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Correlation is not causation, that entire article is based on a common fallacy. To name a few counterexamples: 1) Switzerland. Gun ownership is similar to the U

Correlation is not causation, that entire article is based on a common fallacy. To name a few counterexamples: 1) Switzerland. Gun ownership is similar to the US but there’s way less crime. 2) Kennesaw, Georgia. Gun ownership is mandatory for every home and crime rates are far lower than in the surrounding counties.

Retric 7y ago
That does not mean it’s safer to have a gun in the home in Switzerland or not. Clearly gun ownership is only one factor at the country level, but we are comparing gun ownership not countries. Gun accidents kill people, where guns extremely rarely save lives.
- read_if_gay_ 7y ago
  Even if having a gun in your home in Switzerland raised your chances of gun related death, that still doesn’t mean it’s caused by having a gun. Again, correlation is not causation. Also, you cannot really measure how often a gun saves a life. On the other hand, you can measure the number of gun accidents and according to Wikipedia they’re less than 1% of gun related deaths which puts them at about 130 per year. IIRC staircases kill about 350 people per year (US numbers). I would advocate some kind of mandatory safety training for gun owners, but it’s really not the big point here. Measures like banning guns altogehter, I think, miss the point as well. Some places seem to do well with high gun ownership rates, so there must be something else at play that causes the US’s high rates of gun violence. More effort should be put into examining and fixing that in place of steamroller tactics and fearmongering like in that Vox article.
- zepto 7y ago
  We don’t know how often Guns save lives. It’s false to say it’s extremely rare. Partly this is because there is little reporting and data collection that can capture situations where a gun is presented but not fired, but also because of the deterrent effect.

Retric 7y ago

That does not mean it’s safer to have a gun in the home in Switzerland or not. Clearly gun ownership is only one factor at the country level, but we are comparing gun ownership not countries. Gun accidents kill people, where guns extremely rarely save lives.

read_if_gay_ 7y ago
Even if having a gun in your home in Switzerland raised your chances of gun related death, that still doesn’t mean it’s caused by having a gun. Again, correlation is not causation. Also, you cannot really measure how often a gun saves a life. On the other hand, you can measure the number of gun accidents and according to Wikipedia they’re less than 1% of gun related deaths which puts them at about 130 per year. IIRC staircases kill about 350 people per year (US numbers). I would advocate some kind of mandatory safety training for gun owners, but it’s really not the big point here. Measures like banning guns altogehter, I think, miss the point as well. Some places seem to do well with high gun ownership rates, so there must be something else at play that causes the US’s high rates of gun violence. More effort should be put into examining and fixing that in place of steamroller tactics and fearmongering like in that Vox article.
zepto 7y ago
We don’t know how often Guns save lives. It’s false to say it’s extremely rare. Partly this is because there is little reporting and data collection that can capture situations where a gun is presented but not fired, but also because of the deterrent effect.