"We're Number 1!"

"We're Number 1!"

"We're Number 1!"

the shame of the world, in this regard...

USA! USA! USA!

Let's see per capita rates, please. Even though the US is still higher.

Double the figure for Japan, multiply that for the U.K. by five, and that for Germany by about four, and you have the needed adjustments.

A more interesting comparison, whether by raw number or per capita, would be number of guns in private hands in the various countries....

What is at issue is the total impact of widespread fire-arms ownership. This is best reflected by the total of gun deaths and injuries.

That the greatest portion of gun deaths here are suicides simply demonstrates the falsity of the 'need guns for self-defense against thugs' claim so beloved of gun fetishists. A great many of the guns people eventually use on themselves doubtless were initially purchased on a 'self-defense' rationale, and in fact saw their only use against a human when the men who purchased them blew their brains out.

But it does not.

it doesn't.

Gun crime is higher in the US than any other developed countries except Brazil and a few others. OK?

To a point where it is impossible to demonstrate any increase in safety from gun violence conferred by owning a gun here, and easy to demonstrate owning a gun increases the risk of being harmed by a gun which a person or household faces.

... also a per capita comparison often doesn't make much headway because a large number of people don't understand what "per capita" means. (Probably they do on this site, though).

If you do it as percentages, the actual figures seem so small that some detractors read it differently and move directly to the assumption that really the figures are a lensing of the homicide rate through differing methods of murder rather than an actual indictment of murder. Then they start talking about knife crime in London.

Still not looking too good for us.

Yep

And as I said above (I hope the sarcasm icon isn't necessary):

[font size="4"]"We're Number 1!"[/font]

09/13/2013
By Braden Goyette

A new study of gun violence published by the American Journal of Public Health found that states with greater levels of gun ownership tend to have higher rates of gun-related murder.

The study, conducted by Boston University professor Michael Siegel and coauthors Craig S. Ross and Charles King III, examines this relationship in all 50 states from 1981 to 2010. The researchers found that "for each percentage point increase in gun ownership, the firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9 percent."

The authors note that, though they can't prove a causal relationship between higher levels of gun ownership and homicide, "states with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides."

Their findings echo past studies about the relationship between gun ownership and homicide, though Siegel, Ross and King look at the relationship over a larger window of time than previous research.

According to a fact sheet from the Harvard School of Public Health:

Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more guns, both men and women are at higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/gun-violence-study_n_3924063.html


And you know it's coming, here's "the answer": MORE GUNS, MORE GUNS, MORE GUNS. We just don't have enough guns in this country!

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#By_country

nt

I may be mistake on this but I think both Canada and Sweden (or is it the Swiss that I'm thinking about?) have gun ownership rates that are comparable to ours but they don't go around shoo.ting each other right and left.

So you have to ask Why? What is it about us that causes us to quickly resort to lethal violence, to jump for the gun, so very quickly and within the bounds of were you find Americans to shoot? I think the answer is a lot deeper than that we simply have so many guns.

nt