Gun accidents? Guns are dangrous?

[bkholdem]

41,650 deaths related to motor vehicle accidents,
17,229 in falls at home and on the job,
3,306 from water in drowning,
19,457 from poisoning, in the same year,
3,369 due to fire or burns,
3,200 due to choking, and
900 from guns
Note that the top category of vehicle accidents is 45 times greater than the bottom
category of guns. Should we outlaw cars, and ladders?

If guns are so dangerous, why is it like 18 or so times more likely to die from a fall? lol

http://www.lindleyonline.com/gunstats/stats.htm

[tehox]

Speaking for myself, my major concern is not about what happens when guns are used accidentally.

[bkholdem]

Guns save lives and strict laws resticting gun ownership and rights to carry directly result in muders, rapes, aggravated assaults, and robberies:

Concealed carry laws help reduce crime

* Nationwide: one-half million self-defense uses. Every year, as many as one-half million citizens defend themselves with a firearm away from home.9
* Concealed carry laws are dropping crime rates across the country. A comprehensive national study determined in 1996 that violent crime fell after states made it legal to carry concealed firearms. The results of the study showed:
* States which passed concealed carry laws reduced their murder rate by 8.5%, rapes by 5%, aggravated assaults by 7% and robbery by 3%;10 and
* If those states not having concealed carry laws had adopted such laws in 1992, then approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, 60,000 aggravated assaults and over 11,000 robberies would have been avoided yearly.11

http://www.gunowners.org/sk0802.htm

[andyfox]

From 1990 to 1997, there were 293,781 firearm deaths in the U.S. Yeah, guns and cars are dangerous.

[BPA234]

[ QUOTE ]
From 1990 to 1997, there were 293,781 firearm deaths in the U.S. Yeah, guns and cars are dangerous.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I read your post, I thought, that can't be right. Then I remembered that the early and middle 90's were extremely violent. I believe those were the peak years for the crack epidemic and the media-generated, super-predators.

If you look at the numbers from 1981-2000, they flatten out somewhat and breakdown as follows:

Suicides 354,540
Homicides 281,904
Unintentional 27,470
Intervention by Law Enforcement 5,546
Unknown 8,602

I took the above information from an anti-handgun organization's website. Which can be found here http://www.doctorsagainsthandguninju...gun_injury.pdf

Compelling and interesting reading. For the record, I own a handgun and have owned several different types of guns since I was 18. I am a supporter of the 2nd Amendment.

[andyfox]

For the record:

-I have been consistently anti-gun throughout my life

-I believe the 2nd amendment has nothing to do with a person's right to own a handgun for self-defense. (You can check out recent threads on this where I made my case.)

-I am beginning to reconsider my anti-gun stance.

-OP's implied assertion that guns are not dangerous because there are more accidental deaths from other causes strikes me as wrong. If we define dangerous as "likely to cause harm or injury," guns are certainly dangerous.

[theweatherman]

of course some of the biggest killers on the list are necessary evils. Returning to horse back or living in only one story buildings is not really an option for modern society. Yet it seems that guns are not really essential to the workings of the modern world. Not saying they should be banned, rather that this argument is flawed.

[SammyKid11]

[ QUOTE ]
41,650 deaths related to motor vehicle accidents,
17,229 in falls at home and on the job,
3,306 from water in drowning,
19,457 from poisoning, in the same year,
3,369 due to fire or burns,
3,200 due to choking, and
900 from guns
Note that the top category of vehicle accidents is 45 times greater than the bottom
category of guns. Should we outlaw cars, and ladders?

If guns are so dangerous, why is it like 18 or so times more likely to die from a fall? lol

http://www.lindleyonline.com/gunstats/stats.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

Your quotes are about "accidental" deaths. The thing is, guns kill a lot more people in an intentional setting...and in lots of these cases, the perpetrators of the violence either would not or could not commit their acts of violence without guns...like the bar fight that escalates into a shooting -- no guns and a few guys wind up in the hospital for bruises and scrapes, with guns and one or more people are dead...or situations like VaTech -- no guns and maybe he goes into a fit of rage with a baseball bat or a sword or something, and maybe he even offs a couple people...but no way he kills 32 before killing himself. This is the danger I find much more relevant about guns...the ease with which situations that would very likely NOT result in death without guns ends up resulting in death with them.

Sure, analyzing purely accidental gun deaths paints a picture that they're not one of the more dangerous things around. But analyzing how many less people would die of homicide without regular, easy access to guns...that's a MUCH different story.

[PLOlover]

[ QUOTE ]
Yet it seems that guns are not really essential to the workings of the modern world. Not saying they should be banned, rather that this argument is flawed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Legally, you could make self defense a crime. You could make the use of force in any manner a crime. Because it's not necessary in the modern world. Eventually all the assaulters would be in jail and we would have perfect peace.

[theweatherman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yet it seems that guns are not really essential to the workings of the modern world. Not saying they should be banned, rather that this argument is flawed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Legally, you could make self defense a crime. You could make the use of force in any manner a crime. Because it's not necessary in the modern world. Eventually all the assaulters would be in jail and we would have perfect peace.

[/ QUOTE ]

A lowered level of self defense will not cause society to crumble to same way as prohibition of personal automated transit would.

Tis the only point I make.