So, in the USA there were 15,980 reported murders in 2001. The percentages break down thusly…List added by me. Results in original post were just posted as linebreaks. So, what I’m seeing here, and assuming his numbers are correct or at least near-correct, not as many people are being killed by gunfire as I am being led to believe by the gun controll lobby. Now, I’m not a member of the NRA, and I’m not all about guns or anything, but this makes me side with those types of people when a gun debate comes up. My thoughts and beliefs on the matter of guns are that people have a right to them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have a fully automatic pistol or sawed-off shotgun in your personal arsenal. Remember the old adage: guns don’t kill people, people kill people. A sharpened pencil is just as effective a killing tool as a Desert Eagle.… For comparison
- 63% firearm
- 13% knives
- 6% fisticuffs (i love that word)
- 16% other weapon or unknown
Those plus other causes add up to 2,403,351 non-murder deaths. Hmmmm… 8,719 killed by gunfire, 553,091 taken by cancer. 8,719 shot, 97,900 died accidentally (about half car wrecks.)
- 710,760 died from heart disease
- 553,091 died from cancer
- 167,661 died via cerbrovascular diseases
- 122,009 died from chronic respiratory disease
- 97,900 died from accidents (including car accidents)
- 69,301 from diabetes
- 65,313 from influenza and pneumonia
- 49,558 from alzheimers
I don’t know how long this will be open to the public, but Ars has their Soap Box forum open right now. There is a post titled Remind me why we have a gun "problem" in the USA?, and I think it is quite interesting. What russ-iha, the poster, is showing here are some statistics that defy the current thought that we have a gun problem in the USA.
Let me summarize some of the results he has posted. You can get the results by clicking on the link above (if it’s still available), and you can also see his references.
4 Responses to “Is there a problem here?”
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Guns are bad. There might not be as many deaths by guns as there are from Cancer, but if someone said to me I could prevent my chances of being killed by cancer by not keeping it in the house, you better believe it wouldn’t be in the house. Same thing with guns… they aren’t going to be in the house. PERIOD.
Like I said, I’m not a gun person. I wouldn’t mind getting trained to fire one at a shooting range, but I’m not about to go and buy one to keep in my home. The last thing I need to do is escalate a confrontation with an intruder by pulling out a gun.
what’s your ars user id? i’m “Andrew”! but i don’t post much
i’ll add you to my MyPOP or whatever it’s called these days
On Ars, as with most places, my username is markomni. The only places this is different are my various e-mail addresses and AIM screennames (I do have an AIM screenname called markomni).