About 20,000 of them are suicides. And many studies have shown that the availability of guns has NOTHING to do with suicide. Japan has a suicide rate 3x higher than the USA, and almost no guns. People who are determined to kill themselves simply switch to other available means when they don't have guns.Smokewagon wrote:I would also question the 30,000 gun crime deaths per year. Thats like 80 something per day. I don't buy it.
The interesting thing is that when you look at the COMBINED homicide and suicide rates for many countries, including the USA, they are quite similar.
The UK has higher rates than the USA for every catagory of violent crime EXCEPT homicide. Their rate of "hot" burglaries (where the victims are home) is something like 5x higher than here. Not surprising since people doing such crimes in America run a HUGE risk of getting shot vs. almost no risk at all in the UK.
Recently, the UK was cited for having the highest violent crime rate of any industrialized Western country.
Visit the websites of major Brit newspapers and you will quickly see what I mean.
And they ARE talking about banning knives, toy guns, BB guns, etc. And nearly the whole country is blanketed with surviellence cameras, many now being equipped with microphones and SPEAKERS.
Remember, Orwell's 1984 was set in the UK. It seems he was off by about 20 years.