Kim,
Thank you for your quick reply. My point is not to argue any one side of facts just that I feel the chart is not a valuable as it could be if it was compared against the other forms we discussed earlier. It is a very popular thing right now to bash guns or show how bad they are, when in reality, there are other things much worse in this world or even the US that should be talked about but are not. I am a firearm owner and one who believe in their second amendment rights that those rights should not be infringed upon. You are from a state that allows Open Carry, does this make your state less safe or have more homicides?
There are far more vehicle accidents (32,367 in 2011) than there were gun homicides so I am not quite sure I understand your point of "about the same rate"? Also I’d like to point out that according to
http://www.suicide.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, a high percentage of people who attempted suicide but failed using a firearm said they would have used another method if the firearms was not available. It is a matter of what would be quicker and less painful.
You are correct that the same regulatory standards do not apply as they are very different industries. Firearm manufacturing is a very heavily regulated industry with many standards that must be met. We have mandates around firearms; you have to be 21 to purchase and the ATF has several more on the website so no need in repeating. I am curious what standards you feel should apply that do not already? Banning or outlawing guns just does not work.
I like to use California as an example. According to the same data you have, FBI's crime reports, California had the highest number of gun murders in 2011 with 1,220. This is roughly 68% of all murders in the US and equates to 3.25 murders per 100,000 people. I find it funny though, and the reason I quote it, is California was named the state with the strongest gun control laws by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Do more gun laws or gun control really work? Another interesting fact is that when Australia created their very tough gun laws and outlawed them, without very difficult licensing to own, the percentage of homicides committed with a firearm continued to decline, a trend that began in 1969 and in no way can be contributed to the change in laws. In many polled, it is considered the great failure of Australia and a government plan, even when the "statistics showed" gun violence and murder rates should have "drastically fallen" when the plan was completed. No guns means far less murder correct, or at least lowered by the same amount they cause?
Should parents be held accountable with jail time when they let a child drown in a swimming pool because they failed to properly secure their pool. Or, a child operated a motor vehicle incorrect or outside of the laws and killed themselves or someone else. An 18 month old hang themselves on the blinds is an example of the laws and regulation that passed but still happens to this day. When a parent leaves prescription medication that a teen girl takes to commit suicide, how do we ban or outlaw or regulate this? Should all medication be locked up in a medication safe? The firearms side of things have been vilified compared to other situations that kill our children, and sometimes at a much higher rate. Why are they not trying to ban swimming pools or automobiles? I have a distant family member that left their 14 month sit on the counter while lunch was being prepared. This child fell off and was killed. It was written off as a tragic accident but should we ban counters or have thrown someone in jail?
There are many unsafe things that can and do kill. Firearms are just an easy target and unless you compare those deaths to other forms of deaths in your chart, you are not painting a complete picture.
) and I know too well that you can slice and dice full data to show a point. Heck, I am a consultant after all and that is what I do for a living. 