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They Are Both Right
Jun. 23rd, 2014 10:02 amA few days ago, John Scalzi posted an article detailing the difficulties of using a gun in self-defense. In it, he posted of people who carry a gun his opinion that (of the gun-carrier) "here’s a dude who’s afraid of every fucking thing in the world."
This particular statement, the post in total, and another Internet slap-fest going on about rape, provoked a lot of responses. The most cogent I've see was by Mike Z. Willamson. In the post, Mike defined three approaches which should be used in conjunction for (specifically) rape prevention and self-defense in general. They are:
Prevention - reducing actual criminal activity
Avoidance - reducing an individual's risk of becoming a victim of crime
Response - responding to a crime in progress
Williamson, in his post, took a few swipes at Scalzi, but here's the thing. Both men are correct.
Williamson correctly points out that guns can and are used in self-defense, while Scalzi correctly points out that guns are not pixie dust - things can go wrong. Williamson doesn't address the "afraid of everything" remark, but in this case Scalzi has a statistically-valid point. Per the NRA, there are about 8 million active concealed-carry permits in the US. That's out of 317 million people, so only about 2.5% of Americans carry a gun. By definition, people who carry a gun are "extreme."
This particular statement, the post in total, and another Internet slap-fest going on about rape, provoked a lot of responses. The most cogent I've see was by Mike Z. Willamson. In the post, Mike defined three approaches which should be used in conjunction for (specifically) rape prevention and self-defense in general. They are:
Prevention - reducing actual criminal activity
Avoidance - reducing an individual's risk of becoming a victim of crime
Response - responding to a crime in progress
Williamson, in his post, took a few swipes at Scalzi, but here's the thing. Both men are correct.
Williamson correctly points out that guns can and are used in self-defense, while Scalzi correctly points out that guns are not pixie dust - things can go wrong. Williamson doesn't address the "afraid of everything" remark, but in this case Scalzi has a statistically-valid point. Per the NRA, there are about 8 million active concealed-carry permits in the US. That's out of 317 million people, so only about 2.5% of Americans carry a gun. By definition, people who carry a gun are "extreme."
