Friday, December 28, 2012

Will Banning Guns Stop Homicides? Stats from England and Australia Show….....

Via Don

The debate on gun control is only gaining momentum. On Thursday, Senator Diane Feinstein outlined her plans to introduce sweeping legislation that includes fingerprinting and registration of all those who currently own so-called semi-automatic “assault” weapons.

Those in favor of a total ban on firearms often point to countries like England and Australia where firearms are banned or virtually impossible to possess. A look into the statistics might offer some clarity, though, about how safe such a move actually makes a country.

Let’s start at home. From 2009 to 2011, homicides overall declined slightly according to a 2011 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report, with a corresponding drop in homicides by firearms.
In fact, the report says homicide is not among the top 15 leading causes of death in America. (As recently as 2009, the CDC reported that homicide was in the top 15 at #15.) Instead:
  • Accidents (unintentional deaths) were #5 and Suicide (intentional harm) has held solid as the 10th leading cause of death for several years.
  • The stats from 2009 show that homicides totaled 16,799, with 11,493 of those attributed to guns.
  • During that same year, motor vehicle deaths were nearly triple that of gun-related deaths — 34,485 vs. 11,493.
  • Death from accidental falls totaled 24,792, almost double the firearms homicide total.
The stats for gun deaths have actually shown some significant declines in the past two decades.

 
More @ The Blaze

2 comments:

  1. Statistics are a funny thing. I recall debating a (I believe) Harvard professor once who claimed that Sweden had the highest crime rate in Europe.

    It took some convincing to get him to realize that in Sweden they report the most minute 'crime' to the police; i.e. someone stepping on your flowerbed; thus, the 'high' crime rate.

    I recal stats from years back, such as 8 total murders in Norway that possessed the third highest gun-ownership rate in the world after Finland. The Swiss are still serious to separate the crimes committed by the Swiss and foreigners.

    The spike in our homicide rates in the 1990s was only due to crack cocaine. The homicide rate for whites has been more or less the same throughout the years, and in the level of western European countries.

    What was it that Mark Twain said about statistics ...?

    Tino

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    Replies
    1. Lies and damn lies.....:)At any rate, they are inconvenient facts for liberals.

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