‘New normal’ in gun sales: 16 million or more

Teen gang members are not children, to me anyways. Even the UN doesn't include 19year olds. And most consider children to be under the age of puberty.

 

CDC, like the rest of federal government, has no credibility with me. It doesn't matter to me what they say. I ignore what I can and adapt to what I can't.

 

According to who, or what? Who would not consider their 13 yr old as a child?

Who do you listen to? Social media?

 

Which doesn't answer the legitimate questions you were asked. From which I would extrapolate you've never looked at the study, and are not able to spotlight anything that may be wrong with it. When Steve Martin was still doing stand up, he did a bit where he encouraged the audience to "criticize things you don't know about!" A perspective that seems alive & well in the here & now.

 

suicides make up 2/3s of the deaths. Of the homicides-80% or more are caused by people who already are banned by federal-and usually state law-from possessing a firearm. gun banners dishonestly claim that more laws will disarm those who either want to kill themselves or already are committing serious felonies. It's one of the reasons why the gun control movement is clearly the most dishonest in US politics

Furthermore as the number of legal guns in circulation goes up and up-the rate of criminal misuses of firearms has not. Which bitch slaps the mantra of the anti gun advocates

 

You are correct. It wouldn't occur to me to read a government study since it would have no credibility with me. Therefore I have no answer to your question.

 

and countries where handguns are banned and long guns are as difficult to get as a private audience with the Pope, the suicide rates are often as high or higher than the USA

 

FYI, that Steve Martin bit was intended to be comedy, not a decree. But to each his own.

 

I don't know about his figures-murders with guns usually are about 12K a year and most of those involve criminals shooting either other criminals or those who associate with criminals. the percentage of those who murder with guns who are also mopes is about the same percentage as the victims of shootings who are mopes. (more than 3 out of 4)
Legal gun owners illegally killing others is a statistically irrelevant number in a country of over 300 million people and even more guns.

 

Hi, Turtledude.

Thank you for taking time to respond with your opinion.

Regards, stay safe 'n well . . . 'n un-shot.

 

Hi, Turtledude.

Thank you for taking time to respond with your opinion.

Regards, stay safe 'n well . . . 'n un-shot.

 

my opinions are based on facts-thanks

 

As the comments on deaths by gunshot in the United States of America continue to re-state the same things over and over again, people continue to die of gunshot.

Using the data from 2020*, a death by gunshot occurs in the United States, averaged, about once every 12-13 minutes around the clock. That's roughly 5 every hour, 120 every day.

Almost none of these deaths by gunshot make national news. Not all are even reported as such locally.

The deaths continue. Roughly 1 every 12-13 minutes.

* Ref: Gun deaths in the U.S.: 10 key questions answered | Pew Research Center

 

Gun deaths are not related to guns. They are related to shooters.

 

You're not factoring in the millions of times that a gun has saved lives simply by deploying it.

I used to live in a high crime area of a large inner-city. I bought a vacant, old house in that neighborhood because it was all that I could afford and it was only a 4 block walk to my blacksmith shop where I worked.

Even after trying to do everything possible to avoid a confrontation with the criminal element, I still found myself in a position in which I had to draw and point a firearm at other individuals at least 3 times.

In another incident from the pre cell phone era, 3 nurses living next door had their phone line cut by home invaders I had to repel with an AR-15 by firing a warning shot into the floor. The police I called before I left my house never showed up.

I didn't want to be involved in those and similar incidents but didn't feel like I had other choices at the time.

What would you have done differently?

Thanks,

 

Hi, Grau.

I cannot see how 'factoring in' the times a gun has saved a life will reduce by a single death those which occur from gunshot. Those numbers will continue to occur every day. The data for 2020* results in an average of one death by gunshot in the United States of America every 12-13 minutes.

I have never been in the situation you mentioned. I cannot answer without speculation. I have never carried a side-arm. I no longer have a firearm in my home. I go about my business unafraid. I live in NYC.

Regards, stay safe ' n well . . . 'n un-shot.

* Ref: Gun deaths in the U.S.: 10 key questions answered | Pew Research Center

 

Hello Torus and thanks for responding,

My wife and I had apartments we rented first in the East Village and, then, another one in the West Village so I have a great time in NYC and also walk around NYC unafraid because the demographics have changed so much since the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s
Yes, I remember skipping school, hitch hiking up to NYC and camping out in Central Park in the 1960s then hanging out in the Village and waking up at a stranger's apartment.

I know that we differ on the effectiveness of more gun control laws and hope you realize that I really don't enjoy all the hassle of carrying a pistol and very rarely do so now that I live in a rural area.

I've also been shooting since I was 8 and have had plenty of experience with a wide variety of firearms both in and out of the US Army and taught others how to shoot. I saw my share of exit wounds during service in Laos so I have a healthy respect for what modern munitions can do to human bone and tissue.

When I asked you: "What would you have done differently?", I really didn't expect an answer as much as I hoped that you could be sympathetic to people who live in high crime areas. Except for firearms my neighbors were at the complete mercy of cunning and brutal criminals so ruthless that they killed my unarmed upstairs neighbor, an elderly Black woman, with a hatchet.
I was at work when she was murdered and feel that if she'd just have been armed she would have had a chance but I still regret that I wasn't there that day.

I think that most people are aware of the down side of owning a firearm and just hope that you recognize that not everyone can walk around as freely as you as safely as you can. Owning and being proficient in the use of a firearm gives some less fortunate people the freedom too go out and security while at home.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend...

