OT: Americans love their guns

[Dave Brueck]

On Thursday 28 August 2003 10:41 am, Richard Wesley wrote:
> In article <Qlo3b.7388$n94.4843 at fed1read04>,
>
>  midnight at warm-summer-night.net (falling star) wrote:
> > 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.
>
> US murders with firearms were 8,259 in 1999, ranked #4 in the world.
> Source: <http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph-T/cri_mur_wit_fir&int=15>

That's it!?!? Wow... I'm amazed that number is so low! That means that, in the 
U.S., you are twice as likely to die from an accident involving drunk drivers 
(http://www.madd.org/stats/0,1056,3726,00.html), four times as likely to die 
from influenza (http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r030107.htm), and 67 
times as likely to die from cancer 
(http://www.millennium.com/rd/oncology/treatment/index.asp) than to be 
murdered with a firearm. The odds of getting killed that way are roughly the 
same as the odds that you'll die from aspirin or similar drugs 
(http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm).