OT: Americans love their guns

[falling star]

Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters <mertz at gnosis.cx> wrote:
LotLE> 
LotLE> USA automobile deaths are ^43k/year
LotLE> USA gun-related deaths are ~29k/year

Where did you get your number?   29k a year???  Don't believe it.  I
would guess the number to be somewhere in the 1000 to 2000 range.
Unless you are including people killed by police in your figure?
And suicides?

LotLE> 
LotLE> The first number is bigger, yes.... but nothing at all like 100x as
LotLE> large.
LotLE> 
LotLE> Pulling facts out of thin air (or equivalently, our of NRA leaflets
LotLE> or ESR's writing) is unpersuasive. 

Absolutely agree with this.  Also add, pulling facts out of
Handgun Control leaflets is equally unpersuasive.  We should probably
agree that this is an emotional issue, and leave it at that.  Or as Mark
Twain put it, 'There are lies, damn lies, and statistics'.

However, when the little gangbangers in the neighborhood start
popping off, it is far more comforting to know that if they pop at me, I
can pop back, than it is to know that I can call the police.  And when
the home invasion stories run in the newspaper, I don't worry as much as
if I had to depend only on calling the police.

The statistic the other poster mentioned about more guns lowering
crime:  In states with concealed carry laws, *crime* is lower.  Your
statistic about gun _deaths_ being higher in states with relaxed gun laws
is a canard.  That is correlating gun deaths with overall crime.  There
are issues of population as well.  Again, we are talking statistics, and
there can be no agreement as there are so many correlated factors.

Once, I too was of faulty mind like you, fearful of my own shadow, thinking 
that guns were the root of all evil, that they prowled the night and the
day, waiting to leap out and harm me.  Then I saw the light.  :-)

Just shows to go you the effectiveness of propaganda.  However you want
to take that.  :-)


LotLE> 
LotLE> Yours, Lulu...
LotLE>