On Guns & Safety

For obvious reasons, the issue of guns, regulation, availability, safety, etc. has reared its head (again) and demanded our attention (again).

Disclaimer: I belong to a minority so small we don’t even have a support group: American males who have never fired a gun (not even a BB gun). Neither do I feel particularly deprived, either culturally or emotionally, by my utter lack of experience in this area. Clearly I don’t have any skin in the game of gun rights, so it’s easy for me to come down on the side of increased regulation. And I recognize I’m wading into (for me) uncharted and dangerous waters, almost certainly outgunned.
 

That being said, I have some questions that (to me) are based on logic about guns in the home. I understand how people believe they are needed for the protection of family, hearth and home. But if you have children in the home, surely you keep your guns locked away, preferably with a trigger lock, and unloaded. (One experience I do have, sadly, very sadly, is attending the funeral of a child who was accidentally killed with his father’s handgun. It was over a decade ago and the family has yet to recover. He was a good kid, just a teenager showing his Dad’s gun to a friend.) Aren’t those the recommended safety procedures? Isn’t that why they sell gun safes at Cabella’s?

So my question is this: In the event of a home invasion of some kind, how much protection is this weapon? Under the stress of the moment, you’d have to retrieve your weapon, load it, unlock it and then accurately fire at the intruder(s) who probably make their living as armed criminals and also probably are in close proximity to your family. I prefer my odds with submission to almost any and all demands. Maybe you don’t, and my (serious) question is this, given the parameters laid out above (safe storage of firearms), how much help is this weapon, especially if, while you’ve been retrieving your weapon, your family is literally under the gun?

Admittedly I don’t live in a neighborhood where there have been lots of home invasions, or even burglaries. Quite frankly, neither do most of you, but never mind that. I do have an alarm system. But I don’t believe I can do much beyond that precaution that wouldn’t endanger my family more than protect it. Again, I admit that giving me a firearm of any stripe would make more of a danger to myself and loved ones than to any professional (or probably even amateur) criminal. It seems to me that the odds of an accident (I have a decorated police officer friend who shot his dishwasher, although not fatally) are better than the odds of thwarting an armed intruder. If their goal is my destruction, I don't like my chances, armed or not. If their goal is my property, they’re welcome to it.

Let me be clear. I am NOT trying to take away anyone’s right to own weapons for protection or recreation. I’m a realist, and while no guns in anyone’s house wouldn’t bother me, I recognize that there’s zero chance of that happening in America, although I’ve yet to hear a convincing argument for the right to own assault weapons or extended cartridges (if that’s the proper terminology). However, neither am I convinced that turning your home into an armed fortress is really a reasonable or, more importantly, safe, alternative.

It probably goes without saying I’m not a fan of arming teachers, although it might have the unintended consequence of improving classroom discipline. I’m pretty sure just drawing the weapon would quiet a class pretty quickly. As noted, I’m a realist, so I’m under no illusion that I’m going to change anyone’s mind on the issue, but I do think I’ve posed a reasonable question. I’d like to hear reasonable answers.