Firearms vs seat belts

Have you needed a firearm or a seat belt?

  • 1. I’ve never needed a firearm, nor have I ever needed a seat belt.

    Votes: 19 16.7%

  • 2. I’ve never needed a firearm, but I have needed a seat belt at least once.

    Votes: 41 36.0%

  • 3. I have needed a firearm at least once, but I have never needed a seat belt.

    Votes: 11 9.6%

  • 4. I have needed a firearm at least once, and I have needed a seat belt at least once.

    Votes: 43 37.7%
  • Total voters
    114
  • Poll closed .
M

motorhead0922

New member
We often make the analogy between carrying a gun and wearing a seatbelt because we never know when we might need either one. And when we do, it is a very rare occasion, perhaps once in a lifetime.

So, how do the two events compare? Let’s see what the results are. The four choices in the poll represent the four possibilities of yes or no answers to whether you’ve been in a situation where you needed a firearm or seat belt.

I’ll leave it up to you to interpret the definition of “need”. Please use the same type of criteria for both firearms and seat belts.

Edit: I forgot to mention: It does not matter whether or not you were wearing your seat belt or had access to your firearm at the time of your need. Only whether you were in a situation where you needed it.
 
Last edited:
motorhead said:
I’ll leave it up to you to interpret the definition of “need”. Please use the same type of criteria for both firearms and seat belts.
Click to expand...

I have been in motor vehicle accidents that, had I not been wearing my seatbelt, and had my airbags not deployed correctly, I would have been seriously injured or killed. I firmly believe they saved my life.

I have thankfully not been in a situation in which my gun served the same purpose.
 
the seatbelt comparison is not the greatest one to use. historically, to many people have been crippled or killed BECAUSE they wore the seat belt, instead of being flung out of the car after impact, the seat belt kept them insideso they could be incinerated in the fire.... and so on.

or better yet, not having a gun on you when your mugged or raped is like


- going on a date with the play mate of the year, and finding out you forgot your condoms 70 miles away at home.

-being the 300 pound guy who hasnt had a bath in 5 years who discovers the pimp aint happy that the 200 in his wallet is actually 2 20 dollar bills.
 
Thanks for your responses so far.

I edited my initial post to clarify that it does not matter whether or not you were wearing your seat belt or had access to your firearm at the time of your need. Only whether you were in a situation where you needed it.

I think y'all had that figured out already.

In my case, I have not faced a situation where I needed a firearm. I was, however, in a car wreck where I needed a seat belt but was not wearing one. I hit the windshield.
 
I'm not entirely sure whether "need a firearm" includes hunting situations. I suppose I could try to catch ducks by hand and drown them, but that sounds very difficult and horribly inefficient. That said, I'm going to operate on the idea that by "need' you mean an SD situation.

No, I have never "needed" a firearm for SD, but I have "needed" them for hunting. I do not normally "need" my seatbelt, but I have needed it in the past.

In many ways, I find seatbelts and firearms very similar: The odds of actually needing one are very low. However, you can go from "not need" to "desparately need" very, very quickly. If you do make that transition, the stakes are very high.
 
Seatbelts = Insurance companies pressuring Governments to pass laws using the lie of "its for your protection", when seatbelt laws are really for the insurance companies' fiscal protection.

Guns = devices the Government would rather not let you own, and but for the Constitution and those who advocate for the Constitution, the government would take them away from under the lie of "its for your protection".
 
The only time I ever needed a seat belt, the sholder strap broke my collar bone (this was before the time of air-bags). But without the belt, my head would have probably gone through the windshield or the steering column would have crushed my chest. So, I believe the broken collar bone was better than the alternative.

Jim
 
You are correct Spats; the firearm would be "needed" for protection, not sporting purposes. Similarly, the seat belt would be for protection, not just to keep kids under control in the back seat. ;)
 
Needed firearm to defend myself against a 14 year old mexican gang banger outside a party store in NLV. Sorry no details here. This is too emotionally painful of an episode to relive.

Needed seat belts to avoid serious injury in more than one car crash. Especially the one where when stopped at a traffic light behind a camaro, a gentleman driving behind me had a seizure and stomped on the gas plowing into me at over 60mph by the traffic crash investigators estimate. I ended up with a nasty bone bruise on my shin and my date ended up somehow splitting her lip. The guy in the camaro with no seat belt ended up shattering his rib cage and his left leg in several places. My new Chrysler LeBaron ended up U shaped and totaled.
 
Tying into Skans post, how many "safety" objects are now MANDATED by the government because they could save your life?
1. Lifejackets on boats. 2. Seat belts in cars. 3. fire extinguishers in trucks and boats. 4. Fences around pools. 5. Blaze Orange hunting garb. 6. Guns?

I'm not saying any of those things are dumb ideas. My point is that Guns can also save your life, but the government seems to shun the use of guns, except for the town in Georgia which MANDATED that one be kept in the home.

Why don't our government entities (fed, state, local) take the same "It could save your life" approach to firearms as they do with other objects?

I know they look at guns as tools for criminals, but more guns are used for self defense than are used during the commission of crimes, according to several research studies.
 
Well, this is...interesting for the purpose of discussion, but if anyone, anyone, and I mean anyone believes they can make some manner of a genuine conclusion from such a poll, I'll be quite happy to chortle greatly at their expense. :p

I can say that I've been in a motor vehicle...hmmmm, let me think. Four times, when it got SMACKED. In none of those cases did my seatbelt (or anyone else's) have any bearing on anything.

One time, I have been in the position where I absolutely, positively, genuinely needed a firearm -- I didn't have one. :( I'm still here, but to decide how a firearm might have altered that scenario is quite a tangent we'd have to go down.

I can tell you that even the most passionate amongst us here on this site would have to be an idiot or wildly kidding himself if he thinks the raw chances of needed a firearm for personal defense outweigh his chances of getting in a car wreck. :p You're living on another planet if you think you can argue otherwise... either that, or you simply do not EVER travel ANYWHERE, EVER, by automobile.
 
Had a car accident 3 months ago. Seatbelts definitely helped, as it was too slow for airbags, but was still ~20mph.

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I've used my AR to hold some people in place until police arrived when they trashed my neighbor's house in the middle of the night. No shots fired, just held it on them (4 people with weapons).
 
I got totaled an F-150 with my Honda Accord. Both vehicles totaled. I was wearing my seat belt, and walked out of it with one tiny scratch and a sore body. If I hadn't been wearing my seat belt I feel like I would have been seriously injured.

One night there was a conflict at a frat party next door. Some hours pass by and its around 5am, a friend is hanging out at the house, we are watching a movie and suddenly our front door is kicked in and a guy comes into the foyer yelling explicative phrases with 4 friends behind him with a tone of impending violence. I make the rather foolish decision to confront them unarmed, basically trying to make enough noise to wake up my room mate who has a shotgun. After a lot of bad noise, and getting through to them that this is not the house they intended to break into, and that their problem was with our neighbors they backed out the door and the police are called. The made their getaway in a jacked up white F-150 through a college campus at 5am, and did not get far. Cops got 3 of them. I got a 12 gauge soon after in case they decided they wanted to come back.

They were very lucky I was not armed. Instead of yelling and trying to talk some sense into these drunken guys in my house I would have shot first and questioned later. Heres to hope it never happens again.
 
Just because you have never totaled a car or drew down on someone is nothing to be ashamed of. I still miss that old Ford. I don't miss the individual.
 
I thought this was going to be concerning needing access to a gun while wearing a seat belt -- yes to that also.

which is another reason for carrying a off-side (or back-up) weapon
 
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