Religious involvement lessens likelihood of owning a handgun

[rug]

Americans who are more involved in religious congregations are less likely to own handguns, according to a new study.

January 17, 2017
Wake Forest University

Americans who are more involved in religious congregations are less likely to own handguns, according to a new study by Wake Forest University sociologist David Yamane.

"Involvement in organized religion tends to reduce gun ownership," said Yamane, whose study appears in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. "This may be because people with stronger ties to religious groups have higher levels of trust in institutions and in their communities."

This finding may surprise some who hold the common view that religion and gun ownership go hand-in-hand, particularly in the Bible Belt and among Evangelical Protestants.

"It is true that gun ownership is more common among rural residents and Southerners," Yamane explained. "But in terms of religion, Evangelical Protestants are no more likely to own handguns than Black Protestants, Catholics, Jews, or religious nones, all other things being equal."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170117102215.htm

Abstract: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12282/abstract;jsessionid=EDFAD57755A996F18DFD7BC97FBFA4F3.f03t01

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Wrong.

"This may be because people with stronger ties to religious groups have higher levels of trust in institutions and in their communities."

Nobody owns a handgun because they mistrust 'an institution/community'. Handguns are only for fighting your way to your rifle.

[rug]

2. Sounds rather libertarian.

How many guns do you have?

[AtheistCrusader]

3. All of them.

But it might interest you to know, the delta between gun owning republicans and gun-owning democrats is only 20%.

[rug]

4. Many calls for a number not a receipt.

But since you mentioned it, are Democrats or republicans more likely to start shooting people with handguns so they can get to their rifles?

[AtheistCrusader]

5. Unknown.

Depends on who feels an imminent threat of bodily harm to self or others, or needs to render aid to a police officer.

What does the number/receipt thing mean?

[rug]

6. How many refers to a number. "All of them" refers to ownership.

Usually proven by a receipt.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Oh, shit, I don't know.

Somewhere north of 30. Right tool for the right job and all that.

Why would I show you a receipt? For that matter, why would I even have any receipts? I have a spreadsheet with serial numbers and photos, in case my safe wanders away somehow.

[rug]

8. Which do you recommend for a man as opposed to a woman?

[AtheistCrusader]

9. It's not gender, its mass and arm length.

But that's part of why we have so many, had to double up on a couple configurations for disparate users.

Ergonomics are important for safe use.

[rug]

10. How many times have you been attacked?

[AtheistCrusader]

11. The point necessitating deadly force in response?

Zero.

And I like it that way.

[rug]

12. So you possess 30+ weapons based on a hypothetical.

The closest I've come to a weapon was snapping off a car antenna during a fight.

They they came out with those damn unsnappable spring antennas.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Technically I possess a lot more than that.

Lots of things can be weapons.

Most of my firearms are not, and never were intended for interpersonal disputes. Some have collector value. Some have historical value. Some are for hunting, which necessitates a number of types for different types of game. A firearm suitable for small game like a rabbit, is not necessarily suitable for a deer and vice versa, and neither would work for upland bird. In fact, some smaller game rifles like the AR-15 are explicitly illegal for use against deer in my state because it is unlikely to cleanly kill the animal, so even if it wasn't illegal, I wouldn't use it because I have no intent to cause an animal to needlessly suffer. Vice versa, my deer rifle would be wholly inappropriate for use against a rabbit, because there wouldn't be anything left to eat. I don't hunt for sport, I hunt for meat.

I practice fine motor control (especially after damaging my shoulder) by all sorts of things, ranging from painting, to punching small holes in paper at very long range with a firearm.

There's a whole spectrum of uses for firearms, aside from explicitly 'weapons'. I only own two that are currently used by any police or military force in the world. (Though some of mine were once used by the Americans and the British in WWI and WWII)

It's a hobby, an art, a means of obtaining meat, and yes, potentially useful for self-defense against predators with four legs and two. Had cougar tracks in a neighbors yard last week. Everyone has to keep their garbage cans inside till 7am on pickup day, because of the bears. I wouldn't kill an apex predator unprovoked, but if it was necessary, I'd do it.

I don't get into fights much since the 6th grade. Do you?

[rug]

14. Last fight I had I was 34. Over a chess game. In a bar.

And, yes, it was on Madison Avenue.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Being armed, and being cognizant of the risks

I tend to de-escalate issues of all kinds.

I'll die a happy old man, comfortable in my bed, never having seriously harmed anyone if I have my way.

I'll call that fistfight I started in the 6th grade a mulligan, we all get one, right?

[rug]

16. Personally, I think life's too short to worry about guns and scenarios to use them.

On the other hand, I don't understand anyone who has successfully avoided ever having a fist fight.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. Seems we've just selected different tools for different problems.