 

Something no one here as stated, suggested, or implied. Not a very compelling strawman, as strawmen go.

The percentage of civilian involved defensive gun usages that are resolved non violently and without bloodshed is better than 95%, according to the FBI.

Apologies for the redundancy, I've posted this before:

If you search “defensive gun usage" (DGU) you’ll find it happens anywhere from 500k – 3.5 million times annually (in the US). The raw numbers come from the CDC, most recently from a study ordered by President Obama in 2013.

While injuries and fatalities resulting from those encounters are delineated, peaceful resolutions are not. Depending on who’s digging into the data, DGUs where the weapon is brandished but not fired & no one is hurt occur anywhere from 500k - 2.5 million times every year. Whatever the actual tally, it’s not insignificant.

When I was an infant we took a day trip to the mountains and stopped at one of my parents’ favorite spots. During our stay a couple bikers rolled in. Dad could tell they were trouble and loaded wife & kid into the car.

During the load up one of the bikers shouted at dad to “hand over summa that slant eyed pu$$y.” Loudmouth wheeled his bike about 4 feet off the back bumper and dismounted. He walked to the driver’s side window and leaned in to find himself looking down the barrel of a .357. He and his compadre saddled up and rode off.

25 years later I owned a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. One day I towed it to a building where I was going to work on it. As I pulled onto the property there were a couple guys about my age sharing a crack pipe. I rolled down the window and said “Hate to tell you guys, but this is private property and you’ll need to clear off.” They both snarled and cursed. One of them picked up a piece of rebar and both advanced. I let them see my pistol and told them to simmer down. Both men split.

In both instances - as in the vast majority of civilian involved DGUs - no shots fired and nobody hurt. Given the numbers available from the FBI & President Obama's CDC study, the more relevant consideration is how many Americans are saved from serious injury or death by availing themselves of our second amendment guarantee, and why you would want to deprive us of that protection (if that is what you're advocating; I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about that).

 

the more guns in circulation, the more in the hands of shooters

not saying ban guns, any more than I would say ban cars... but stating a fact

 

Hi again, Grau.

A pleasure to chat with you.

What we're seeing in our posts is, I think, a difference in our perceptions of the actual daily risk to ourselves from, for lack of a better neutral term, the 'bad guys with guns'. You mention a degree of sympathy to those who live in high crime areas. My comments about deaths by gunshot are informed by those deaths. High crime areas occur where there are concentrations of people -- cities. There are no high crime areas in the Dakota badlands. I've also noted that I walk about freely, un-afraid, and un-armed. I live in New York City. If I listen to the 'conservative' AM radio talk show hosts, people in my city quiver behind triple-locked doors and move out as soon as they can because of the crime here. I perceive the danger to me, living here, differently than they allegedly do. [Ed.: The term 'allegedly' is used because these hosts are saying what appeals to their audiences, not necessarily what they themselves believe.]

Meanwhile, as I type this, deaths by gunshot continue at, based upon 2020 data, an average rate of one every 12-13 minutes around the clock. I, by myself, can do little about this other than to try to make people aware of it. Hopefully, if enough people become aware of it to the extent that they bring sufficient pressure on our elected government representatives, action will occur. Without it, the deaths continue. That action will, I hope, be determined by people wiser than I am. I know of no, if you'll excuse the term, silver bullet to significantly reduce the death rate.

Regards, stay safe 'n well . . . 'n un-shot.

Meanwhile,

 

Hi again, InWalkedBud.

Let's agree to set anecdotal comments aside. Single instances, though dramatic and emotionally appealing if well-chosen, are little more than that.

The wide range of instances in which guns averted developing incidents -- 500K-3.5M annually -- speaks to data that's more guesswork than fact-based and verifiable. In addition, unless I have misunderstood, the data/information which makes up this range are not necessarily those in which a death by gunshot was averted. The course of an incident may have been altered, but what the eventual outcome would have been without the intervention is unknown.

Meanwhile, based on the 2020 data, a death by gunshot continues to occur in the United States of America on the average of one every 12-13 minutes around the clock.

Regards, stay safe 'n well . . . 'n un-shot.
Regards,

 

You accuse someone of making something up but you post a meme that has absolutely no source.... You can't make this up.... Well, actually it appears that you did.

 

And there's what... 110,000 people shot every year? America is a war zone.

 

Hi, Poohbear.

The United States of America is what it is, neither more nor less. We rank high among current developed democracies in deaths per unit of population by gunshot. We also rank high among developed democracies in the percent of our population incarcerated.

There are reasons. Isolating them, and then having the political will to address them in a significant way, may or may not be something we can expect in the near future.

Regards, stay safe 'n well 'n un-shot.

 

Hi, FreshAir.

Try this. If there were no guns in. say, the United States of America, there would be no deaths from gunshot. Fact. A 'given'. Now, consider the number of guns in the United States of America [300,000,000 or so,] and the number of deaths from gunshot, given as 45,000 in the year 2020.*

Now envision a chart which plots the number of gunshot deaths on the 'Y' axis [ordinate] and the number of funs on the 'X' axis [abscissa].

Got that? OK.

Now draw a line, any line, no matter how straight or 'squiggly', from the 0,0 point to the year 2020 point. It is impossible to draw such a line that does not have, when squiggles are smoothed out, a positive up-ward slope to the right. Fact.

Regards, stay safe 'n well.

* Ref: Gun deaths in the U.S.: 10 key questions answered | Pew Research Center