The threat is hardly imminent. I acknowledge it is minuscule.

That's very reasonable of you. I think one small part of why it's so hard to find common ground on gun regulation in the US is because people come at the issue with very different ideas of what the threat risk is.

Unlike a spare tire (or fire extinguisher or smoke alarm or other precautionary devices), having a firearm doesn't just have a precautionary upside in the event of emergency. It also increases the risk of a negative event - the firearm being stolen, an accidental or mistaken shooting of an innocent, a dispute between family members that escalates from survivable to lethal violence because a firearm was present, etc.

Thankfully, all of these scenarios are pretty rare. But that makes it harder to have constructive discussions about what rules would make people safer (leaving aside the debates about what rules are permitted/forbidden under our system of government).

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