How is it that Americans cannot see that more guns can only bring more deaths?

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   MarieLBposted 8 years ago

   How is it that Americans cannot see that more guns can only bring more deaths?
   
   This year alone, there were at least 352 mass shootings. 995 within the last 3 years.  From the beginning of 2013, there were 1260 persons killed and 3606 injured.  Bad begets bad.  Everyone carries a gun, and anyone is likely to use it.  The more it is used, the more it becomes "the norm".  The shoot first and ask questions later becomes commonplace.  What a frightening place to live and laugh and love in!

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   Kathleen Cochranposted 8 years ago

   Somebody recently said if the number of guns in America equaled more safety, we'd be the safest country on the planet.  I'm starting to think, if you have a gun, flippin' carry it at all times and be ready to use it.  Then I remember, that's what we put a stop to in the wild west more than 100 years ago.  I'm stumped for a solution.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for commenting, Kathleen Cochran. It is my fear that familiarity of guns will breed contempt of the danger they could generate for criminals and also for those innocent.

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      alancaster149posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It's impossible now to go back 600 years and stifle the invention of firearms. But even if it was possible, we're as much in danger from 'silent' killers (sales of knives have had to be controlled in Britain these last few years as well as crossbows)

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      bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The victims in San Bernardino didn't have weapons, only the people that shot them. The police can't help in these kinds of situations. How has personal safety changed for the better since the WWest.

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   bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years ago

   Where are you from, and why do you care?
   What is the definition of mass?
   You need more details and demographics to make any reasonable statement. The US population is over 320 million people your stats are to show what?
   Even for the 39 million people in California how does your stats compare. The mass murder of 14 people in CA yesterday, also involved three bombs, that fortunately didn't go off. So do you suggest banning all guns, so that bombs will be the replacement?
   
   We practically let anyone into the US today, so could that be one of the factors in your stats?
   
   Guns are like alcohol and both of them can kill even in mass. But the US was unable to stop the use of alcohol, and the same will be true of guns.

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      Zelkiiroposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, gun bans won't do anything, which is why Japan is a smoking crater due to all of its criminals running wild shooting people! Oh, wait...

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      alancaster149posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Loopholes exist for acquiring firearms in Britain, as there is the right in US states to bear arms. Weapons dealers abound across the globe, they're only interested in filling their wallets. Doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre by the law abiding.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      bradmasterOCcal, Hi, I do care, for those who suffer wherever they may be.  I do agree that both guns and alcohol are inert and it is the user who determines the outcome of their use. But when Ads for cigs stopped in Aus, smoking habits fell sharpl

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      bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      My point is that the govt can only make laws, and even amendments but if the people want to do something they won't care, as was the case with alcohol. There are no ads for guns on TV, and the anti smoking ads are still being run?

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   Michaela Osieckiposted 8 years ago

   I'm American and I'd like to see less civilians with guns and, ideally, less trigger happy police officers too.

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      alancaster149posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      We have trigger-happy cops in this part of the world as well, down to the nature of crime here. In London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol there are gangs as in US cities. Drugs, people-smuggling and robbery etc thrive on unemployment.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If only there were more like you, Michaela Osiecki, maybe things could change.  Unfortunately there seems to be powerful forces behind the gun lobby.  Tkank you for stopping by.

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   alancaster149posted 8 years ago

   Since the dawn of time mankind has used weapons as much in offence as defence. When primitive man first learned to use tools, his neighbour was in danger of a takeover bid. Did that mean we went about killing before we were killed? No.
   A pencil or even a dressmaker's pin can be used as a weapon, do we ban them? Again no. No matter how far you go to make this world safe there are means and ways of assault. We might as well ban motor vehicles, aircraft... Or even pillows.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You are correct Alan, and we can never eliminate any chance of gun killings.  Maybe a more careful check of gun-ownership would minimize the deaths, just as control of cars, sharp tools and poisons minimize abuse of these.  Thank you for joining us.

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   wildernessposted 8 years ago

   As there is not a single country in the world that can show that fewer guns produce fewer murders, or that there is any correlation between the number of guns and the number of murders, the proper question becomes "How is it that  Americans cannot see that the problem isn't the number of inanimate objects being used to kill with, but rather the people doing the killing". 
   
   Of course, the propensity of the PC crowd to talk about only "gun deaths" tends to distort the picture badly to those that fail to catch that the topic is only a portion of the overall death rate, or that think killers will not kill if they don't have a gun.  A failure to actually research the question, but then Americans have become used to believing whatever they see on the net that agrees with whatever it is they want to think anyway.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Dan Harmon, Thank you so much for joining in the discussion.  I could not respond earlier as my desktop died & my laptop is out on loan.  Pls check some 0f my sources, which led me to the question.  Many killings are perpetrated by one-time ki

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   MarieLBposted 8 years ago

   For anyone that wants to corroborate my statement, here are just a few links to some reading about the issue. 
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm
   
   All homicides
   Number of deaths: 16,121
   Deaths per 100,000 population: 5.1
   Firearm homicides
   Number of deaths: 11,208
   Deaths per 100,000 population: 3.5
   
   Guns To Surpass Car Accidents As Leading Cause Of ...Inline image
   thinkprogress.org/.../gun-deaths-surpass-car-accidents-leading-cause-you...
   Feb 22, 2014 - Guns were a close second to the leading cause of death among this age group, car accidents, which took the lives of 7,024 young people that year.
   
   
   http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a … ne/384440/
   
   
   Car crashes killed 33,561 people in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Firearms killed 32,251 people in the United States in 2011, the most recent yearfor which the Centers for Disease Control has data.
   But this year gun deaths are expected to surpass car deaths. That's according to a Center for American Progress report, which cites CDC data that shows guns will kill more Americans under 25 than cars in 2015. Already more than a quarter of the teenagers—15 years old and up—who die of injuries in the United States are killed in gun-related incidents, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
   
   We do know American gun ownership far outstrips gun ownership in other countries. “With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States is home to 35-50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns,” according to the Small Arms Survey.
   
   http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/c … 1.full.pdf
   firearm-related deaths continue as 1 of the top 3 causes of death in American youth.1 As shown in Fig 1, the firearm-associated death rate among youth ages 15 to 19 has fallen from its peak of 27.8 deaths per 100 000 in 1994 to 11.4 per 100 000 in 2009, driven by a decline in firearm homicide rates.1
   
   Unsafe Access to Guns a Leading Cause of Death Among ...
   
   
   Statistics, Gun Control Issues, and Safety
   
   
   Guns & Suicide: The Hidden Toll | News | Harvard T.H. ...Inline image
   
   NB: There are others, which we all know how to bring up if we want to, but I think this list is enough for this purpose.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank u ALL for making this such an interesting discussion. It is the variety of views that make it interesting.   Wish I could respond to each, but so many times there is no space to do so.  I hope weget some more views too.

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      wildernessposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Sadly, there is a major error in the stats list here; one that is so blithely restated so many times that it is taken without question by too many people.  That is the statement that Guns cause deaths; an impossibility for an inanimate piece of iron.

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