Good Guy With a Gun

[Fishindude77]

If you follow the news you may have heard about the nut job in Traverse City Michigan that went nuts in a Walmart and stabbed 11 people a couple days ago.
A legally permitted conceal carry holder (store customer) thwarted the attack and held the man at gunpoint until police could arrive and cuff him. No shots were fired.

[ua_guy]

What does this have to do with finances?

[Fishindude77]

What does this have to do with finances?

Nothing. That's why it is in the "Everything else" forum.
Lot's of non finance posts in there. Mods are free to delete it if they want.

Just thought it was interesting and illustrates a good reason for responsible individuals to own or carry a gun.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

If you follow the news you may have heard about the nut job in Traverse City Michigan that went nuts in a Walmart and stabbed 11 people a couple days ago.
A legally permitted conceal carry holder (store customer) thwarted the attack and held the man at gunpoint until police could arrive and cuff him. No shots were fired.

how did he stab 11 people first? Were those people trying to stop him? I still find it interesting that we never look at other countries with stricter gun regulations that don't have mass shootings.

[ua_guy]

For every good guy with a gun, who happens to be in the right place at the right time to fight a bad guy without a gun, there's 100 events where bad guys with guns have already shot people by the time good guys with guns show up or can safely stop the attacker without injuring more innocent people.

For a responsible gun owner, I think it illustrates the lottery-like odds of being in the right place at the right time where an assailant literally brought a knife to a gun fight.

[james.hendrickson]

There is an awful lot of defensive gun use (DGU). Estimates are on the low end (60,000) to 500,000 on the high end. Most scholars seem to think the number is between 60k and 100k per year.

However if you figure that the economic cost of a minor injury is around $10,000, a major injury could be $50,000 and the value of a human life is at least $7,000,000 then firearms policy is a hugely important from a fiscal standpoint.

[ua_guy]

If we're being factual, the attacker in the Michigan Walmart incident was subdued by another shopper who actually wasn't carrying a weapon. He chased him out of the store, pushing a shopping cart as he ran after the attacker, to ram into him. He caught up, took the guy out at the ankles with the cart, and then subdued him on the ground. Another man may have stood by with a gun in hand, but it was a weaponless man who is the real hero here. That's real bravery.

I'm all for using shopping carts for public safety. They're a little hard to conceal, though.

[myrdale]

Nothing. That's why it is in the "Everything else" forum.
Lot's of non finance posts in there. Mods are free to delete it if they want.

Just thought it was interesting and illustrates a good reason for responsible individuals to own or carry a gun.

If you haven't taken a self-defense class, look around there are some good ones out there. One of the guys in our local Libertarian party runs a class occasionally at his shooting range. It is good practice for drawing and firing on a target under different circumstances vs just shooting at a target on your own.

I really need to look into a conceal carry firearm. My Beretta is a lot of fun to shoot but it is a long way from easily concealable.

[Fishindude77]

If you haven't taken a self-defense class, look around there are some good ones out there. One of the guys in our local Libertarian party runs a class occasionally at his shooting range. It is good practice for drawing and firing on a target under different circumstances vs just shooting at a target on your own.

I really need to look into a conceal carry firearm. My Beretta is a lot of fun to shoot but it is a long way from easily concealable.

I don't carry much, but when I do it's typically a S&W Airweight .38 revolver. Fits right in a coat pocket.

[myrdale]

There is an awful lot of defensive gun use (DGU). Estimates are on the low end (60,000) to 500,000 on the high end. Most scholars seem to think the number is between 60k and 100k per year.

However if you figure that the economic cost of a minor injury is around $10,000, a major injury could be $50,000 and the value of a human life is at least $7,000,000 then firearms policy is a hugely important from a fiscal standpoint.

The back of the envelope number I use for homicides (the killing of a human) from firearms is there are 10,000 deaths annually which include both murder and justifiable homicide (self defense) and 20,000 suicides.

I just found this graph which I think sorts the information out in an excellent way. I will admit I had to stare at it for a minute, but once I got it, just wow!

I'm guessing the vast majority of accidental deaths are going to be related to car crashes. I've known three guys who shot themselves accidentally (two are idiots, and one of them shot himself in the left shoulder).

Homicides I was surprised to see justified is probably only 5% or less.

Suicides it makes sense that the vast majority suffer from mental illness (presumably depression for the most part). But also note firearm related suicides are probably only 50%.