Gun Control & RKBA

The original query(more emphatically stated)was, 'If more of one thing results in more injuries from it, why do gun rights advocates steadfastly refuse to see (or admit) that more guns in circulation results in more injuries from guns?'

Because it doesn't. Remember how from about 1992 to 2004 the violent crime rate plummeted by nearly half? Well, gun sales were doing pretty well during that time. There certainly wasn't any mass confiscation or anything of guns during that era, and guns are durable goods. So the number of guns in circulation per capita probably went UP over the last couple of decades.







Why go through the mental exercise of figuring passenger miles vs guns per owner? It's really not germane. It is, in fact, a red herring intentional or not. The same with the diminishing of suicide as a violent death imposed on loved one who must clean up the mess. Repeat it all you wish, it doesn't make it so. It's just more deflection. SQUIRREL!

My point was that the number of households with guns is relatively steady, probably somewhere in the 40% range for a nationwide average. Yet the homicide rate can drop over 40% in a ten-year span. So, guns-per-capita is steady, households-with-guns is steady, but we have a 40% drop in homicides, aggravated assaults, and forcible rape.



Obviously, what dropped was people motivated and willing to commit violent crimes.

And suicide is not a violent crime. It's a suicide. It's a violent death when committed with a handgun. It has different causes and solutions than homicides, aggravated assaults, and forcible rape, and the person committing the act does so on himself or herself not on others. I'm not saying that a suicide isn't a tragic thing to deal with for the person's family and friends, but it is different from using a gun to commit crime.

But you bring up another interesting question; if improvements in car safety have reduced the injury/death rate per passenger mile why has the gun industry so steadfastly refused to embrace new technology or even the development of new technology for gun safety?

Because the 30,000 or so dead people annually on our highways are nearly all accidents or negligence. Weather, road debris, inattention, DUI, mechanical failure, sun glare, etc. Some are violent assaults such as road rage, some are negligent homicides such as DUI.

There are very few truly "accidental" gun deaths in America. Guns are built tough and catastrophic mechanical failure leading to death is virtually unheard of. Nearly all deaths are either suicide or homicide, with a smattering of negligent and accidental deaths thrown in for variety. So, for the 18,000 gun-related suicides and 12,000 gun-related homicides, the gun worked as intended: squeeze the trigger and the gun goes off, launching a bullet or wad of shot out of the barrel. There's nothing to fix in that regard.

You're probably thinking "well, what about smart guns?"

I did a post on that about 5 years ago.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1172185776