Author Topic: Are handguns dangerous (Read 3999 times)

buckshooter · « **Reply #30 on:** November 11, 2007, 06:35:14 AM »

Hey guys, thanks for your replies because I found it hard to believe that handguns are the most dangerous. I mean every kind of accident that could happen with handguns going off on accident, or shooting someone on accident. Guys my friend is not a liberal he is a republican. I was just trying to prove him wrong. thanks for your replies

Buckshooter

Redhawk1 · « **Reply #31 on:** November 11, 2007, 06:52:22 AM »

All guns no matter the type are not prone to arbitrarily going to just go off. Guns are the most patient things in the world, you can put a loaded one in the corner and it will sit there until someone picks it up. Improper handling of firearms is what is dangerous.

jcn59 · « **Reply #32 on:** November 11, 2007, 07:18:37 AM »

Perhaps revolvers are the safest of all firearms because they are never carried or stored "cocked" and therefore are less prone to accidental discharge, especially when compared to guns, long and short, with concealed hammers such as modern shotguns or some semiauto handguns, most of which need to be "handled" in order to determine if the gun is ready to fire.

Cheesehead · « **Reply #33 on:** November 11, 2007, 07:33:15 AM »

A revolver is not "safer". Again it is about the human element, improper handling, muzzle control. Where is the gun being pointed? In a save direction? Calling one gun "safer" is blaming the gun for the accident. Particular Guns are neither "safer" or more "dangerous" than any other gun.

Cheese

jcn59 · « **Reply #34 on:** November 11, 2007, 07:52:34 AM »

I was carrying an old Remington "hammerless" double years ago when it went off (all by it self) due to a worn sear. This is an example of how some guns are "safer" than others due to conditions.

Other than "condition" the human element comes into play. People like ourselves are less likely that non-gun people to injure someone by accident. I would venture that the vast majority of people injured by gunshot are not injured by accident, but rather by ignorance. A gun that is ready to fire is is more dangerous at the hand of an ignorant person. I doubt that there are many English speaking people in this country who don't know what will happen if you pull the trigger on a loaded revolver. I also doubt that there are many non-gun people who know what all the buttons and levers are for on a semi auto. Ignorance, and oftentimes alcohol, get these people in trouble.

Other than that, like I said earlier, "Innate objects are neither safe nor unsafe."

Redhawk1 · « **Reply #35 on:** November 11, 2007, 08:32:50 AM »

Quote from: Cheesehead on November 11, 2007, 07:33:15 AM

A revolver is not "safer". Again it is about the human element, improper handling, muzzle control. Where is the gun being pointed? In a save direction? Calling one gun "safer" is blaming the gun for the accident. Particular Guns are neither "safer" or more "dangerous" than any other gun.

Cheese

Cheese, you know there are some people you can talk to all day, and it does no good.

Cheesehead · « **Reply #36 on:** November 11, 2007, 11:59:58 AM »

Muzzle control make a situation "safe" or "dangerous",,,when I handle "any" gun I assume it is loaded and ready to go at anytime, I make the situation safe or dangerous, its not the guns call, it is MY call.

Cheese

jcn59 · « **Reply #37 on:** November 11, 2007, 03:49:39 PM »

Buckshooter's original question was something like "Is it true or not that handguns are the most dangerous of all firearms". I don't think he was asking if we were dangerous. I think he was asking if certain firearms had qualities which made them more dangerous than others. He didn't ask if it was pointed in a safe direction, did he?

He asked a legitimate, but complex question. Examples......An unloaded firearm is probably not as "dangerous" as a loaded one, or a dark inner city street corner might be described as a "dangerous" place, or an unmarked intersection may be "dangerous". These are common examples of word usage for "dangerous".

Cheesehead · « **Reply #38 on:** November 11, 2007, 04:06:50 PM »

Hand guns or any other firearms of any kind are in no way, shape or form dangerous at all, not even a little tiny bit.

