Kes wrote:They came out with a stat on our news last night which I found quite remarkable.
In the UK in the whole of 2014, 24 people were killed by firearms. The USA had 27 people killed by firearms just on Christmas Day. The only balancing factor (and it's not THAT much of one) is that the USA has five times the population of the UK.
Even if you look at it conservatively, whatever gun lobbyists might say to the contrary, the USA has, per head of population, a fifty times greater likelihood that you're going to get killed in a shooting incident, than the UK. That's what your right to bear arms gives you.
Oddly, not 30 minutes ago I was trying to google killings per capita. Some kind of comparative listing with Canada, the Uk, the United States, ect. Because for the umpteenth irritating time someone on fb was reposting the Meme of some cowboy saying "If you think outlawing guns is going to stop criminals, you're a special kind of stupid, aren't you?"
Grinds my gears seeing that thing for so many reasons.
But I wanted to post a reply with some comparative stats between the U.S. and the countries such as yours where the guns are heavily regulated. If I may put it that way.
Problem on getting stats like that are the many variables such as reported crimes, alleged or unproven, failure to be honest about it for political reasons, etc., etc. Some stats are given, but they admit to being not much better than guesswork.
I would imagine that sort of thing being pretty even, country to country. I found out it's not. Some countries really lie extensively about internal crime. I just want numbers, per capita, of deaths, commited by firearm, with and without including suicides of all not directly caused by natural causes. But then of course you have those that while under assault died of internal trauma such as heart attack or stroke. It all gets blurry.
After that figure I would love to see comparisons of death figures by all methods of assault, including suicides. For my own curiousness. I've previously done the research on Japan's (I think) problem with suicide by poisoning. And we know Australia has a problem with machete murders on the rise.
ETA, as a species, we're for the most part a troubled lot.

.It is my uppermost hope that even histories' genius's lost their minds as they aged. I'd hate to think that I really am an idiot. sjm