AST (After Sean Taylor)-To gun or not to gun?

[mheisig]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Yeah. I'd love to see a report showing gun deaths in the country by year, and gun sales in the country by year. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that gun deaths go up as gun sales go up, and gun deaths go down as gun sales go down.

I do agree that they can be used responsibly, and in the right situations they save lives, and that if you ban them they'll still fall into the wrong hands via the black market. So a blanket ban for the entire country probably wouldn't be effective.

But you have to admit, having a gun in the house, even if it's locked up and all that stuff, increases the chances of having an accident compared to a house without a gun. If you want to reduce your chances of being the victim of a violent crime, a gun could help you, but the best thing you can do would be move to a safer area. Of course you've got to be able to afford the safer area, so there's a catch 22 as well.

All the more reason to get a haircut and get a real job!

It would appear quite the opposite, actually:

Bureau of Justice Firearms and Crime Statistics

Gun Sales Rise as Crime and Accident Rates Fall

Of course give it about 5 minutes before someone argues that statistics don't mean anything. Oddly enough, statistics relating to firearms and the research methodologies have got to be the most hotly debated thing I've ever seen. Each side claims to have the stats to back it up.

Just stumbled across this too - a diving website, of all things:

Australia's high crime rates prompt travel warning

Just FYI, Australia banned firearms in the mid-90s.