Topic awaiting preservation: Guns; A survey 4 U.

Hello fellow inmates, I am doing a research paper and I need your help. I must use a survey as one of my sources. (note: you're not the only ones being surveyed) I know you are all very opinionated so I came here. Please fill out the following survey and get paid $25!!! jk no money but you will be helping out a student.

1. Do you think there should be tight gun control?


2. do you think guns are generally dangerous to the public?


3. has some you have known ever been killed/injured from a gun?


4. if so, did it change the way you think about guns in terms of their safety?


5. have you ever used a gun in self defense?


6. have you ever used a gun for reasons other that self defense?


7. what do you think would happen to crime rates in your area if guns were allowed fgor everyone over 21 (and requires a permit to carry)

8. do you think guns in movies and video games influence our children to commit acts of violence?


9. do verses in the Bible like Genesis 27:3 and Genesis 48:22 concerning weapons change your about guns?


10. Statistics clearly show that crime rates are lower where guns are allowed. If you are opposed to guns, what do you say in defense of this?

ok thanks for filling out my survey, your help will get me an A+! hehe.

Kevin G: Do you only want US inmates to do this?

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

1. Do you think there should be tight gun control?

No.

2. do you think guns are generally dangerous to the public?

No.

3. has some you have known ever been killed/injured from a gun?

Yes.

4. if so, did it change the way you think about guns in terms of their safety?

No.

5. have you ever used a gun in self defense?

No.

6. have you ever used a gun for reasons other that self defense?

Yes.

7. what do you think would happen to crime rates in your area if guns were allowed fgor everyone over 21 (and requires a permit to carry)

I think they would go down.

8. do you think guns in movies and video games influence our children to commit acts of violence?

No.

9. do verses in the Bible like

Genesis 27:3 - Now then, get your weapons-your quiver and bow-and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

and

Genesis 48:22 - And to you, as one who is over your brothers, I give the ridge of land [1] I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow."
concerning weapons change your about guns?

No.

10. Statistics clearly show that crime rates are lower where guns are allowed. If you are opposed to guns, what do you say in defense of this?

I am note opposed to guns.

GD Note - For reference I have linked said bible chapters and also pasted them within this thread for ease of use...

GrythusDraconis
"I'm sick of hearing that beauty is only skin-deep. That's deep enough. Who wants an adorable pancreas?" - Unknown

[This message has been edited by GrythusDraconis (edited 05-06-2003).]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. No
5. No
6. No
7. Crime increase
8. No, but I do believe they desensitize to some degree
9. No, I'm an atheist
10. Provide refs so I can read for myself

Emps, i would like everyone in the universe to fill out this survey.jk i would like inmates all over the world to fill it out. oh and GD and everyone else, please give some reasons for your answers. thanks a bunch!

[edit] Damn! Reasons too? Pushy ain't we? [/edit]

1.Tight control? No. Some reasonable control? Yes
For an explanation of this, read my post here.

2.No
I think that an uneducated public is dangerous to the public, but guns, simply by themselves, are no more dangerous to the public than shovels, computers or a spoon.

3.Yes
I got shot once, by a shotgun, from about 70 m or so. Made my left arm and part of my back a bloody mess. It sucked. Renegade pissed off farmer with an attitude...thought he'd be tough by shooting a kid. I don't think he's tough. I think he's an ass.

4.No
Idiots who don't know how to handle their tempers shouldn't be allowed to participate in society. It wasn't the gun's fault nor was it any right-minded gun owner's fault. If the jackass wouldn't have had a gun he would have tried to run me over with his pickup or maybe he would have tried to chop my leg off with an axe. Whichever way you slice it, life was just simply going to suck for me for a while 'cuz of a pea-brain hick. I'm alive and my arm works great now...that's all I can ask for.

5.No
I've used a knife, a MagLite, a couple beer bottles and my handy steel-toed boots for defense (and the best defense ever -- run like hell), but never a gun.

6.Yes
I've shot rifles and shotguns at targets and clay pigeons for years. Never been hunting. Never shot a handgun.

