Pogo....you have to stop buying anti-gun nut propaganda....they let their irrational fear of guns compromise their ability to tell the truth.....
Are guns more likely to kill you than a car is No - Crime Prevention Research Center
Here is the letter that we submitted:
Dear Letters Editor:
Your “Bangers v bullets” (Jan 10th) misleadingly claims that car deaths have fallen more than guns deaths because cars face more safety regulations.
Compare similar categories. While 99.4% of car deaths arise from accidents in 2013, that percentage is only 1.5% for guns. 64% of gun fatalities are suicides. If increased safety regulations are the solution, why is it that between 2000 and 2012 accidental deaths from cars fell by 18% and those from guns by 35%?
Gun deaths are rising because there has been a 28% increase in firearm suicides. But non-firearm suicides increased even faster (56%) –something is causing suicides generally to rise.
Despite your claim, domestic violence simply doesn’t account for a large share of gun deaths — only 3% of gun deaths in 2012 involved murders of immediate or extended family members.
The regulations you mention do real harm. About 99 percent of background check denials under the Brady Act are false positives, not criminals. Some denials mean people can’t defend themselves.
As for gun deaths for 15-24 year olds, most involve gang fights. One solution: Try legalizing drugs.
Regards,
The claim that total automobile deaths have fallen relative to firearm deaths can be seen in this figure, though it is also clear that the drop occurred during the recession of 2008 and 2009 (part of that drop is due in part to some reduction in driving).
The types of deaths by cause show that auto accidents are overwhelmingly accidental deaths and those by firearms are suicides.
There are two problems with the claim that regulations are responsible for the drop in accidental motor vehicle deaths . First, virtually the entire drop occurred in two years during the recession (2008 and 2009) and it is hard to think of any new regulations that would produce such a sudden and large drop (most regulations would have a gradual impact over time has new cars with those features made up a greater and greater share of the cars on the road). Most likely the drop occurred because of changing driving habits (such as some reduction in how much people drove). It is because of this point that we are unlikely to see firearm deaths exceed motor vehicle deaths in 2015.
The long sustained high gasoline prices since the beginning of the Obama administration also had an impact. From the beginning of 2011 until the end of November 2014, the price of gasoline never fell before $3.00 a gallon. One has to go back to the beginning of the Obama administration to find gas prices as low as they have now gone. The new lower prices of gas at about $2 will probably also increase driving distances, particularly if the prices stay low for a while.
Maybe you need to spend less time fellating your gun barrel and more time learning to read.
Here's what the poster said:
Get that? Cars are used for that purpose. That means intentional vehicular homicide. And that's what I didn't find figures on, although it's his point to prove, not mine. And I demonstrated that ALL car deaths, the overwhelming majority of which are accidents, are on the same level as death by firearm. Now separate out how many of those vehicular deaths are intentionally running somebody over.
Second, a death is a death -- suicide doesn't "not-count" because of who its target is. That is in fact part of the point that firearms make it that easy to do. So you're massaging numbers on both ends.
Here's an idea: stop fetishizing death and violence and toys that go boom-boom. What a concept.