Cheese

Cheesehead · « **Reply #39 on:** November 11, 2007, 04:34:10 PM »

I know this is a little off topic, but here goes, people are dangerous, some more than others, some a intentionally dangerous and some are dangerous just by being misguided and unknowing and these are the most dangerous of all.

Cheese

Glanceblamm · « **Reply #40 on:** November 11, 2007, 05:42:31 PM »

Quote from: Cheesehead on November 11, 2007, 11:59:58 AM

Muzzle control make a situation "safe" or "dangerous",,,when I handle "any" gun I assume it is loaded and ready to go at anytime, I make the situation safe or dangerous, its not the guns call, it is MY call.

Cheese

Good Post. My most dangerous encounters have been when the guys piled out of a SUV for a bird hunt. How many of you have seen at least one guy load his auto then casually swing the muzzle across the torso's of the others in the party?
It is quite chilling and for myself, has kept me from hunting in larger groups and also to pick who I am willing to go hunting with.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #41 on:** November 12, 2007, 02:16:20 AM »

Hey Cheese some people just have to make the gun be responsible !
If you choose to carry a defective gun its still your choice !
You are correct about the gun being safe , but I believe the manual of arms for certain type guns make them safer to operate ! as example the checking of a revolver as opposed to an auto loader is simpler to see if its loaded .

papajohn428 · « **Reply #42 on:** November 18, 2007, 07:00:58 AM »

If they weren't dangerous, I wouldn't carry one on duty. Lots of things are dangerous. Fire, hammers, barbed wire, and such.

A handgun is a tool.

Just like your friend.

PJ

Cheesehead · « **Reply #43 on:** November 18, 2007, 08:02:03 AM »

I seen a hammer on my work bench, it did not appear to be dangerous. I picked it up and struck myself several times in the left thumb. It seemed dangerous at this time, when actually it was my right hand that was very dangerous, especially when holding the hammer. I set the hammer back on the bench and it did nothing, I waited for some time and still nothing. I will check on that hammer tomorrow and see if it has done anything dangerous. I wonder if my 16 ounce hammer is more dangerous than my 12 ounce hammer. I have a 20 ounce hammer, maybe it should banned for being more dangerous.

Cheese

Glanceblamm · « **Reply #44 on:** November 18, 2007, 05:27:56 PM »

Quote from: Cheesehead on November 18, 2007, 08:02:03 AM

I seen a hammer on my work bench, it did not appear to be dangerous. I picked it up and struck myself several times in the left thumb. It seemed dangerous at this time, when actually it was my right hand that was very dangerous, especially when holding the hammer. I set the hammer back on the bench and it did nothing, I waited for some time and still nothing. I will check on that hammer tomorrow and see if it has done anything dangerous. I wonder if my 16 ounce hammer is more dangerous than my 12 ounce hammer. I have a 20 ounce hammer, maybe it should banned for being more dangerous.

Cheese

The hammer can only be banned if the handle will accept different weight heads, kind of like those NY hammers.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #45 on:** November 24, 2007, 06:26:48 AM »

Quote from: dukkillr on November 08, 2007, 01:27:45 PM

Quote from: Mikey on November 08, 2007, 12:40:56 PM
A firearm (handgun, a rifle or a shotgun) is nothing more than a piece of equipment. It does not have a life of its own or consciousness. It is a tool; it must be used or misused. In and of itself it is not inherently dangerous. A gun laying on a table is no more dangerous than a piece of firewood on the deck or a brick on the patio. A gun in a drawer is no more dangerous than a book on a shelf.

The concern that handguns are the most dangerous of all firearms is unfounded and based on fear. Handguns do not jump off the table by themselves and slay a schoolyard full of hapless children or an invalid grandmother four blocks away. Handguns (or any other fireams) do not act by themselves. Being in the vicinity of handguns are inherently less dangerous than driving a car or smoking a cigarette.

