Thread: Diane Sawyer's Sensationalist Crap

Originally Posted by faesce

an assault weapon i define as a weapon with tactical intent

and yea my original point was based on the definition above, however i suppose i can surrender that it makes more sense to use a weapon deemed as an "assault rifle" (in any sense) than a handgun if it has less chance to potentially put someone in danger. lines should be drawn at logical points rather than just categories of guns

That is a reasonable viewpoint. But it's worth pointing out that this gun and this gun were designed with "tactical intent", while this gun and this gun weren't designed with any "tactical intent". So I really don't think that the "tactical intent" definition works for assault weapons. All that means is that a weapon was designed for military or police use, and again: There are plenty of weapons that were designed for military/police use and aren't "assault weapons" by any stretch of the imagination, and there are also weapons that clearly fall into the "assault weapon" category but weren't designed for "tactical" (military/police) use.

Originally Posted by faesce

yes, this is something that anybody could agree with. if you had two ways of avoiding a situation, you'd take both of them. that analogy is great, however it doesn't fit with home security solely due to the fact that there is a very small chance you could potentially hurt or kill a family member, which isn't something most people could justify if they thought about it.

countering that point with "well if you don't have a gun, your ENTIRE family could be killed!" doesn't make any sense if you think about it, because you're basically trading one astronomically low chance catastrophe for another when you should focus resources on preventing BOTH from happening.

I think most people who keep guns in the home are aware of the possibility that, if they aren't careful, there is a risk (however small) of a stray bullet striking a family member; but they recognize how slight it is if they aren't totally reckless. I mean, every time you get behind the wheel with a family member in the car there is a slight chance you could hurt or kill that family member; that doesn't mean you don't drive, it just means you exercise appropriate care while driving. So basically, if you have kids in the house, be aware of where in the house they are and don't blast away while facing in their direction.

I hear you that you wouldn't be comfortable keeping a gun in the home for self-defense due to the risk of perhaps hitting a family member. That's a legitimate concern and if it makes you reluctant to keep a gun in the home, that's fine. But I don't think it reflects on the efficacy of home defense with a gun in general.

Also, I don't have any kids, so that's not really a worry for me to begin with.