09 December 2009

Defensive Dog Use!

Are you getting sick of the Defensive Gun Use Stories where the person says something along the lines of: "I was walking down the street and I saw this group of youths with evil intent. I showed them my gun and they walked away"?

Nevermind a story like this is fraught with things that would raise questings in the mind of any thinking person and be objected to in court:
--State of mind: How does he know the kids' intent? Is he a mind reader?
--Opinion: again evil intent.
--And just general hearsay! Yes, this is an out of court statement being offered for its truth!
--How many more hidden, yet incorrect assumptions are within this story.

We have no police report, unless the group of kids pull their cellphones, take a picture (or better yet a movie) of our "defender", call the cops, and have him arrested! Why, because this was a group of innocent school kids walking home!

Of course, all this presumes that this event really happened.

In the spirit of that genre, I bring you a defensive dog tale:
Laci weighs a mere 8 pouds (maybe 9 wet), yet one night we heard some rattling at our door. It was obviously a miscreant intent on breaking into our house. Laci barked (he bark is very loud) and the rattling stopped. A minute later my keys came through the door.

Laci stopped a criminal from breaking into my house. My wife and my mother both said, "that person could have broken in, but Laci stopped him from doing that. Good Laci"

Now you say, how can I know all this was the case? Well, I don't, but neither do you know that the anecdotal cases of defensive gun use are for real. They fit your version for reality.

As AztecRed pointed out:
You've engaged in the greatest fallacy of the internet: You read it on the internet, so it must be true.

Or specifically, in your case: You didn't read it on the internet, so it must not be true.

You've got to do better than that.

Well, I think I am by pointing out the real logical fallacies and the fact that you have misunderstood the point about DGUs. DGUs are statistically rare, unless you believe the discredited Kleck and Lott surveys.

Likewise, we see loads of anecdotal evidence for DGUs which is similar to my story about Laci stoppping the burglary. You will say she didn't stop it for a myriad of reasons. Whereas I can argue that it is a true story until I am blue in the face. Likewise, shouldn't you be questioning the DGU stories? Actually, this is even more of a fallacy, "it fits my version of reality, so it must be real. I believe that DGUS happen, so I accept these stories without question."

“Knowledge Is The Enemy Of Faith!”

You are taking it on faith that these DGUs happened if you aren't questioning them.