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2. The deadliest weapons are very profitable. The NRA and gun makers are happy to fan fears of terrorism and government takeovers because it’s good for business. One reason the industry has been pushing semi-automatic weapons in recent years—which the most notorious mass shooters have used—is because they use more ammunition, MarketWatch.com reports. It notes that bullets accounted for nearly one-third of industry profits, or $4.6 billion in sales in 2013, compared to 26 percent in 2008. “Guns and ammo are a lot like printers and ink cartridges,” it said. “While you buy the former relatively infrequently, you buy the latter often—and that’s where you wind up doing a lot of your spending.”
3. Feeling safer is not the same as being safer. Two-thirds of gun owners say they feel safer because they have a gun in their home, the nationwide pollsters Rasmussen Reports reported in early December. "Feel" is the key word here, because other studies released in 2015 show the opposite: that having a gun increases the chances of a spectrum of gun-related violence at home, from suicides to use in domestic disagreements and fights to accidental shootings.
A detailed report, “Firearms Training and Self-Defense,” shows what happens when guns are within easy reach. Contrary to the conventional wisdom held by gun owners like those in the Rasmussen poll, few criminals are shot in homes. “Instead, the report concludes, “guns in homes were commonly used to intimidate the occupants, including spouses and other family members.” In other words, many people who buy guns because of fears prompted by media coverage or gun industry propaganda end up using the weapons against people they know at home, not criminals or terrorists.
4. Like any warzone, arbitrary victims abound. This is where the firearms training report delves into detail. The presence of guns leads to other problems, from increased gun-related domestic abuse to more gun-related violence
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