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 Off-Topic / Debate / 11907
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Subject: 
Re: Handgun Death Rate
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 20 Jul 2001 09:08:34 GMT
Viewed: 
485 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Bill Farkas writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Bruce Schlickbernd writes:

Kind of like the old west, eh?  Oh wait, that was called the Wild West for a
reason.

You'd even more people shooting each other for trivial reasons than they do
now.  God only knows the carnage that would happen on the freeways.

I mean in excess of the current car-nage.  :-)

Let's be realistic here: there is no *carnage*! I don't even agree that we
have a "gun problem". The fact is - *less than* ONE PERCENT of firearms are
used illegally! Doesn't sound like much of a problem to me.

There are over 200 million guns in the hands of private citizens. There are
more than one million incidents of defensives uses of firearms to prevent
violent crimes. 30,000 deaths, while regrettable, is hardly carnage -
considering the largest percentage of those deaths are self inflicted. How
many suicides are committed without guns? As I noted elsewhere, the "under
21" figure includes police shootings of juvenile offenders. So,
realistically, the actual number is more like 15,000 gun deaths. 200 million
guns and only 15,000 deaths - c'mon?!



Nope.  If I'm ever shot or otherwise brutalized, I'll be pissed off that none
of the witnesses was armed sufficiently to stop the crime.  If we all carried
guns, crime would grind to a screaching halt.

Do you have any actual evidence of such?

Bruce


January 1997 "Journal of Legal Studies" showed that concealed-carry weapons
permits reduced crime rates.

"Permits" doe not equal causes.


Switzerland, New Zealand, Finland, and Israel have high gun-ownership rates
and low crime rates.

I am amazed that Israel is in this list. My perceptions of the country are
the exact opposite. Even today, more murders were in the news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1448000/1448200.stm

I understand that one of those murdered was a baby.


The banning of guns in the UK was a direct reaction to the tragedy of
Dunblane, the act of a deranged person, not a cool, calculating criminal.
You don't need guns to kill lots of people anyway, take a look at Rwanda,
800,000 people hacked to death in 100 days, a figure unmatched even by the
Nazis.

I expect that if guns could be had in Rwanda thay would have been used. What
happened in Rwanda does not justify gun use in developed countries - does it?

Scott A


Bill



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Handgun Death Rate
 
(...) So? Chris (23 years ago, 20-Jul-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Handgun Death Rate
 
(...) Let's be realistic here: there is no *carnage*! I don't even agree that we have a "gun problem". The fact is - *less than* ONE PERCENT of firearms are used illegally! Doesn't sound like much of a problem to me. There are over 200 million guns (...) (23 years ago, 18-Jul-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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