Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9823127:


Armed to immobilize 11 10, 4:34am

'@Isdaril' "On a practical and economic PoV it is debatable too. "
It's simpler, really. Mundane murderer costs society a life of the victim (and to victim that cost is all the victim has) and cost of murderer's punishment or rehabilitation. Thief does same, just at lesser extent. Career criminal no longer produces value for society, such person's only product is disruption. When criminality stems from pathological personality, even after rehabilitation normal function of such person in society is impossible. People's attitude towards this is fairly universal and was codified even in earliest laws. At that basic level statement holds true.

"I suppose the first good question would be to wonder wether there is a correlation between gun ownership and crime rate (not violent crime)"
There is an obvious correlation: spree killers reliably pick gun free zones and there was a number (admittedly small, but hey - gun free zones) of attempted mass shootings in US that were stopped by armed civilians.
Also, I'll remind of extra benefits like population more ready for military service, greater deterrence against government's overreach and protection in case of law enforcement failure or insufficiency (see also: Roof Koreans or, more recent example, London riots where Turkish community used force to chase away looters). In case of US, it's also the idea that right once achieved should not be given up easily.

"the suicides, the accidents"
Suicides and accidents happen anyway. Suicide is either mental health problem and should be addressed as such, or a conscious choice which I don't see reason to oppose that. Accidents that involve only the owner are owner's own achievement and reward. Accident that victimize people other than owner should be treated as any other such things (i.e. charges of criminal negligence), and, returning to my original point, vastly greater number of such events happen on the road.

"Also at a personnal level (and this is completely subjective and probably a little bit irrational), I feel safer knowing there is not a gun in every single house, and I feel very uncomfortable when I'm next to people who wear weapons "
Anecdotal evidence for anecdotal evidence. Considering I know some ways in which a person can ruin another person's life without even using illegal methods ("there but for the grace of God go I"), legally armed people are the last of my concerns.
Also, for a number of years my father owned a hunting shotgun (a really fancy for Soviet Union, a double barrel Remington and a box of shells). He promised to beat the crap out of me if I so much as touch the gun or the ammunition and it was stored out of my reach. My only thought about it is that it's a pity I didn't get to do a bit of sports shooting with it. I know that if I'll eventually settle outside of the city, there will be more than one Saiga in my house.