US High in Gun Ownership, Low in Murder Rate

Quote :

US High in Gun Ownership, Low in Murder Rate

Several reports on gun ownership around the world clearly refute the assertion that the abundance of guns in the United States leads to a high rate of firearm homicides.

Americans are the biggest gun owners by far, with an estimated 270 million civilian firearms, in addition to those used by law enforcement and the military. That’s according to the Small Arms Survey of 178 nations conducted by the Switzerland-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

In sheer numbers of civilian firearms, the No. 2 nation, surprisingly, is India with 46 million, followed by China (40 million), Germany (25 million), Pakistan (18 million), and Mexico (15 million).

The United States also leads in gun ownership rate, with about 88 firearms per 100 people, according to the most recent Small Arms Survey compiled in 2007.

That is far ahead of No. 2 Yemen, which has 55 firearms per 100 people. Switzerland is third with 46 per 100 people, followed by Finland (45), Serbia (38), Cyprus (36), Saudi Arabia (35), and Iraq (34).

But when it comes to the firearm homicide rate, the United States doesn’t even make the top 25.

According to figures collected by the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime through its annual crime survey, 9,146 Americans were victims of a firearm homicide in the most recent year. That translates to a rate of 2.97 firearm homicides per 100,000 population, only the 27th highest rate in the world.

The highest rate by far can be found in Honduras, 68 homicides per 100,000, followed by El Salvador (40), Jamaica (39), Venezuela (38.9), Guatemala (34), and Colombia (27).

For America’s neighbors, the rate in Mexico is 9.9 per 100,000, and in Canada, 0.5 per 100,000.

It is interesting to note that not only does the United States have a relatively low homicide rate compared to its gun ownership rate, but Switzerland, which ranks third in the civilian gun ownership rate, has only the 46th highest homicide rate, and Finland, with the fourth highest ownership rate, is 63rd on the list.

“The most obnoxious liberal talking points on guns involve the idea that guns, in and of themselves, cause gun violence,” writes CNS News commentator Stephen Gutowski. “In other words, more guns must mean more gun violence.”

But in light of the ownership and homicide figures, he observes: “More guns do not, in fact, mean more gun violence. Guns can be, and commonly are, used in a responsible manner, especially here in the United States.”

newsmax.com

Found the link for that last post:
http://news.newsmax.com/?ZKCRY1w3vNFIgxiUH98znDJKI3reNlI1Z

I fully support individual gun ownership in the U.S.A., and I oppose all gun-control laws aimed at good citizens. First, gun control doesn't work. Remember the federal assault-weapons ban we had for TEN
years (1994-2004)? It basically accomplished nothing:

“After 10 years as the law of the land, the effects of the 1994 ban on “assault
weapons” were so indeterminate that a 2004 study funded by the
Justice Department concluded: “Should it be renewed, the ban’s
effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps
too small for reliable measurement.””
www.humanevents.com/2013/01/21/debunker-assault-weapons-ban-bunk/


And if we look at cities like Chicago and Washington, DC, which have draconian gun-control
laws in place, we see they also have massive crime rates in spite of
such laws. “In the 25 years following the DC gun ban, its murder
rate INCREASED 51 percent, even while the national rate DECREASED 36
percent.” So all those laws accomplish is to disarm good citizens
and make them victims of the lawless, and that's always a bad idea.
Scoffer's will of course blame criminal gun availability on places
without such strict anti-gun laws, but in a nation with as many guns
as ours, they will always be available on the black market no matter
how many gun-control measures are enacted. Our nation is “the most
armed in the world, the study by the Graduate Institute of
International Studies in Geneva said.”
www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states


To expect gun laws to work effectively in our nation is just misguided, wishful
thinking.


Second, since most men and many women are part of the unorganized militia, we need military type firearms to perform our duty:

USC TITLE 10 > Subtitle A > PART I > CHAPTER 13 > §311.
§311. Militia: composition and classes.
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all
able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in
section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have
made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United
States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of
the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—.
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and.
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... 2nd Amendment this, second amendment that..

But the Constitution hasn't been worth the paper it's written on for a long time now. 10th amendment might as well not exist, the takings clause of the 5th was skewerd by Kelo vs. New London.. Unreasonable search has been gone for a while now...

And the Republicans ignore it just as readily as the Democrats do when it suits them.

The time for stopping this new assault upon constitutional rights is long past.

Annoyed wrote:

But the Constitution hasn't been worth the paper it's written on for a long time now. 10th amendment might as well not exist, the takings clause of the 5th was skewerd by Kelo vs. New London.. Unreasonable search has been gone for a while now...

And the Republicans ignore it just as readily as the Democrats do when it suits them.

The time for stopping this new assault upon constitutional rights is long past.

Annoyed, you can give up in defeat if you want, but I will support the U.S. Constitution for as long as I live. It's worth fighting for. But you are right that both the Republicans and Democrats have been trashing it for a long time. Both parties are worthless when it comes to protecting our freedoms.