Guns, what are they good for?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

30. FANTASIES of

"defensive gun use".

Google that phrase and you'll hit widely disparate estimates of the extent to which gun owners "hit the jackpot" and shoot or ward off criminals intent on harming them.

Most of the definitions of "defensive gun use" used in biased and bogus surveys are completely worthless for distinguishing actual crime prevention from intimidating somebody who disagrees with you.

My philosophy is that very few people set out intending to cause anybody else harm, but that many, many people have been misguided or deluded by errant cultural forces and superstitions. IMO, people who waste hundreds or thousands of dollars on "defensive" weapons are like lottery addicts, pouring more and more money down a huge drain in pursuit of something that's just not going to happen in a thousand years. Much more likely than the actual chance for "defensive gun use" is losing a child to careless weapons storage, shooting oneself or somebody else by accident, killing or maiming somebody out of momentary anger, or committing suicide by pressing one button.