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I'm sure that some people own guns for irrational reasons. And it is valuable to know her story. Still, there is one key fact that simplifies the gun control d

I'm sure that some people own guns for irrational reasons. And it is valuable to know her story. Still, there is one key fact that simplifies the gun control debate to me: 3 times more people died of accidental poisoning last year than gun homicide. The number of people murdered by gun yearly is shockingly low. To me, that means there are other more important areas for us to focus on. (And btw, I'm not a gun owner).

glhaynes 14y ago
I think one also has to factor in the psychological costs, though, to citizens that worry about gun violence. I tend to think statistically like you, so I'm not particularly concerned about getting shot. But my mother certainly doesn't think that way, and no amount of showing her evidence is going to cause her not to worry while out about "some maniac" showing up with a gun. And there's also a low-level distrust that pervades society when one does know the statistics and realizes how many people around them on an average day are likely to be packing a machine that can kill merely by being pointed at somebody and a button being pressed. "An armed society is a polite society" seems like a crazy statement, but the kernel of truth it does have is that an armed society is more distrustful of others (less "social") than an unarmed one.
anigbrowl 14y ago
accidental poisoning includes everything from drug overdoses to industrial accidents. We should certainly seek to reduce that, but >10,000 gun homicides is not 'shockingly low' by any stretch of the imagination. when suicides and deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm are included, the total is about the same as that for accidental poisoning (~30k/y). Of course people kill and injure themselves (deliberately and accidentally) in other places too, but the plain fact is that the murder rates in places where gun ownership is heavily restricted are much, much lower. ISTM that this imposes a rather hefty cost on the US economy.
- charlieflowers 14y ago
  All that is true, but still ... medical errors kill 195,000 people per year. Unintentional falls kill 24,792 per year! So the number of gun homicides is shockingly low! I was shocked yesterday when someone pointed this out to me. I can't remember the time I started my day out by worrying about whether someone I loved would die that day from an accidental fall. But that's twice as likely to happen as them being murdered with a gun. Shocking.
bunderbunder 14y ago
According to the CDC, 91% of accidental poisoning deaths are from drug use. That's certainly a problem, and I do think the USA also needs to do something to get its drug problem under control. But for the purposes of this discussion, drug users overdosing and gun violence isn't exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.

glhaynes 14y ago

I think one also has to factor in the psychological costs, though, to citizens that worry about gun violence. I tend to think statistically like you, so I'm not particularly concerned about getting shot. But my mother certainly doesn't think that way, and no amount of showing her evidence is going to cause her not to worry while out about "some maniac" showing up with a gun. And there's also a low-level distrust that pervades society when one does know the statistics and realizes how many people around them on an average day are likely to be packing a machine that can kill merely by being pointed at somebody and a button being pressed. "An armed society is a polite society" seems like a crazy statement, but the kernel of truth it does have is that an armed society is more distrustful of others (less "social") than an unarmed one.

anigbrowl 14y ago

accidental poisoning includes everything from drug overdoses to industrial accidents. We should certainly seek to reduce that, but >10,000 gun homicides is not 'shockingly low' by any stretch of the imagination. when suicides and deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm are included, the total is about the same as that for accidental poisoning (~30k/y). Of course people kill and injure themselves (deliberately and accidentally) in other places too, but the plain fact is that the murder rates in places where gun ownership is heavily restricted are much, much lower. ISTM that this imposes a rather hefty cost on the US economy.

charlieflowers 14y ago
All that is true, but still ... medical errors kill 195,000 people per year. Unintentional falls kill 24,792 per year! So the number of gun homicides is shockingly low! I was shocked yesterday when someone pointed this out to me. I can't remember the time I started my day out by worrying about whether someone I loved would die that day from an accidental fall. But that's twice as likely to happen as them being murdered with a gun. Shocking.

bunderbunder 14y ago

According to the CDC, 91% of accidental poisoning deaths are from drug use. That's certainly a problem, and I do think the USA also needs to do something to get its drug problem under control. But for the purposes of this discussion, drug users overdosing and gun violence isn't exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.