Swiss shooting

[Brian Ellis]

Looks like Switzerland is trying to emulate the USA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21601323

Still has a long way to go, though, with a guns-related death rate of about 10%.

[Dr Mordrid]

US firearms homicide rate is 3.6 / 100,000 (2011 - NVSS & CDC**) and dropping, roughly half what it was in 1993 (7.07 / 100,000.) Largest drop was in the 5 years after states started liberalizing concealed carry (1993 - 1998.)

Interestingly, the homicide by any method number for 2011 is 5.1 / 100,000, also about half of 1993 and higher than the firearms homicide rate. Watch those clubs, fists, knives, ropes & cars kiddies.

What drives the total 'gun deaths' up to ~10 / 100,000 is that over 60% of the total are suicides. Accidental shooting rate: 0.3 / 100,000.

** Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2011 - Selected Causes, National Vital Statistics Reports; Vol 61, No. 6, pp.40-42. Hyattsville, MD; US Centers for Disease Control Prevention, Division of Vital Statistics, October 10.

[Umfriend]

US firearms homicide rate is 3.6 / 100,000 (2011 - CDC) and dropping, roughly half what it was in 1993 (7.07 / 100,000.) Largest drop was in the 5 years after states started liberalizing concealed carry (1993 - 1998.)

Interestingly, the homicide by any method number for 2011 is 5.1 / 100,000, also about half of 1993 and higher than the firearms homicide rate. Watch those clubs, fists, knives, ropes & cars kiddies.

Not sure what is so interestesting about that, Firearms homicide E homicide by any method, no? Seems to me Firearms homicide > homicide by any method is an impossibility unless homicide by any method means homicide by any method other than with firearms.

[Dr Mordrid]

It's entirely possible to have an overall 'by any means' rate lower than the firearms rate IF most or all other methodologies were lower than the firearms rate. Obviously they aren't. What's also interesting that with about 90+ firearms per 100 persons, a drastic increase over the last 20 years, the firearms homicide rate has halved.

[Umfriend]

So homicides "by any method" do not include homicides by firearms?

[cjolley]

Picky, picky, picky.

Snopes has a nice summary: http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/baseballbats.asp

[Brian Ellis]

Don't let facts get in the way of truth!

Based upon surveys, the following are estimates of private firearm ownership in the U.S. as of 2010:


Households With a Gun Adults Owning a Gun Adults Owning a Handgun
Percentage 40-45% 30-34% 17-19%
Number 47-53 million 70-80 million 40-45 million

http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp

So where is your 90+%?

[Dr Mordrid]

No one tried to restrict it as tight as that Snopes post, but suffice it to say that with a firearms rate of 3.6 per 100k and an overall accidental death rate of >38 per 100k there's a lot more to worry about than guns.

[cjolley]

Suddenly you are switching from murder to accidental deaths like car wrecks?
Come on Doc, the thesis that more people in the US are murdered by weapons other than firearms than by firearms is simply not even remotely true.

[Umfriend]

Picky, picky, picky.

I'm not picky. I just want to understand what the numbers represent. OK, I guess that's picky.