Hi
Is it just me, or has Gaggle not answered my question?
Ok - which quesiton is that?
Part 1: Needless deaths.
You say: That gun deaths exist, and the status quo is not an option unless i find needless deaths acceptable.
I answer: Which needless deaths? I mentioned that in GB, the homicide rate has not dropped since the last gun ban, and asked why, if the homicide rate hadn't gone down, you were looking so closely at gun homicides. I went on to demonstrate that accidental deaths are quite low, and homicides are quite high, and outlined what I knew about homicides in Indiana. My sources:
Accidental -
A COMPARISON OF RISK: Accidental Deaths - United States - 1999-2003, US Dept. of Transportation in which accidental gun deaths occurred an average of 779 times in a population of between 60 and 91 million persons, placing it 10th in risk of accidental death.
Type | 5 Yr. Average | General Population |Risk Based on Exposure
| | Risk Per Year | or Other Measures
Motor Vehicle | 36,676 | 1 out of 7,700 | 1.3 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles
Poisoning | 15,206 | 1 out of 18,700 |
Work Related | 5,800 | 1 out of 49,000 | 4.3 deaths per 100,000 workers
Large Trucks | 5,150 | 1 out of 55,000 | 2.5 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles
Pedestrian | 4,846 | 1 out of 58,000 |
Drowning | 3,409 | 1 out of 83,500 |
Fires |9 3,312 1 out of 86,000
Motorcycles |3,112 |1 out of 91,500 | 31.3 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles
Railroads | 931 | 1 out of 306,000 |1.3 deaths per million train miles
Firearms | 779 | 1 out of 366,000 |
Homicide -
The Social Ecology of Murder In Indiana
Ninety-two percent of offenders in each sentence type group had a criminal history prior to the committing the instant offense. Most (84% or more) had been arrested at least once as an adult. More than half had been arrested as a juvenile.
Twenty-four percent of all offenders were out on bail, released on their own recognizance, or had promised to appear for another offense when they committed the crime of murder.
....
Nineteen percent of offenders were on probation for another offense and nearly 7% were on parole when the instant offense occurred.
Table 7-1: The top five reasons for murders committed by offenders in this study were: To facilitate the commission of another crime (i.e., ‘felony murder,’ 43% of all offenders); to acquire money or property (non-drug-related; 34% of all offenders); over an intimate or familial situation
(24% of all offenders); to silence someone who witnessed the defendant or a codefendant during the commission of a crime (21% of all offenders); and hatred, retaliation, animosity, or revenge (16% of all offenders).
The only non-overlapping motives in the top 5 were felony homicide and silencing a witness, which account for some 64% of all the convictions.
Second point: The inapplicability of gun deaths to other kinds of deaths
You said: The comparison was unfair because people take a lot of steps to limit the other kinds of deaths.
I answered: POINT FOR POINT that law-abiding gun owners take identical steps.
Third point: The Ol' Switcheroo
You said: Other countries have limited gun deaths by limiting guns, and asked what the answer is for America.
I mentioned that most of the gun deaths in the USA are performed by criminals, with criminal intent, who will not give the first packrat's rumpsteak for a ban on firearms. I went on to mention that a review of the major source of criminal activity, the US illegal drug laws, might yield a significant reduciton in gun deaths.
I would like to take the opportunity to remind you that, in England and Wales at least, and due to your most recent foray into gun control, the number of deaths due to homicides has not dropped:
Home Office crime statistics for England and Wales, Long Term Trends
Our death rate for accidental deaths, the only ones that could be effected by a gun ban because the criminals aren't going to hand in their guns, is about 800 in a population of... lets split the difference and say 75 million... 75 million gun owning persons (criminal and law-abiding both), gives us a rate per 100,000 of about ONE. 1.066 or there abouts.
According to the UK National statistics online,
Alcohol Deaths chart
In 2006 the male death rate (18.3 deaths per 100,000 population) was more than twice the rate for females (8.8 deaths per 100,000)
it appears that more of you guys seem to be drinking yourselves to death than a complete gun ban in the US would stop. I can't help but wonder about all those unnecessary deaths, when all you have to do is ban alcoholic beverage.
...or do you NEED booze like you need a car?
Perhaps what you meant is that I didn't provide a solution that you liked?
