{"id":87889,"date":"2022-11-19T16:42:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T22:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=87889"},"modified":"2022-11-19T16:42:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T22:42:42","slug":"87889","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=87889","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Why fear is a terrible justification for gun control<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI shouldn\u2019t have to be afraid to go out of my house,\u201d someone will say, usually while trying to voice their opposition to some aspect of gun rights. Gun control advocates often make similar claims, citing their own fear as a reason why they oppose or support some measure or another.<\/p>\n

And their fear may certainly feel very real to them.<\/p>\n

However, fear is a terrible justification for gun control.<\/p>\n

Now, being scared is a powerful motivator. It\u2019s why people do all kinds of things, even if they don\u2019t want to do it otherwise. It\u2019s why scary horror stories of what happens when you don\u2019t do something are such great motivators.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s still an emotion.<\/p>\n

When fear is used as an argument to justify some bit of legislation, one should remember that it can also be used to oppose that same bill. After all, one person\u2019s fear may be quite different from another. While some\u00a0feared armed gunmen<\/a>\u00a0in the wake of a mass shooting, others fear being unarmed\u00a0in the face of a violent criminal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So now what you\u2019re looking at are warring fears.<\/p>\n

I fear being unable to defend my family from an attacker. Is my fear somehow less than the fear that drives many to call for gun control?<\/p>\n

\u201cBut your fear is irrational. You\u2019re not likely to be attacked,\u201d some might argue, and they\u2019re not wrong. Statistically, I\u2019ll never have to draw my weapon in self-defense at any point in the future. But if that\u2019s the deciding factor, then their fear of being attacked is equally irrational, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s kind of my point.<\/p>\n

You see, fear is usually used as a justification for gun control because it\u2019s powerful. Advocates for Second Amendment restrictions want people to be terrified\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s irrational.<\/p>\n

They understand that if you simply use the probability of being the victim of a violent crime is actually pretty high. For example, the probability of being the victim of being robbed is\u00a0one in 667<\/a>. Your odds of being the victim of other crimes\u00a0are also pretty low<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re rational about it, then the debate becomes a different matter. People who are thinking rationally look at this low probability and the fact that criminals obtain firearms through non-lawful means and recognize that gun control isn\u2019t a viable solution to the problem. Some have differing opinions, of course, but as we\u2019ve seen, when there\u2019s little reason for people to be afraid, they tend to support gun rights to a greater degree.<\/p>\n

Which is why fear is so well-used.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t make it a great idea. That fear pushing some for gun control can and should be used to push for gun rights. We need to propel stories of those who were disarmed when they needed their guns the most at the same time as holding up stories\u00a0like the Greenwood Park Mall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Again, it\u2019s because fear is a two-way street.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s a terrible way to promote anything, but that\u2019s because it\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0be used against that thing. It\u2019s well past time we showed gun control advocates just why it\u2019s a bad idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why fear is a terrible justification for gun control \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have to be afraid to go out of my house,\u201d someone will say, usually while trying to voice their opposition to some aspect of gun rights. Gun control advocates often make similar claims, citing their own fear as a reason why they oppose or … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rights","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=87889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87890,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87889\/revisions\/87890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}