Gun controlFollow

1500 people die in the US every year because you people can't grow up and learn to keep guns in gun clubs and out of your homes.

Not to mention the 26,000 other people who died that quite concievably wouldn't have done so had a gun not been readily been availible.

PEOPLE ARE HARDER TO KILL IF YOU DON'T HAVE A GUN, FUcking ******.

Will it stop them all? no of course it will not, will your death rates drop considerably? Yes they will probably fall to slightly above UK levels per capita.

UK total homicides 1.40

USA total homicides 8.95

Or are you so missguided to think that people in the UK don't have access to other methods of killing people?

Nah we just cook normally thats usually enough.

To be fair, I'm sure jsut as many people die a year from choking on a fry or something. 1500 is really a platry number.

You don't need to "tell the future," asshat, you just have to look at countries that have done it.

Tell me, why do you need a gun?

Strawman, figures show that 75% of illegal firearms where once legally owned. Ex/current military are you?

As I demonstrated earlier using someone old but still relevant data, the ratio of gun related fatalities to privately owned firearms is 0.0001599375 or 0.016%. Hardly a significant number, especially when you are (or anyone else is) suggesting that a 200 year old right (not privilege) be revoked simply because you don't like people owning guns.

Sure, you can speak only to the actual number of fatalities, but then, that's ignoring the truth in favor of your opinion on the matter.

In the same year that 30,708 people were killed by guns in the numbers I quoted, 42,013 died in automobile related deaths. Given a US population of roughly 268 million that year, the % of population deaths caused by guns was 0.011%, while the % of population deaths caused by automobiles was 0.015%. For the sake of argument, estimates put the number of motor vehicles on U.S. roads in 1997 at about 208 million, which gives us a ratio of vehicle related deaths to motor vehicles of 0.000201985 - a higher ratio than that of privately owned guns.

You can look at 42,013 and say that's a big number, and you can look at 30,708 and say that's a big number, but they're pretty damn close, and yet people like you contend that guns are some ridiculously dangerous force that puts our population on the brink of self-destruction. The numbers clearly debunk that claim and show that guns are actually less dangerous than automobiles, even when accounting for criminal misuse of said guns.

And just for giggles, let's look at some recent data on U.S. deaths and their leading causes from the CDC, shall we? For the year 2005:

Number of deaths: 2,448,017

Death rate: 825.9 deaths per 100,000 population
Life expectancy: 77.8 years
Infant Mortality rate: 6.87 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:
Heart disease: 652,091
Cancer: 559,312
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 143,579
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809
Diabetes: 75,119
Alzheimer's disease: 71,599
Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901
Septicemia: 34,136

2.5 million people died in 2005 - 30,694 of which were firearm related. Firearms accounted for only 1.22% of all deaths in that year and didn't even make the top 15 leading causes of death.

The fact of the matter is that your opinion is exaggerated and not based on facts. The truth is that guns can be misused, but generally arent, and are not a significant cause of death in the U.S., comparatively speaking. Even POISON related deaths surpassed firearm related deaths in that same year - 32,691 to 30,694.

For reference:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/deaths.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/injury99-05/injury99-05.htm
http://www.bradycenter.org/stop2/facts/fs2.php

Edited, Oct 28th 2008 12:24pm by BrownDuck

Yea.

1500 is a drop in the bucket. How many people die from choking while ************* My point is the absurdity of throwing a number like 1500 people around. Woopie, a small town dies every year from mismanaging a firearm. It's nothing compared to other stupid ****.

BUT, I am for gun control. Strict gun control. I just don't see the big deal about the 1500.

What about poison deaths? They outrank guns too. And poisons were designed to kill (something).

The point is not specifically about automobiles, Tarv. The point is that the number of people killed by guns is rather insignificant when looking at the big picture, and there are far greater causes to fight for. I mean, go back and read 2 or 3 posts ago where I quoted percentages



57% of all firearm related deaths that year (and subsequent years, actually) were suicides. You know what? I don't give a rat's *** if some john decided his life wasn't worth living. That's not any justification to restrict or abolish my right to recreational shooting. If you really only care about the number of accidental deaths or homicides, the number is actually far lower than 30,708 - it's about 13,000.

I don't think we can do that with this Administration or the Republican ticket up next. OMG outlaw Repulicans!

Or you know, vote and ****.

Now there's a platform I can live with.