Guns at school, that sounds like a great idea!
With so many people owning guns, I would say that fear is good for business.

If somebody hold me up with a gun, I have done enough armed closed combat training in the army to not try to pull my own piece or do some funky [censored].

Okay, I will give you the "advantage by mindset". But the homeowner has advantage of terrain, which in my view can offset the criminal's advantage. Even if it's just to evacuate quickly or notify authorities.

Home invasions are somewhat common in USA. However, most intruders are not intent on causing physical harm to the occupants. They seek money or items they can exchange for money/drugs.

Intruders are usually suprised when confronted by occupants, and will exit the premises immediately. There are those criminals who do not react in this manner, whether by "intent" to comit harm, drug use, or other circumstances. It is these cases where an action plan which may involve an elevated level of force may be necessary to protect family members.

I define "action plan" as a means to extract family members and other occupants from the potential conflict situation ( by notification, evacuation, or barricade). "Elevated level of force" is based loosely on commonly accepted principles of defensive action. In VERY RARE circumstances would lethal force be necessary, but I am a firm believer in "be prepared".

Given the hypothetical situation of a home invasion, would I hunt down the buglar and shoot them? Most likely not. Would I have a firearm handy in case the situation presented no other option than to defend myself with lethal force? Yes.

There are quite a few examples of intruders being shot (and sometimes killed) during home invasions.

NRA publications are very good at publisizing actual (and recent) accounts of armed citizens successfully defending themselves against attack. Yes, this accounts for probably less than 1% of all criminal acts purpotrated, but it does indeed happen in USA today.

LOL! Did they train you to deflect a bullet with your hand?

Dermot,

I respect your view, but disagree that children are at huge threat to death by firearm.

Biggest killer of children in USA is most likely accidental drowning or poisoning.

Biggest killer of teenagers is by far automobile crashes.

Firearm deaths in certain segments of population is larger due to suspected gang activity.

Losing any person is sad. Let's just keep things in perspective.

If 80 persons die each day due to gun violence, how many die from auto crashes, smoking, drugs, drowning, domestic violence (without firearms)? I would suspect each of these items kills more people per day than guns.

Perspective... don't lose focus on the Big Picture.

More children die in Africa due to starvation on any given day than they do in the US from guns. I feel that statistics are important. In the US more people die from car accidents than by any other means. When I get home I can look up what the exact numbers were for 2007. The second leading cause of death was Heart Disease. If I remember correctly the death by firearm in the US was 6 or 7 on the list.

LOL! Did they train you to deflect a bullet with your hand?

"Home invasions" or burglary as we call it here are not uncommon. But they seek cash or easy to fence items and hit homes without people.

Why is it Rolf that you can have firearms, but I can't? All the regulation you talk about doesn't sound much different than what we have here. The Norwegian Gov't must put something in the water to keep everyone over there friendly and docile, or all the assho1es fled Europe and came here.

And no, I don't live in a state of constant fear. I carry for the same reasons I have a spare tire, just in case.

So no reason to do anything about that?


Got a referral to the story about private gun ownership figuring high on the list of why Japan did not invade the US? Sounds very far fetched as Japan had ambitions in the pacific. Actually invading and conquering the USA is something I have never heard the japanese contemplating.

Did I say you could not have firearms? I have been talking about revolvers/pistols/automatic rifles/assault weapons. I advocate that those should be limited to people who use them in their work (law enforcement, military etc.) and to those who use them actively for sports.

I am not talking about gun deaths in relation to drownings or car crashes. I am talking about gun deaths in relation to other countries where private ownership of guns is not allowed.
Do you not realise how many gun deaths you have compared to almost every other modern country ?