Bill to allow state workers to bring guns to workplace passes through committee

[slackmaster]

128. I'll answer very briefly because I am swamped today

Granted, I have no figures on the percentage of instances where someone uses a gun and it doesn't result in a death that are ultimately found to be lawful uses of deadly force....

...I think one of the reasons that statistics on nonlethal use of guns are harder to come by is that many will go unreported and, even when they are reported, they may go uninvestigated, because nobody got hurt. In the absence of any outside investigation, how is one ever to know whether those uses of a gun were, in fact, necessary?

I have accepted the fact that those numbers are unknown and probably unknowable. I trust MOST people to behave responsibly.

...So we come back to my original statistic of 300-400 lawful interventions out of 30,000 occurrences where the gun use resulted in a fatality and was investigated. It may not be a perfect reflection of what the results of investigation might be in nonfatal gun uses, but I perceive no reason to anticipate that it would be radically different. Do you? Why?

I don't believe that body count in any way serves as a valid proxy measure of non-lethal DGUs because the intensity of the situations and the outcomes are so radically different. Because most adults do understand the severe consequences that are likely to occur if they shoot someone or even shoot at someone, I believe gun owners (and I know this about myself with certainty) are very hesitant to shoot. I own a house that I intend to keep for the rest of my life, I have responsibilities for animals and even a few people, and I really, really don't want to go to prison.

I think a small minority of our members here who are strongly opposed to people carrying weapons for self-defense have a mistaken idea that anyone who carries a gun is itching to shoot someone with it. The truth is that a desire to shoot someone is one of the best possible reasons NOT to carry a gun, or even to own one.

Sorry I haven't been able to address the nuances of all of your thoughtful questions here. Let's keep a dialogue open and maybe we can teach each other a few things.