7.Everyone? Like mentally handicap and known violent criminals? Crime rates would likely rise, maybe stay the same.

8.Not likely, but the jury is still out.
I don't know for sure. Studies seem to point at a few different phenomenon...but nothing's certain yet. I think, probably, that high exposure to violent acts with little/no frame of reference (stable home with good parental/leadership influence) probably stacks the deck. Still, you play the hand you're dealt.

9.No
Weapons have been part of human culture since the very first day one of our primate ancestors picked up a stick to chase off a tiger cub looking for his first independent meal. It would be inconceivable to imagine a document of any significant length, at any point in history, not mentioning weapons of some sort or another.

10. --N/A--
First of all, I don't buy that 'statistics CLEARLY show...' [my own emphasis added]. I've rarely known statistics to CLEARLY show anything.
Secondly, I'm not opposed to guns.

[This message has been edited by mobrul (edited 05-06-2003).]

1. Tight? No. TightER? Yes. More education in terms of gun safety? Definitely.
2. Depends on whose hands they're in. For the most part, yes they are.
3. Yes. Uncle lost his right eye (to a pellet gun), and a cousin of mine was shot while hunting.
4. Yes. People need to have the proper training before even picking up a gun - neither of the two people firing the gun in my example did.
5. No. Would I? Depends on a) If I ever get a gun, and b) the situation.
6. Yes. Hunting.
7. It'd probably go up. There was just an armed robbery at a bookstore here the other day, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more if more people were allowed to have guns.
8. This is a subject I feel strongly about; the parents play a much larger role here than the video games. My answer is yes, but only if the parents did not fulfill their responsibilities in teaching their children the differences between right/wrong, reality/fantasy, etc.
9. The bible does not affect my life in any way, shape, or form (except when Christians/Mormons/Catholics are interrupting me as I'm on my way to class - no offense to members of said religions).
10. 87.9% of statistics are made up on the spot. Statistics, unless recorded in a strictly controlled environment such as a laboratory, don't really mean anything.



[This message has been edited by Raptor (edited 05-06-2003).]

ok im reading a book called The Bias Against Guns by John R. Lott Jr. its full of statistics (which were not made up) but they are in graph form so i cant like write it down here but ill just say what it means. well basically what it says is that in states with out the right to carry arms that changed to thr right to carry arms, the crime rates dropped dramatically. Really, if you want to be totally proved wrong, read that book. basically everyhting youve heard from anti-gunners is false, and biased.

I didn't hear anything from anti-gunners, and I have no qualms over being proved completely wrong (it's happened before).

quote:

---

Statistics, unless recorded in a strictly controlled environment such as a laboratory, don't really mean anything.

---

It's 100% possible that among those areas from which the statistics were taken, there may have been some other causation to the low crime rates. I don't believe there has been a study that shows a higher gun count directly causing a lower crime rate. It comes down to a measure of correlation, which means that some variable z causes x and y, as opposed to x causing y.

Anyway, I diverge. Back to the survey.

1. Yes - it has worked well here in the UK but where guns are everywhere it would be a more difficult process so some places would suit different levels.

2. Yes.

3. Yes - a family friends soon once accidentally killed his friend when out hunting. When things were getting out of control in the UK I was shot at and a number of friends were threatened with guns.

4. Not really - I have a low opinion of them anyway.

5. I have never touched a working gun.

6. See answer to 5.

7. I'm not sure about crime overall but gun related crime would go through the roof and petty ciminals would carry guns on crimes where they never would have before - this was the way things were going here before the current gun laws (gun crime has risen but that has tended to remain between gangs).

8. I suspect violence in movies may make some people more violent (I'm not sure guns are as bad in movies as more physical violence like people getting punched and kiced).

