Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States

[snooper2]

Everybody should read the whole article and be armed with some actual facts before spouting off on both sides in these threads. People seem to know more about pit bulls here than guns, gun violence and actual gun laws.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/

What follows here isn’t a policy agenda. It’s simply a set of facts — many of which complicate a search for easy answers — that should inform the discussion that we desperately need to have.



5. America is an unusually violent country. But we’re not as violent as we used to be.

Kieran Healy, a sociologist at Duke University, made this graph of “deaths due to assault” in the United States and other developed countries. We are a clear outlier. (Notice they don't include Mexico though)



7. Gun ownership in the United States is declining overall.




8. More guns tend to mean more homicide.

The Harvard Injury Control Research Center assessed the literature on guns and homicide and found that there’s substantial evidence that indicates more guns means more murders. This holds true whether you’re looking at different countries or different states. Citations here.



Read the whole article, then when you post in these threads you can at least have an informed opinion instead of knee jerk idiocy from both sides....

[snooper2]

1. LOL, dropped like a rock...people must not like facts around here

[snooper2]

2. I know dude, you even put graphs and stuff to discuss...

[snooper2]

4. Maybe you should include something about the NRA

That might get more interest?

[snooper2]

5. Well, I kind of wanted folks to talk intelligently about how we can

prevent shit like this in the future. The all or nothing shrieks from both sides of the issue are annoying...

[snooper2]

11. Yo snoop, have a good weekend?

Looks like we need to kick this again as repetition is the best way to burn knowledge into peoples heads....

[hedgehog]

3. kick

[DanTex]

6. K&R

Here's an additional link, to the firearms research page at the Harvard School of Public Health. Information is the best way to combat NRA talking points.

[SpartanDem]

7. "States with stricter gun control laws have fewer deaths from gun-related violence."

and "The South is the most violent region in the United States." Who wants to bet that the South has the most lax guns laws?

As to most these shooter acquiring their guns legally, since 40% guns sales don't require a background check I wonder how many would've qualified with a background check.

[snooper2]

8. We don't need to bet, go on google and prove your point with some graphs/charts/pictures

Like this-






http://www.gunlawsbystate.com/#!/home/terms-of-access-and-use/

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Thanks for this. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear gun lovers talk.

They're delusional, or immature, evil nutjobs who want to pretend they're in a John Wayne movie.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Others have pointed out the decline in gun ownership in America ...

and made the case that the only way the gun sellers can maintain profits is by selling more guns to each purchaser, or more capable, high-tech (i.e. higher profit margin) guns to current owners, so the gun lobbies have a motivation for fearmongering to would-be gun buyers, trying to convince them their arsenal is never big enough or powerful enough, even when the "improvements" they buy don't have any practical benefit. The people they succeed in winning over -- thus keeping profits up -- appear to be a minority even among gun owners. But then those weapons fall into the wrong hands, and the damage is done, never to be undone.

Perhaps gun companies should be prohibited from advertising, like tobacco companies.