Shooting in Florida

[Irving]

Of course it could be a factor. I'm suggesting that ownership alone is not a significant factor. There is more to the story than just owning a gun. There are people who buy a gun at some point in their life and it just sits in a drawer forever. Those people aren't preventing any crime just by having a gun somewhere in their house.

Gun ownership is, for the most part, a hobby. One has to be at a certain level of financial/economic stability, to engage in and maintain any level of hobby. People with enough economic freedom also have the time and interest in maintaining the quality of the community in which they live. Not everyone is going to be involved, but enough people to make a difference.

You could basically make the same argument for piano ownership. People who own pianos aren't out actively preventing crime, or frightening criminals with the threat of having their fingers smashed by the fallboard anymore than gun owners are out actively preventing crimes. Criminals already live a life of constant risk, and I doubt that the presence of guns adds much perceived risk. Certainly not compared to just having a more involved and aware community to begin with.

I'm sure there is enough of a discussion here to run an entire years long survey. Just because I don't buy that argument anymore, doesn't mean others can't. Believe what you want, I just think that saying, "get more guns and people will behave," is just as tired of a cop-out as "make drugs and prostitution legal and tax the hell out of 'em!"

On a side note, I'm not at all against the state putting mass shooters/murders to death immediately, but I also don't see the death penalty as much of a deterrent, especially among mass shooters who regularly kill themselves anyway.

EDIT: With your emphasis on the culture, I suspect that we're saying similar things. I also suspect that you'd, correctly, point out that the culture of piano ownership and gun ownership are different.