Yet another great Quora answer

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AlanM
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Yet another great Quora answer

Post by AlanM »

Question: Since pro-gun people love guns what stats would convince them less access to guns and certain guns being banned would result in a safer America?

One of over 100 answers:

Just for people who are interested in facts:

according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms: 90% of all violent crimes in the U.S. do not involve firearms of any type. And 93% of guns used in crimes are obtained illegally. (So making firearms illegal will not prevent criminals from obtaining and using them. It will only keep law abiding firearm owners from defending themselves and their families)

According to FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, Two-thirds of the people who die each year from gunfire are criminals being shot BY OTHER CRIMINALS.

And guns PREVENT an estimated 2.5 Million crimes a year or 6,849 every day. Most often, the gun [used to prevent the crime] is never fired and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed, according to Dr. Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State University.

Here’s some more gun stats along with their original sources: Gun Facts | Gun Control and Crime

More about the numbers and statistics:

There are 30,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms, and this number is not disputed. The U.S. population is 324,059,091 as of June 22, 2016. Do the math: 0.0000925% of the population dies from gun related actions each year. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant!

What is never told, however, is a breakdown of those 30,000 deaths, to put them in perspective as compared to other causes of death:

• 65% of those deaths are by suicide, which would never be prevented by gun laws (someone who wants to take their life, will find a way with or without a gun).

• 15% are by law enforcement in the line of duty and justified.

• 17% are through criminal activity, gang and drug related or mentally ill persons – better known as gun violence.

• 3% are accidental discharge deaths.

So technically, "gun violence" is not 30,000 annually, but drops to 5,100. Still too many? Now lets look at how those deaths spanned across the nation.

• 480 homicides (9.4%) were in Chicago

• 344 homicides (6.7%) were in Baltimore

• 333 homicides (6.5%) were in Detroit

• 119 homicides (2.3%) were in Washington D.C.

So basically, 25% of all gun crime happens in just 4 cities. All 4 of those cities have strict gun laws, so it is not the lack of law that is the root cause.

This basically leaves 3,825 for the entire rest of the nation, or about 75 deaths per state. That is an average because some States have much higher rates than others. For example, California had 1,169 and Alabama had 378.

Are 5,100 deaths per year horrific? How about in comparison to other deaths? All death is sad and especially so when it is in the commission of a crime but that is the nature of crime. Robbery, death, rape, assault are all done by criminals. It is ludicrous to think that criminals will obey laws. That is why they are called criminals.

But what about other deaths each year?

• 63,600+ die from a drug overdose–THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THAT!

• 36,000 people die per year from the flu.

• 34,000 people die per year in traffic fatalities.

Now it gets good:

• 200,000+ people die each year (and growing) from preventable medical errors. You are safer walking in the worst areas of Chicago than you are when you are in a hospital!

• 710,000 people die per year from heart disease. Maybe it’s time to stop the double cheeseburgers! So what is the point?

If the liberal loons and the anti-gun movement focused their attention on heart disease, even a 10% decrease in cardiac deaths would save twice the number of lives annually of all gun-related deaths (including suicide, law enforcement, etc.). A 10% reduction in medical errors would be 66% of the total number of gun deaths or 4 times the number of criminal homicides ................ Simple, easily preventable 10% reductions!

So you have to ask yourself, in the grand scheme of things, why the focus on guns? It's pretty simple:

Taking away guns gives control to governments. The founders of this nation knew that regardless of the form of government, those in power may become corrupt and seek to rule as the British did by trying to disarm the populace of the colonies. It is not difficult to understand that a disarmed populace is a controlled populace.

Thus, the second amendment was proudly and boldly included in the U.S. Constitution. So the next time someone tries to tell you that gun control is about saving lives, look at these facts and remember these words from Noah Webster: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed."
AlanM
There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men. - RAH
Four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo - use in that order.
If you aren't part of the solution, then you obviously weren't properly dissolved.
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