Let's just say I own a 311 bedspread or two!

Lol nice Fire emblem reference. 

I was thinking the same thing. If you fear being shot when you leave your house then your country must of had like a 90% crime rate. 

"I fear no man and I'm unarmed"

Omaha Stylee

Apart from the fact that a "90%" crime rate doesn't seem to make much sense, the perception of danger is relative and depends on what a person is used to. The best number I can currently think of to somehow measure and compare the danger of being shot when leaving the house is the number of people killed in firearm-related homicides per 100000 population per year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate Looking at that data, people from Colombia or Mexico visiting the USA will probably consider the danger of being shot in a gun-related homicide to be surprisingly low, because in their countries that danger is about three times higher. I on the other hand would probably consider it very high, simply because that danger is about 50 times higher than what I am used to from my own country.

But I'm more and more thinking it makes little sense to discuss american gun policy on an international forum like this one anyway. Because many non-americans only point out how idiotic and stupid they consider american gun policy, and it's understandable that this offends the national identity of many americans, who as far as I know are very "proud" of their country. If these americans were however only debating gun policy with other americans, they might present a much more balanced view. I've made similar experiences with debating israeli foreign policy with jews. It's a stupid idea, because when a gentile brings up criticism, most of them will feel that they have to defend Israel because they feel it's somehow part of their own identity being criticized. But when the same jews would discuss Israel with other jews, they might even be more critical than the gentile.

You look at a paper to figure out if where you live is violent? Not really sure what to tell you. 

I've never once owned a weapon, nor have I ever felt that a situation would arise where I would need a weapon. 

Best just to stick with what you know which, from what I can tell, isn't much. 

I've been to the Dominican Republic, Cancun, Punta Cana, and Grand Cayman. 

Never felt the need to have a gun there either and they all have a higher homicide rate than the US by quite a substantial margin.

Paper stats aren't useful at all to determining public perception of violence.

LOL! I live in a city that's 45% black and the 3rd poorest in the nation and on par with Chicago per capita for crime but instead we have conceal and carry permits(unlike Chicago)... I have not once worried about being shot and I attend school in the poorest and most crime strickened area of the City. What a completely absurd comment to make.

As for the video. 4 is considered mass? So a triple homicide/suicide would be a mass shooting? Thats fucking stupid. Someone could easily do that with a knife but I thought the purpose of a gun was to be more efficient. What they consider mass shootings could be a guy snaping and killing his family while they sleep. I wouldn't call that mass anything

As others note, the incidence of gun crime is actually surprisingly low. On top of it, the crime is radically uneven. Most of the country has rates equal too or far below those countries that have gun control, even when we are retaining our right to own arms. Most people focus though on per capita murders instead of violent crimes. Often, there is much more violent crime in countries in which there is gun control. So for those claiming you don't have to worry about getting shot, you do spend a lot more time worrying that someone is going to hit you on the head and mug you or break into your house.

I saw a pretty interesting comment on reddit about this. If you think that guns should be banned/severely controlled because of the effects they can have when a small number of unstable people get their hands on them, do you feel the same way about alcohol?