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> firearm murders are extremely rare (about one per year in a country of 60m) Are you sure about those statistics? http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareye

> firearm murders are extremely rare (about one per year in a country of 60m) Are you sure about those statistics? http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/192/total_number_of_gun_deaths http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/192/total_num...

tonmoy 11y ago
I think the commenter meant homicides by saying "murder". Your graph clearly aggregates all gun related deaths
- radiorental 11y ago
  Understood, couldn't find aggregated gun murders (easily) but I'm fairly certain it's a lot more than the 1 / year the op was proposing. It's quite a lot more than that in N.Ireland alone / year, even since '96. [edit] My bad, found it. It's the graph below the one I originally linked. Of the total guns deaths, it looks like roughly 1/4 are homicide, 38 in 2011. http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/192/number_of_gun_homicides http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/192/number_of...
pjc50 11y ago
Sorry, that was indeed way out. The true number is a few hundred per year, still far lower per population than the US.
- radiorental 11y ago
  No question, a lot less than the US. Even when we Irish were at the height of bashing the crap out of each other there were still more total gun related incidents in D.C. than had happened across the peak 25 years of the troubles. All other factors aside your proposition is true; fewer guns per capita, fewer bullets leaving said guns at capita
  - bazzert 11y ago
    DC is a good example, because it highlights that the problem is not the number of guns but the propensity to use them. Ther e are many states with very high gun ownership rates but relatively lower gun death rates; for example TX has twice the ownership of CA but half the gun homicides. The distribution of gun deaths is very uneven, for your 'average' American the risk of death by gun is only marginally higher than in Europe.

tonmoy 11y ago

I think the commenter meant homicides by saying "murder". Your graph clearly aggregates all gun related deaths

radiorental 11y ago
Understood, couldn't find aggregated gun murders (easily) but I'm fairly certain it's a lot more than the 1 / year the op was proposing. It's quite a lot more than that in N.Ireland alone / year, even since '96. [edit] My bad, found it. It's the graph below the one I originally linked. Of the total guns deaths, it looks like roughly 1/4 are homicide, 38 in 2011. http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/192/number_of_gun_homicides http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/192/number_of...

pjc50 11y ago

Sorry, that was indeed way out. The true number is a few hundred per year, still far lower per population than the US.

radiorental 11y ago
No question, a lot less than the US. Even when we Irish were at the height of bashing the crap out of each other there were still more total gun related incidents in D.C. than had happened across the peak 25 years of the troubles. All other factors aside your proposition is true; fewer guns per capita, fewer bullets leaving said guns at capita
- bazzert 11y ago
  DC is a good example, because it highlights that the problem is not the number of guns but the propensity to use them. Ther e are many states with very high gun ownership rates but relatively lower gun death rates; for example TX has twice the ownership of CA but half the gun homicides. The distribution of gun deaths is very uneven, for your 'average' American the risk of death by gun is only marginally higher than in Europe.