Figure 1. Number of Americans Killed in 2011 By Major Cause
You'll notice that cigarettes cause 44,300 deaths for every one person killed by an assault weapon. Will the President announce a "cigarette control task force"?
And then this:
Figure 2. Gun-related deaths in 2011.
For "mass murderers" I am using the Mother Jones definition of "any homicide event that has 4 or more victims, not including the shooter." In which case in 2011 there were five: Tuscon, Yuma, Copley Township, Grand Rapids, and Carson City with a total of 30 non-shooter deaths. In all five cases, handguns were used. In only one case (Tuscon), high-capacity clips were used.
I feel it is worth at least quickly pointing out that for every person murdered by a gun, there are about 2 suicides. Most people are surprised by this, but the anti-gun side of the argument prefers to just lump the two groups together into a large pool of "deaths by gun."
I won't really add any more comments, I think these statistics speak for themselves. I'm just trying to make a point here: if we write sweeping, knee-jerk legislation due to a single statistical outlying event that tugs at our heartstrings...we will almost certainly regret it.
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1 comment:
I am very conflicted about gun control in general. I believe it boils down to an issue of scale. A man with a machete might kill a few, a man with a semi auto with high capacity clips might kill many. It may be that the most sensible solution is what much of Europe does, limit clips for high powered weapons to 2. 1 cartridge in the chamber, 2 in a clip. No hunter worth anything needs more than 3 bullets at a time, no guns are confiscated from anyone, and the scale of potential disaster is reduced. Also gun shows must have the same background checks as other sales. On the other hand, better mental health services would most likely save more lives. I suspect some people would view either as gubmint intrusion. ('They're here to take my guns' vs
'The death panels are coming for my mind!')
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