Even the total number of people killed by guns, including victims of mass shootings, is fewer than the number of people killed in auto accidents, poisonings, falls and other accidents, diabetes and a host of other diseases, and by the flu. Meanwhile, the number of legally owned guns has grown exponentially.

delta1 wrote:

Serious...so don't hit me in the head with your golf club...

we have many more serious causes of death than homicides with guns, and would be better off trying to address those...

it's hard to just shrug and say "whatever" when some crazy loon murders dozens of innocent persons, and understanding that the numbers of those types of incidents, and victims per incident, is rising, but it's pointless to say guns are the problem...

delta1 wrote:

So, other problems cause more deaths than guns therefore we shouldn't try to solve gun deaths?

rfenst wrote:

I'm of the opinion that we don't really have a problem.

From a statistical standpoint, I believe I read somewhere that there are somewhere on the order of around 10,000 gun related deaths per year in the US where the majority of those are suicides.

There are well over 300,000,000 people in the US.

Now of those gun related deaths, a statistic I just found says that about 3 percent of the murders are from legally purchased firearms... lets call it 5000 (it's probably a little high, but easier for arguments sake).

So that's roughly 150 murders by legal firearms per year in the United States.

Which isn't much... but you could spin this in a way that fits your argument if you want.

There's roughly 30 deaths per year or so by lightning strikes...

So you can argue that you are 5 times as likely to be killed by a legal firearm than get struck by lightning!!!

Wait, if the probability of dying by lightning is only 20% of that of dying by legal firearms, then it to must be a problem... maybe we should do something about lightning.

Ya, we should push congress to legislate something to ban lightning, if we can ban lightning, surely that would be sufficient justification to ban currently legal guns.

bgz wrote:

just to expand those stats a bit... they make me think:

such a tiny amount of deaths by legal guns sounds like not a whole lot of bad guys are getting killed by citizens carrying for protection. Then is anyone really safer when armed, or just feeling that way incorrectly?

and

So, far and away most gun related deaths are caused by illegal guns. I'm not on the side of taking gun rights away, but I'd really like to see severe penalties whenever it can be proven who was the original owner that was careless enough to lose possession. Sounds like the real danger to innocent people is approved sales to those citizens unqualified to properly and safely have a weapon.

frankj1 wrote:

So, other problems cause more deaths than guns therefore we shouldn't try to solve gun deaths?

rfenst wrote:

just to expand those stats a bit... they make me think:

such a tiny amount of deaths by legal guns sounds like not a whole lot of bad guys are getting killed by citizens carrying for protection. Then is anyone really safer when armed, or just feeling that way incorrectly?

and

So, far and away most gun related deaths are caused by illegal guns. I'm not on the side of taking gun rights away, but I'd really like to see severe penalties whenever it can be proven who was the original owner that was careless enough to lose possession. Sounds like the real danger to innocent people is approved sales to those citizens unqualified to properly and safely have a weapon.

frankj1 wrote:

I would argue the real danger to innocent people is not so innocent people ;)

bgz wrote:

I've always said regarding motorcycle helmet laws that they were just about control and feeling good. If they really wanted to prevent serious injuries and save lives then they should require helmets while in all vehicles.

Krazeehorse wrote:

Delta, how do you regulate hate?

Speyside wrote:

Delta, how do you regulate hate?

Speyside wrote:

It is now obvious to me that regulating guns is the wrong solution to the "problem" of American gun deaths.

delta1 wrote: