Armed America

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Thank heavens London has become civilized and outlawed those evil guns. WHEN YOU OUTLAW GUNS, ONLY OUTLAWS WILL HAVE GUNS.
Trite? Yes. Cliché? Yes. But it's still true.

From here:

Murders with firearms (per capita) by country

(1998-2000). Does not include accidental deaths by firearms.

#8 United States: 0.0279271 per 1,000 people

#32 United Kingdom: 0.00102579 per 1,000 people

Good of you to pluck one incident to point out. But big picture facts indicate that the US has 27 times more firearm murders than the UK, where firearms are illegal. Coincidence? I think not.

Reduce the number of firearms in a society, and reduce the number of firearms deaths.

In fact, from here:

Murders (per capita) by country

(1998-2000). Total murders by all means.

#24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people

#46 United Kingdom: 0.0140633 per 1,000 people

All those would-be gun-using killers did not convert to stabbers, beaters, stranglers, or whatever – the murder rate in the US is still 3 times UK’s murder rate.

WHEN YOU OUTLAW GUNS, ONLY OUTLAWS WILL HAVE GUNS.
Trite? Yes. Cliché? Yes. But it's still true.

The question really is this: is it worth giving up firearms to reduce the murder rate by two-thirds? Notice, I said giving up, not have them taken from you.