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Gun debate: Is price of an armed America a more dangerous America? (+video)
csmonitor ^ | 2 February, 2014 | Patrik Jonsson

Posted on 02/03/2014 3:17:40 PM PST by marktwain

Charles Ingram and Robert Webster were neighbors in Florida, but friends said the two older men had little love for each other and often quarreled. On a spring day in 2010, the two men, both gun enthusiasts who had state permits to carry concealed weapons, got into another argument across their lawns.

This time, police later said, both men pulled out their weapons. When Mr. Webster began approaching, Mr. Ingram raised his gun, as did Webster. Two shots rang out simultaneously, and both men fell. Webster died almost instantly, Ingram less than a month later.

That "Deadwood"-style neighborhood gunfight is one of 555 examples compiled by advocates of gun control detailing how the mere presence of legal guns can turn mundane moments into tragedies – sobering rebuttals against the estimated tens of thousands of times a year Americans brandish guns in self-defense to thwart crimes in progress.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about the Second Amendment? A quiz.

In a country that witnesses bloody gun violence of all kinds on a daily basis, Ingram and Webster were part of a growing cohort, a sort of standing militia of what concealed-carry advocates say are between 8 million and 11 million citizens carrying concealed guns in public in the name of protecting themselves and those around them.

Less than two decades ago, fewer than a million Americans carried concealed weapons, and they were mostly ex-police, ex-military, or owners of cash businesses.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; bias; csmonitor; guncontrol
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To: tet68

Correct!


21 posted on 02/03/2014 4:22:46 PM PST by Howie66 (Molon Labe, Traitors!)
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To: marktwain

No.


22 posted on 02/03/2014 4:27:45 PM PST by SkyDancer (Live your life in such a way that the Westboro church will want to picket your funeral)
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To: MrBambaLaMamba; All

Police three times as likely to commit murder as concealed carry permit holders.

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/10/concealed-carry-permit-holders-are-one.html


23 posted on 02/03/2014 5:30:51 PM PST by marktwain (The old media must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: nascarnation

consider the rise to hundreds of millions of guns in america yet gun deaths are stable to slightly falling since the 90s. more people own guns now more than ever andhave more than ever, yet gun deaths drop or stay thesame.

seems we are safer rather than less safe.


24 posted on 02/03/2014 5:32:30 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2; cuban leaf

We are, in fact, talking about throwing popcorn.

The good news is that the impolite guy died doing what he loved, pissing off other people.

Seriously, how many people who passed on can really have that said about them?


25 posted on 02/03/2014 6:15:43 PM PST by Balding_Eagle (Over production, one of the top 5 worries for the American Farmer every year.)
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To: marktwain

Robert A. Heinlein, deceased science fiction author extraordinaire, and medically discharged from the U.S. Navy, during WW2 wrote that line about an armed society is a polite society.

The quick polite and accurate answer is: ‘No.’


26 posted on 02/03/2014 6:20:15 PM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: Balding_Eagle

I see what your saying. At least these two figured out a way to work out their differences. They haven’t had another argument in the last 4 years...


27 posted on 02/03/2014 6:30:14 PM PST by Max_850
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To: Tenacious 1
Did they include the OK Coral?

If they've only got one good case in the last four years... it's possible the 554th goes back to the OK Coral - maybe the 555th is back in the American Revolution...

28 posted on 02/03/2014 7:22:48 PM PST by GOPJ (The Nation's divided between those who are to be fooled and those who do the fooling.Greenfield)
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To: marktwain

Judging by actual crime statistics, and not anecdotes, the answer is no, an armed America is not a more dangerous America. In fact, and by fact I mean not anecdote, it is far safer than it otherwise would be.

Next question?


29 posted on 02/03/2014 11:26:24 PM PST by Redcloak (Winter is coming.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

No what we are talking about here is 2nd degree murder. That 70 year old ex cop nutjob is going to die in prison. You don’t have the right to kill somebody for throwing popcorn at you.


30 posted on 02/04/2014 6:07:47 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Yeah. I get that. I’m not saying a popcorn thrower deserves to be shot. I’m talking about a completely different issue.

To wit: If you live in a culture where there is an assumption that a lot of people in a movie theater are carrying or concealed carrying, you don’t start stuff. This is why an armed society is a polite society. It’s sort of a “personal” version of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction).

This is why I am confident Trayvon Martin is the one that started the altercation with Zimmerman. If you are unarmed and assume the other guy is, you may start a fist fight. If you are armed, you don’t start fist fights except in hollywood westerns.

I’m addressing a deep psychological issue with my remark regarding conflict and conflict resolution.


31 posted on 02/04/2014 6:17:04 AM PST by cuban leaf
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To: Balding_Eagle

The good news is that the impolite guy died doing what he loved, pissing off other people.


I wouldn’t go quite that far. I summed up my position just above this one.

Thing is, if he was of a mindset that the guy he was throwing the popcorn on was armed, he wouldn’t have thrown it.

Again, an armed society is a polite society.

I get that from Louis L’amoure, the western fiction writer who was also an expert on the old west. He was big on guns bringing peace. He said a holstered gun was more dangerous than a drawn gun in a real way. And you don’t throw popcorn on a man if you think he may be armed. i.e. the gun actually makes the situation more civil, just as nuclear weapons and their presence in their holsters actually brought decades of peace to the civilized world.


32 posted on 02/04/2014 6:20:50 AM PST by cuban leaf
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To: Voice of Reason88; cuban leaf; logi_cal869

You’ve captured the spirit of the thing. LOL!


33 posted on 02/04/2014 3:03:16 PM PST by YHAOS
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