deranged sociopath and pick up and object on your porch and start bashing the window, then what? Or if it is a group of thugs, bent on home invasion, then what?

Then they're not knocking on the door to alert you to their presence, and patiently waiting on the doorstep, to give you time to go to whatever room you have your gun in and get it. Deranged sociopaths and "thugs" bent on home invasion are never so polite.

I would much prefer to have a gun and not need it than to need one and not have it.

Because you only imagine the situations in which having a gun works to your benefit, and never dwell on the scenarios where it makes things worse for you. We've had three people face charges because they had guns when they didn't need it, and used it to kill someone who knocked on the wrong door or turned into the wrong driveway or went to the wrong car. Those folks have had their lives destroyed, because they had a gun when they didn't need it. Those aren't the only examples, of course:

fox13news.com - Man wont face charges for university of tampa student shot killed after mistakenly getting into wrong car

Not everyone faces charges, but they'll still have years of wrongful death lawsuits. And of course, it can really mess you up when you gun someone down on your doorstep and later find out they weren't actually a threat to you. To say nothing of the situations where having a gun emboldens someone to escalate a property crime into a personal confrontation - vastly increasing the risk of personal injury to themselves from an encounter that wouldn't otherwise have reached that point. Given how rare it is that someone is breaking into a home for the express purpose of harming the occupants, rather than hoping no one's there, these other scenarios are far more likely for the vast majority of people.

And of course, that's only the danger to you, the gun owner. The other folks in these scenarios - who end up being killed or wounded for doing nothing wrong - would vastly prefer that the other person not have a gun when they didn't need it. This isn't like an umbrella, where if you have it and don't need it there's no risk or consequence to other innocent people.

Yeah - for most people, like the person in this anecdote, they'd be much better off not having a gun in the home.

Post New | Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!
Print the post
Members reply directly to albaby1 here — and replies get answered. Reading is free; so is joining the conversation. Join Shrewd'm »
This community has written 88,852 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
It's going to get worse · 33 recs · 2025
G’day Donny · 30 recs · 2026
Old Related Story · 28 recs · 2026
HCR is a national treasure · 27 recs · 2025
Fascism in America · 27 recs · 2025
Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (103) |


Announcements
US Policy FAQ
Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

Best Of Politics | Best Of | Favourites & Replies | All Boards | Followed Shrewds | Open Questions | Moving a community | Privacy