Date sent: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 19:24:20 -0400 From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@lorrey.com> Organization: http://lorrey.com http://artlocate.com To: extropians@extropy.com Subject: Re: GUNS: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> "Joe E. Dees" wrote:
>
> > Date sent: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 16:38:27 -0400
> > From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@lorrey.com>
> > > >
> > > > Ho hum, emotional rhetoric, yes, that's really going to convince people. BTW,
> > > > the number of murders and the number of shooting accidents (which often
> > > > include suicides classified as 'accidents' by the cops for various reasons)
> > > > have been going down for years; so why is this 'clearly out of control'?
> > >
> > > yes, the only activities which are at lower risk are civil aviation, getting
> > > struck by lightning, and a few others. The firearns accident rates for children
> > > and overall are less than a tenth of the rates at the turn of the century.
> > >
> > Au contraire; the number of people in the US who died of gunshot-
> > related injuries in 1995 was 32,909. These figures were furnished
> > by James R. Peterson, a progun activist, in the August issue of
> > Playboy Magazine. This is less than the number killed on the
> > highway the same year, but not by a whole lot.
>
> These are accident rates, not crime rates. Get your facts straight. Accidental gunshot
> related injuries for 1995 for people under 15 or 18 was about 250. Using suicides or
> criminal on criminal gun violence as justification for controlling law abiding usage
> is insane, about as insane as using government perpetrated gun crime in europe to
> justify taking civilian guns away.
>
The precise figures for 1995 are as follows:
a)Justifiable Homicides.....................................616 b)Murders...................................................13,790 (total homicides)( a + b) ----------------------------------------------------14,406 c)Suicides..................................................18,503 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total........................................................ 32,909