Drivers Who Carry Guns & Roadrage

Taken from Popular Science article "Science Confirms the Obvious!":

"2. Gun-Toting Drivers are More Prone to Road Rage The Study: Is an armed society a polite society? Guns and road rage, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Jan. 2006

The Findings: After cold-calling 2,459 American adults with an anonymous questionnaire, researchers from the Harvard Injury Control Research Center discovered that directing indecent gestures at other motorists was significantly more common among suburbanites, binge drinkers, Northeasterners, those who think most people can't be trusted and, yes, those who admitted that they keep guns in their vehicles.

Why Bother? The paper says it best:If someone is giving you the finger, it may be useful to have some sense of whether or not they have a gun. Co-author Mary Vriniotis adds that states have recently loosened laws allowing motorists to drive while packing heat. The implication is that if lethal weapons are more readily accessible, hostile driving incidents could turn ugly more often. Knowing which populations are prone to road rage could help policymakers devise awareness campaigns or other strategies to help curb its frequency."

Let me put it like this: Horseshit, pure and simple.

1. If it were true, where are all the highway motorist-to-motorist shootings taking place that I never hear about in the news?

2. 2,459 persons out of a population of how many millions (estimate 296 Million +/- a few) of people in the U.S. is not a fair representation on any level of what might statistically be an accurate representation.

3. I've found when carrying a firearm in a vehicle I tend to become more polite and less aggressiveressive towards others, for the simple reason that I know the importance and responsibility of carrying a firearm in public.

4. So far every gun owner I've ever talked to about this subject has acknowledged having the same state of mind as I stated in #3.

5. Open carry of a firearm can help prevent road rage and aggressiveness of driving of other motorists toward you. When Johnny Speedracer sees a rifle or shotgun in the back glass gunrack of a pickup-truck, chances are he doesn't want to anger occupants of said vehicle. I've never been cut off, flipped off, or whatever when a gun is visible, only when not. Hmmm. Guns can help prevent roadrage and aggressive-driver caused accidents. See, guns actually make the roads a safer place.

6. It simply looks to me like they used this article as a means of doing another plug for the anti-gunners.