{"id":55339,"date":"2020-05-29T17:42:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T22:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?page_id=55339"},"modified":"2020-07-04T13:17:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T18:17:00","slug":"carrying-guns-is-preventive-medicine","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?page_id=55339","title":{"rendered":"Carrying Guns is Preventive Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

It appears that the\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0has outpaced both Obama and Beto as\u00a0gun salesman of the decade<\/a>.\u00a0 Reports abound of large numbers of first-time gun buyers depleting inventory in local gun stores across the country.\u00a0 These purchases have elicited the expected\u00a0pearl-grasping<\/a>\u00a0by the confiscationists, but these hoplophobes always miss the obvious:\u00a0 gun are used defensively vastly more often than they are used in the commission of crime.\u00a0 Perhaps the pandemic-associated terms of art could help explain our position that these gun purchases are good for everyone.<\/p>\n

Carrying Guns is Preventive Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n

The discipline of public health views efforts to stop disease through a model of graduated levels of\u00a0prevention:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Primary Prevention<\/strong>\u2014intervening before health effects occur, through measures such as vaccinations, altering risky behaviors (poor eating habits, tobacco use), and banning substances known to be associated with a disease or health condition.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Secondary Prevention<\/strong>\u2014screening to identify diseases in the earliest stages, before the onset of signs and symptoms, through measures such as mammography and regular blood pressure testing.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Tertiary Prevention<\/strong>\u2014managing disease post diagnosis to slow or stop disease progression through measures such as chemotherapy, rehabilitation, and screening for complications.<\/p>\n

Applying these ideas to gun ownership, defensive gun usage, and violent crime, increased prevalence of guns in responsible hands might be the \u201cprimary prevention\u201d of violent crime.\u00a0 This may reduce the likelihood of criminal assault (see below), in a way increasing society\u2019s relative immunity to violent crime. This is the ideal outcome of gun ownership: no one is harmed, and crime is averted.\u00a0 \u201cSecondary prevention\u201d might be defensive gun use to keep a violent crime from occurring, in the service of preventing the threat from causing damage.\u00a0 \u201cTertiary prevention\u201d may be compared to firing the gun to stop violence in progress\u2014the least favorable outcome, except for all the others.<\/p>\n

The above analysis shows where the public health analogy about guns breaks down, and hoplophobes go astray. Although we have no way to keep viruses from thinking twice about attacking us, we absolutely have ways to make would-be violent felons rethink their approach to life. A complete public health model of crime prevention would promote gun ownership as primary prevention, i.e., publicizing the value of widespread gun ownership instead of discouraging it.\u00a0 Having to use a gun to stop a threat is the consequence of the absence of general deterrence.\u00a0 It happens because the commonness of American gun ownership isn\u2019t well enough known that would-be attackers realize the odds of facing off with an armed potential victim, such that they don\u2019t attack in the first place.<\/p>\n

During the current pandemic lockdown and associated gun buying, criminals would be well advised to think twice about violent break-ins as the tide turns toward more widespread gun ownership.\u00a0 Although it is difficult to capture this numerically, there are some promising data points that support the construct of deterrence as \u201czeroth prevention\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher rates of\u00a0<\/em>concealed carry permit holders<\/em><\/a>\u00a0are even more strongly associated with reduction in violent crime than are \u2018right-to-carry\u2019 states. The probable reason for this is that \u2018right-to-carry\u2019 studies often include \u2018open carry\u2019 states, which have not been shown to correlate with more people actually carrying or even owning firearms. Rates of concealed carry permit holders are better indicators of the number of people who actually possess and carry firearms within a given population.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

\u201c56% of felons surveyed agreed that \u2018A criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun.\u2019 74% agreed that \u2018One reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that\u00a0<\/em>they fear being shot<\/em><\/a>.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA 57% majority agreed that \u2018Most criminals are more worried about meeting an armed victim than they are about running into the police.\u2019 [Yet i]n asking felons what they personally thought about while committing crimes, [just] 34% indicated that they thought about getting \u2018shot at by police\u2019 or \u2018shot by victim\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Gun ownership does not require any further justification than its status as an inalienable right protected against government infringement by the Second Amendment.\u00a0 Nonetheless, several state governments have\u00a0closed gun stores<\/a>\u00a0during the pandemic lockdown, and are now the respondents to resultant \u00a0legal action<\/a>.\u00a0 Gun-grabbing politicians fail to appreciate that during times of unrest, when police forces are stretched thin either by illness among their ranks or their more urgent need elsewhere to manage the crisis, well-armed civilians are the best deterrence against violent crime.\u00a0 We are our own\u00a0first responders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ideally, training is obtained in person, but the current pandemic highlights the need for legal recognition of alternatives.\u00a0 It is far better that these new gun owners avail themselves of online training than to go without.\u00a0\u00a0 I recently asked my Governor for consideration of this following the close of the Virginia General Assembly, which promulgated, among other infringements, HB 264, prohibiting online concealed handgun permit training.\u00a0 Additionally, characterizing indoor shooting ranges as \u201centertainment\u201d establishments is preposterous.\u00a0 Fastidious attention to social distancing and hygiene practices could restructure how those establishments function, but there is no reason they should cease functioning, given the essential role they play in keeping civilians armed and \u201cwell-regulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dear Governor,<\/em><\/p>\n

Concealed Handgun Permit holders are assets to society, not liabilities. The current pandemic and the appropriate widespread purchasing of guns and ammunition makes it clear that there is broad opposition to efforts that reduce access to self-defense.\u00a0 Veto HB 264:\u00a0 this is the safest way for new gun owners to obtain life-saving training during the pandemic.\u00a0 Remove indoor shooting ranges from the \u201cEntertainment\u201d list in Executive Order 53.\u00a0 A well-trained, well-practiced, and well-armed civilian population is the best deterrent to lawlessness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Respectfully submitted,<\/em><\/p>\n

Dennis Petrocelli, MD<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that the\u00a0coronavirus\u00a0has outpaced both Obama and Beto as\u00a0gun salesman of the decade.\u00a0 Reports abound of large numbers of first-time gun buyers depleting inventory in local gun stores across the country.\u00a0 These purchases have elicited the expected\u00a0pearl-grasping\u00a0by the confiscationists, but these hoplophobes always miss the obvious:\u00a0 gun are used defensively vastly more often than … Continue reading “Carrying Guns is Preventive Medicine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-55339","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55340,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55339\/revisions\/55340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}