Two Definitions of Lying
1. Saying something you know to be untrue.
2. Saying something you believe to be true, and which probably is may or may not be true, but which the other guy really, really wants not to be true.
‘Hat tip: Uncle.
UPDATE: Upon further reflection, and after some prodding by a commenter, I’m thinking the notion guns save 400,000 (or at least 200,000) American lives per year is probably excessive. I don’t doubt that the statement, while wrong, was nevertheless made in good faith, ergo my original point about labeling it as “lying” stands. As does the greater point that no matter whose numbers you believe, successful defensive uses of guns outnumber suceessful offensive ones, unless you play semantic games with the definition of succeed (e.g., a criminal’s use of his gun “succeeds” if he persuades you to hand over the loot, but your defensive use doesn’t “succeed” unless the criminal dies).
April 17th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Well, in fairness, “hundreds of thousands of lives each year?” amounts to at least 10 million or more people over the last 50 years who have had their lives saved by guns (presumably all private citizens, given the context of the debate at issue). That doesn’t sound just a wee bit excessive?
April 18th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Of course the number sounds excessive, but so would any other number that’s been arbitrarily multiplied by 50 just to make it look excessive. I will grant, however, that in a country with “only” 20,000 murders and nonnegligent homicides in a typical year, the notion that guns prevented ten times that amount may be a bit difficult to swallow. I’ve revised the post accordingly.
April 20th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Couldn’t your defensive use of a firearm be considered successful if you just seriously wound him, sufficiently that the police get him and he gets free government medical care courtesy of the Department of Corrections?