Originally posted by: Arnie.d
Example: in 2005 there were 14.860 homicides in the US (got this from wikipedia). In 68% of the cases firearms were used (14.860 x 0.68)/365=27.68 deaths every day. That does not include suicide etc.
How many people do you think Cho Seung-Hui could have killed if he only had a crowbar, a bat or a knife? Fact is, killing is much much easier with a gun. If you end up in a fight and you get out of control people a more likely to get killed if you have access to a gun than other weapons like bats, crowbars and knifes.
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Arnie: It depends on how you define killed. Yes, there are a lot of gun deaths each day. There are suicides, murders, accidents, self defense, and others. Millions of lives are saved each year through self defense uses of firearms. Hundreds or thousands are killed each year by suicide and murder. But if they didn't have a gun, they'd just use a different weapon, like a bat, crowbar, knife, or whatever else they could get their hands on.
Arnie: It depends on how you define killed. Yes, there are a lot of gun deaths each day. There are suicides, murders, accidents, self defense, and others. Millions of lives are saved each year through self defense uses of firearms. Hundreds or thousands are killed each year by suicide and murder. But if they didn't have a gun, they'd just use a different weapon, like a bat, crowbar, knife, or whatever else they could get their hands on.
Example: in 2005 there were 14.860 homicides in the US (got this from wikipedia). In 68% of the cases firearms were used (14.860 x 0.68)/365=27.68 deaths every day. That does not include suicide etc.
How many people do you think Cho Seung-Hui could have killed if he only had a crowbar, a bat or a knife? Fact is, killing is much much easier with a gun. If you end up in a fight and you get out of control people a more likely to get killed if you have access to a gun than other weapons like bats, crowbars and knifes.
How many of those were self-defense? How many were gang shootings? I think anyone that's skilled with a weapon can take out a lot of people. So ban the gun and he'll use a sword or long knife. Or maybe he'll just use his car. Or even a bomb. And even if you ban the gun, that's not going to stop him from breaking the law in order to get a gun. The point is, if he really wants to kill people, he's going to figure out a way to do it.
I don't really feel like looking up statistics right now, but I can assure you that firearms are used in self-defense far more than they're used for crime.
BTW, there were 16,972 alcohol related traffic deaths in 2005. Source NHTSA. That's out of a total of 43,200. So there were 118 vehicle related fatalities per day and of those 46 were alcohol related. Well, since the number of vehicle deaths is more than 4 times as great as gun deaths, I think it's time we ban cars. Afterall, if that many people are dying everyday, they're nothing but killing machines.