Most of the time I would agree with you that we need to use facts to defeat our opponents in this arguments but they do not. They use emotion and they use false facts. Handgun Control Inc. once posted that the murder rate in the us was higher than any other western country. They then added all justified self defense shootings as well as any police involved shooting to the list of homicide by handgun and added any unknown as well. Then compared it to England and Japan. They left out the police involved deaths or self defense killings to show that handguns were the cause. Please do not fall into an argument and give even an iota. Any part you give in will be used against you and the rest of us.
As to this guys question. No a trigger on an average hand gun is usually a lot heavier in force needed to set it off than a hunting rifle.

Firearms, used defensively by average citizens may have saved more than 3 million lives a year. The mere presence of a firearm has prevented more.

Firearms are inherently more 'safe' than 'dangerous'. JMTCW. Mikey.

I knew it was only a matter of time before something like this comes up. Some people believe that if you express reality you're somehow helping anti-gun advocates. Reality is that an acetylene torch is more dangerous than a beach ball and dynamite is more dangerous than a box of tissues. Each of those things is inanimate but some, by there very nature, have the propensity to turn carelessness or a mistake into a fatality, and some don't. I accidentally leave a torch on it could burn my building down and kill people, I accidentally leave a beach ball over inflated and my kid might get a bloody nose. As a kid I taught swim lessons and lifeguarded. Do you think a 12 foot pool poses the same danger as a plastic baby pool? Which one would you rather have your kid fall into? They're both inanimate. But one is far more likely to result in an injury or death. Come on, lets be realistic here. If one assumes the same degree of carelessness, I suspect a handgun is more dangerous than a long gun.

Guns are unlikely to simply "go off" but the skywalk was unlikely to collapse on the Hyatt too. Mechanical failures do happen, that's why double and triple safety measures are instilled in safe shooters. If a gun could never just "go off" there'd be no reason for a safety, and there would be no problem with pointing the gun at someone. It's the fact that no human, nor any human-built instrument will ever be perfect that makes us all take such precautions. As a waterfowl guide I was involved in two accidental discharges, as an elk hunter I had the much debated 700 trigger failure. Any of those three accidents could have been a fatality, but the other safety precautions prevented it. No one is perfect, and no object is infallible.

Where does one find that 3 million lives saved per year? That's one out of every 100 Americans that would be dead every year, but for a gun?

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #46 on:** November 24, 2007, 06:29:09 AM »

OOPs I set that off wrong. My parts is the third paragraph. Not exactly hi tech. More Low tech red neck.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #47 on:** November 26, 2007, 02:03:14 AM »

would my hammer drill be an auto and need a tax stamp

would my hammer drill be considered an auto ? would i have to have a transfer stamp ?

/

Cheesehead · « **Reply #48 on:** November 26, 2007, 02:13:26 AM »

Care less ness is dangerous.

Cheese

jlbeebe · « **Reply #49 on:** November 30, 2007, 04:03:56 AM »

When I was a teenager I wanted a handgun. My dad flatly said no, they are too dangerous for a youngster to handle unsupervised. It is just alot easier to accidently point them where you don't mean to. This was not coming from a gun bashing liberal. My dad collected guns and we had over a hundred rifles, shotguns, and handguns in our house. My dad had no problem letting me take my shotgun or .22 hunting whenever I wanted but his reasoning was that with a long gun it is easier to see where it is pointed than a handgun. I have to agree. I own rifles, shotguns, and handguns and when I am handling my handguns I am extra careful to make sure I know where they are pointed at all times. I am not a liberal but my children will not own handguns until they are adults.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #50 on:** November 30, 2007, 07:10:32 AM »

mine are grown now , but they got theirs when they showed they were responsible with them , had they not have shown responsibility i would never have given them one no matter their age !

Cheesehead · « **Reply #51 on:** November 30, 2007, 12:02:27 PM »

A person needs to be extra careful with ALL guns, every gun, at all times, not just handguns. I do not lower my safety standards when handling a rifle or a shotgun, I think that would be a bad idea, maybe a deadly mistake.

Cheese

jlbeebe · « **Reply #52 on:** November 30, 2007, 12:16:24 PM »

Quote from: Cheesehead on November 30, 2007, 12:02:27 PM

A person needs to be extra careful with ALL guns, every gun, at all times, not just handguns. I do not lower my safety standards when handling a rifle or a shotgun, I think that would be a bad idea, maybe a deadly mistake.

Cheese

I believe in handling all guns with care. But I also believe that it is not as easy to see where a short gun is pointed, so I am extra careful with them. Not less careful with long guns. Guns are tools and like all tools some are more dangerous to USE than others.

Cheesehead · « **Reply #53 on:** November 30, 2007, 12:28:01 PM »

That depends on the "USER"

Cheese

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #54 on:** December 03, 2007, 01:33:55 AM »

I have to agree with Cheese !
but would like to add you should respect a gun ! if you fear it maybe its best to leave it alone as you are already in a state of allowing the gun to control you !

no guns here · « **Reply #55 on:** December 04, 2007, 09:18:53 PM »

Man I hope they are dangerous!!! If they aren't I'm going to have to learn to throw knives better. They are dangerous only when their user intends them to be or when a non-trained user starts playing with them. Store them properly and you'll never have a problem. Load a revolver with 6 rounds (or 5,7,8 or 9 depending) and then put it on a shelf and leave it untouched for 50 years. Unless I'm missing something and my S&W has a brain that I haven't found... it'll still be sitting there covered with dust and more than likely rusted up and inop at the end of the 50 years. A revolver is probably the absolutely LEAST likely to "just go off". It is in a state of rest, two actions have to happen to make it fire. You have to store energy in the springs (cock the hammer) and then release that energy by pulling the trigger or letting the hammer slip. A loaded and cocked gun of any make or model has the potential to go off regardless of how many safeties there are. Things can break, stuff happens and people can die... but then again, tractors roll over, trucks jack-knife, planes crash, ships sink, folks get cancer, heart attacks, strokes, stabbed, beat, drowned, strangled, burned etc... Face it LIVING is the most dangerous thing you will ever do. EVERY DAY you do many things that can get you killed in a split-second and you don't even think about NOT doing them. Risk management is the key... Manage the risk of that gun by storing it safely, getting some training, practicing regularly and not letting untrained and unsupervised folks have access to it.

ngh

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #56 on:** December 05, 2007, 01:51:09 AM »

NEWS FLASH !
it has been determined that guns are in fact safe , guns of any type !

ITS THOSE SNEAKY LITTLE CARTRIDGES THAT YA CAN'T TRUST ! They just go off at the drop of a hammer !

Just wanted everyone to know !

Cheesehead · « **Reply #57 on:** December 05, 2007, 02:17:04 AM »

I think ngh has it.

" They are dangerous only when their user intends them to be or when a non-trained user starts playing with them"

It is down t the user, again..

Cheese

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #58 on:** December 05, 2007, 02:37:26 AM »

cheesehead now you know the anti-gun guys will never buy that ! its got to be the guns fault , hell the gun can't vote so if they piss off the gun they won't loose votes ! or some other BS idea the dumb-a-crats come up with !

Glanceblamm · « **Reply #59 on:** December 05, 2007, 03:47:40 AM »

Quote from: SHOOTALL on November 30, 2007, 07:10:32 AM

mine are grown now , but they got theirs when they showed they were responsible with them , had they not have shown responsibility i would never have given them one no matter their age !

Excellent point. An uncle showed me the ropes as he had the land, dogs, and even the reloading equipment. He worked my cousin and I pretty hard around that farm and got to see our characters grow as we started eating up work and asking for more. We had lot's of fun also and some Prime quail hunting...On one particularly cold day we had been out 3-1/2 hours with nothing in the bag when I got a flush of quail on my own. I was promptly ragged out by both my Uncle and cousin for not shooting. My fingers were too cold to flip the safety off, was my response

He let us start hunting on our own after that. The point is that he didn't just turn us loose with some guns to go hunting, but rather showed us the proper handling as well as having a very good idea of how responsible we were.