9. No. Why should they?

10. What are the deaths by shooting like? And as Amerasu said - show us the numbers!!

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

1. Absolutely, I think mobrul's posting in the NRA thread explained this well.

2. Yes and No, Idiots with guns are dangerous to the general public

3. I had a friend hurt his toe dropping his gun on it but I don't think that counts

4. Yes we are much more carefull when playing catch with a Glock now

5. Nope

6. I shot one at a target a couple of times as a boy scout. (Note the target was never in any danger and walked away unscathed).

7. Not a damn thing

8. Not half as much as bad parenting does.

9. Unless those are the parts that explain the 11th through 15th commandments about guns, knives and biological weapons and I missed it then no. (bonus to anyone who knows the movie refrence here)

10. Actually that statistic is only relevant in the United States and relatively small suburban communities Internationally it doesn't hold up, and in fact the opposite has been proven true in australia. (This argument about gun control versus gun ownership and crime rates in the US is moot since we can only test one side. You have to realize this isn't judging crime rates in communities with no guns versus communities with guns, it's about a community with guns versus a community that has some sort of kneecapped half-ass regulation. It's been impossible to outlaw guns in a community and see the effects) And not to mention even if that statistic is true I don't know how I feel about living in a community where there is less crime because every fool is strapping a gun on thier waist. I can deal with some petty theft if it means I can get in a drunken bar brawl without worrying about everyone pulling out thier piece on the drop of a dime



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.


[This message has been edited by bitdamaged (edited 05-06-2003).]

1. Do you think there should be tight gun control?
no - but i believe that you should have to take a saftey course and/or register your gun.

2. do you think guns are generally dangerous to the public?
no

3. has some you have known ever been killed/injured from a gun?
yes - a friend shot himself and another friend died from an accidental shooting

4. if so, did it change the way you think about guns in terms of their safety?
no

5. have you ever used a gun in self defense?
yes - there was a bear coming in the back door

6. have you ever used a gun for reasons other than self defense?
yes - i hunt and also like target shooting and attending dynamite shoots

7. what do you think would happen to crime rates in your area if guns were allowed fgor everyone over 21 (and requires a permit to carry)
for *my* area...nothing would really change. i know that in montana, if you're a minor, you have to take a hunters saftey course to get a hunting license. you can't take hunters saftey until you're 12. and you have to carry that permit around with you until you're 18.

8. do you think guns in movies and video games influence our children to commit acts of violence?
no

9. do verses in the Bible like Genesis 27:3 and Genesis 48:22 concerning weapons change your about guns?
not at all

10. Statistics clearly show that crime rates are lower where guns are allowed. If you are opposed to guns, what do you say in defense of this?
na

__________________________
Cell 1007::SST

lol Kevin G There's a statistic that says that there are more drowning deaths occur when people eat more ice cream too (true). Does this mean you shouldn't eat ice cream? You just think it's safe because of someone's bias?

Statistics on an argument like this are so subjective they're almost not worth mentioning I can get statistics in triplicate supporting every side of this argument



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

1. No
2. No
3. Yes
4. No
5. No
6. Yes
7. Drop
8. No
9. No
10. N/A

. . : slicePuzzle

[damn, bitdamaged beat me to it.]

KevinG:
I believe you when you say that you are reading a book that has statistics x, y, and z.
I also believe that they weren't 'made up'.
To illustrate the point Raptor is trying to make, let me show you a couple of statistics that are absolutely not made up.

From the months of May-Sept in St. Louis, my hometown, the price of ice cream rises about 5% over the price for the months Oct-April.
From the months of May-Sept in St. Louis, my hometown, the incidents of rape rise approximately 5% over those of the months Oct-April.
One could draw a conclusion, then, that every 1% increase in price of ice cream causes a 1% increase of incidents of rape.

Obviously, that is silly. The real case is that summer raises both demand for ice cream and opportunity for rape (and other crime, as the entire crime rate rises each summer.)

Correlation != Causation

It's not that the statistics are 'wrong', but it still takes a human to interpret those results. Sometimes that interpretation can be wrong. May or may not be in your particular case. Either way, the moral of the story is to read 'statistics' with a bit of scepticism and a working brain.



[This message has been edited by mobrul (edited 05-06-2003).]

