So you have a gun for self-defense?
One of the most popular arguments for owning a gun is that you need it for self-defense, either from a home invasion or a mugging/sexual assault. I am going to try to explore some of the reasons I feel that there are quite a few drawbacks (to say the least) to this idea. The ideas that I propose are my own and based on personal experience and observation.
Let’s start with the concept of protection from home invasion. For a gun to be any use, it has to be readily available and loaded to do you any good. In reality, if someone breaks down the door while you are awake, you aren’t going to have a lot of time to get to your weapon, and it may not do you any good if you do get to it in time. If you are under physical attack, it is hard to aim and fire accurately. However, basic gun safety dictates that you should store your gun unloaded in a secured location, especially if you have young children. A child finding a loaded gun can have deadly consequences (http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/3-year-old-picks-up-great-grandpas-pistol-from-nightstand-fatally-shoots-sister-1275104 Let’s take a look at two other possible situations. First, you hear a pounding on your door. Fearing a home invasion, you find your gun and decide to stop the invaders before they get in, only it’s an 18 year old girl trying to get help after an accident. Things aren’t going to end well for you, no Matter how sorry you are. (http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/03/justice/michigan-porch-shooting-sentencing/index.html). Second; you hear a noise in the night that wakes you up. So, you get up and look for your gun. Unless you have military training, it is unlikely that you will wake up, find your weapon and be moving all at once. You finally find your gun and go to confront the intruders. You scare all of them off but one, so you open fire, only to discover after you turn the lights on, that you just shot your wife in the face or you just shot your teenage son who was only raiding the refrigerator late at night.( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/accidental-shooting/) I don’t think that you’ll be happy with either outcome, and neither will the police. Dealing with the legal consequences will be very expensive and may not keep you out of prison. Then there is the fact that shooting another human being will affect you negatively for the rest of your life, assuming you’re not a psychopath. If you don’t believe me, just go down to the nearest VA hospital and talk to any combat vet from any war.
Now, about protecting you from muggers? You must be kidding! Muggers will generally hit you from behind, you’ll never see them coming. If they are in front of you with a drawn gun you really can’t do anything. If you try to draw on someone who already has a gun out and pointed at you, well, let’s just say that you’ll be up for a Darwin Award this year. And don’t think that if he only has a knife you’re home free. Remember the 21 foot rule (https://www.policeone.com/edged-weapons/articles/102828-Edged-Weapon-Defense-Is-or-was-the-21-foot-rule-valid-Part-1/). It’s highly likely that anyone who is using a knife won’t show it until they are too close for you to do anything about it. To recap: If you are knocked unconscious, you can’t do anything about it; If you already have a gun pointed in your direction, you shouldn’t try to do anything about it; In any other situation (grabbed from behind, approached from the front etc.) a course in basic self-defense, or a can of pepper spray, would be more use than a gun.
Now, let’s get to the big one, protection from sexual assault. Here’s where a gun won’t help you either. For starters, between 85 and 90 percent of the reported rapes are committed by someone who the victim knows (http://www.statisticbrain.com/rape-statistics/) and of that roughly half are committed by family members. This suggests that in most cases of rape the victim is feeling safe with the perpetrator or that they are incapacitated by drugs or too much alcohol. That leaves a very small percentage of assaults that are carried out by strangers. Of those, the guy you just met in the bar is more likely to slip something into your drink that will incapacitate you and then help you out as if you were drunk. It’s likely that no one will pay any attention. Outside the bar, a rapist is going to take you down from behind hard and fast and you won’t see it coming at all. Rape is not a sexual crime. It is all about getting your victim in a helpless position where you can dominate and humiliate them. The reality is that it is a crime of violence not of sexual desire (There are so many studies out there that show this that I’m not even going to bother inserting a link), and the most under- reported crime not only in the United States. Again, a good self-defense course or something along the lines of pepper spray would be better than a gun in a situation where you are not incapacitated.
And of course, there are the dangers involved in carrying a loaded gun around. There is a distinct possibility of the gun going off in your pocket or holster if you are jostled, or perhaps just sitting down. There are 47 different articles in the Hufington post listing above, Including the guy who shot himself in the penis and balls (I think he should be a candidate for a Darwin Award). In all of my time in the Military, and all of my years owning firearms, I have Never attempted to clean loaded weapon. For starters, you can’t get a cleaning patch through the bore if there’s a round in the chamber.
The real tragedy of the entire concept of a gun for self- defense is that you only have to listen to your local news or read the local papers to see how it fails on a regular basis, usually with tragic consequences.