Opinions from France

1. Do you think there should be tight gun control?
Yes, no one should be allowed to own a gun.

2. do you think guns are generally dangerous to the public?
Yes, guns are used to kill, so WHY wouldn't they be dangerous ?

3. has some you have known ever been killed/injured from a gun?
No

4. if so, did it change the way you think about guns in terms of their safety?
No

5. have you ever used a gun in self defense?
No

6. have you ever used a gun for reasons other that self defense?
No

7. what do you think would happen to crime rates in your area if guns were allowed for everyone over 21 (and requires a permit to carry)
It would increase.

8. do you think guns in movies and video games influence our children to commit acts of violence?
No, the only real problem is bound to humans, as they tend to be violent. This is their nature, and that won't change in a while. Seeing violence in video games does not influence persons to commit violence, in fact it generally helps them to get of their natural violence.

9. do verses in the Bible like Genesis 27:3 and Genesis 48:22 concerning weapons change your about guns?
No

10. Statistics clearly show that crime rates are lower where guns are allowed. If you are opposed to guns, what do you say in defense of this?
Oww many things can be said about that
First, statistics are what they are : statistics. As a mathematic student, I can tell you I will never even begin to trust a satistic unless I'm given the concerned people, the location of the poll, and the variance, and the typical swing.
Then, do the crime rate means violence ? No. Crime rate maybe means they are less crimes, but I think on the contrary these crimes are more and more violent.
And last of all, trusting that allowing guns makes the crime rates to diminish is stupid. If you give someone a weapon, not matter his/her intelligence, the situation, the events, it will inevitably get used in the future. And this must not be.

_________________
Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. -- Frank Herbert

gun control? Definatly other silliness... I'm moving this.

1. Do you think there should be tight gun control?
2. do you think guns are generally dangerous to the public?
3. has some you have known ever been killed/injured from a gun?
4. if so, did it change the way you think about guns in terms of their safety?
5. have you ever used a gun in self defense?
6. have you ever used a gun for reasons other that self defense?
7. what do you think would happen to crime rates in your area if guns were allowed fgor everyone over 21 (and requires a permit to carry)
8. do you think guns in movies and video games influence our children to commit acts of violence?
9. do verses in the Bible like Genesis 27:3 and Genesis 48:22 concerning weapons change your about guns?
10. Statistics clearly show that crime rates are lower where guns are allowed. If you are opposed to guns, what do you say in defense of this?


1) Yes, why having rules about building houses, cars, driving license, drinking alcohol etc. etc. for safety reasons. While people can buy this very dangerous thing at the corner off the street? That don't make sense to me.

2) They are designed to kill or to hurt, so this must be yes.

3) Nope

4) No i can't imagine i would be pro guns after such thing happens.

5) Nope and i am not going to either. (i hope)

6) see 5

7) I think a lot off the little criminals would feel a lot stronger and would be eager to show this off.
Which would let the crime rate explode. Since shooting at someone is a crime in itself and trying to hurt or to kill someone is also a big crime (murder and attempt to murder etc.) there would be even more crime.

8) They learn to recognize it, and they learn what could be done with them. So yes it influences them, but it would be hard to say they are inspired to use violence. However if children (and the adults which grow from them) ever come in a stituation where (they think) violence is needed they know a gun can be handy to do so.
Also when children grow up in a surrounding with a lot off guns they are more used to them and and probaly use them faster/easier then children who did not .

9) Since i had to look this up this would be a no, the bible is not realy that importand to me.
I try however to use "moses top-ten" as a guide.

10) Show me the stats, let know how this study is done, let me do my on study.
And do not forget this saying: "There is lies, there is damn-lies and there is statistics"
Also i could say: "So crime rates are dropped? Probably they all shot each other..." (sarcastic)
or
"Did you also studied the hospital ratings for shot-wounds in that area?"
and
"In what time frame did this happen, a year , a month a week? And what about the long term, say 20 years?"

__________________________________________
"Art has to be forgotten. Beauty must be realized."
Piet Mondriaan