By strat

Jul 3, 2008 6:33 PM | Link to this

For Rick
Here are your answers.

suicide:
Why does the method matter. These people would kill themselves by other means. Suicide rates in the U.S. are lower than Canada, France, Germany and equal to or lower than most major countries. The Japanese rate is twice ours and they have no guns.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/

Other gun deaths:
We have tens of thousands drugged out, gang banging thugs who use illegal guns mostly on each other. I wish them every success in that endeavor. The rest of the world doesn't have this thug culture where staring or dissing someone is grounds for summary execution.

By Rick

Jul 3, 2008 4:56 PM | Link to this

Specifics? A total ban. But that is unrealistic, impossible, not practical in any form. For now.

My purpose here? I just want to give enough examples that one of you will think (logically and independently) and some day, whisper to yourself, "Hey, he may a have point there."

And maybe in a generation or two, we will have a safe society.

And, no, Chuck, I do not "manufacture the numerical data." I research, I read, and I remember and I state facts, extrapolating a conclusion.
I admit it might have 10 children, not 11, may have been 12. But they are still dead.

By Kris

Jul 3, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this

We all should know by now that not all states grant the same rights, that being said if Mr.Goyke wants to apply for a "GFL" and he is denied because he is a non-resident, yet shares the same consitution as the rest of us do, then are we not choosing his rights? Also Wisconsin happens to have some of the strictist gun laws in the country.

By Laura

Jul 3, 2008 3:51 PM | Link to this

I agree with Chuck, when our system turned into Criminal Justice, too many crooks get off scott free.

By Laura

Jul 3, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this

Some of you sound just like Sunday Morning on CBS. 30,000 deaths from guns in the last year. Well, how many of those were illegal? How many of those were gang or drug related? How many of those 30,000 deaths were due to someone applying for a gun to go hunting in another state?

It is Georgia's right to issue licenses for those who qualify according to GA state law.

By Joe Brown

Jul 3, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

Actually, the State's should decide who can and cannot carry a fire-arm(s) in their State. Remember, the Constitution is there to limit the Federal government's power not the State's.

To Rick: There is no defense of senseless death. But let me ask you a question, do you remember a "few" years ago when the government outlawed alcohol? How did all that alcohol get into the USA? (10 points for whoever said Joe Kennedy!). That worked out pretty well didn't it?

What are your specific ideas to reduce these gun related deaths?

By Correction

Jul 3, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this

AJC, Georgia is a shall-issue state, not a may-issue state.

By Rick

Jul 3, 2008 2:42 PM | Link to this

Ah, yes, the old automobile versus gun comparison.
No good: a car's primary purpose is to transport. A weapon's primary purpose is to threaten and kill. That is like comparing addiction to cigarettes to drinking alcohol.

Still don't have an answer.

OK, if you say that accidental deaths are down, i will accept that. And criminals do not have more rights; they just have the ability to get guns that are stolen easier.

BTW, my bona fides: I grew up with guns. I am an excellent shot with a rifle (pistol, so,so). I taught gun safety for the Scouts. The boys at Summer camp were amazed at my ability to hit the target.
My wife was a police officer for 15 years; she was involved in three shootings. Only person I know that has actually killed someone. She now agrees with me.

But being aware of the massive number of useless deaths of innocents has made me change.

I used to be outspoken. If you smoked in a public place, i asked you to put it out. If you could not drive, I told you so. If you were abusive to your kid, I told you so. I admit it, I was a militant busy-body.
Now I am scared of you. I keep my mouth shut and walk away rapidly. I take the insults and walk away. I keep quiet and live for another day.

And, as I said, I still don't have an answer for all of our dead.

By Chuck

Jul 3, 2008 1:00 PM | Link to this

George and Rick, maybe you'd love to live in Canada. I love your creative ability to manufacture the numerical data. Perhaps you need to do a little research on your statistics. Such as more people are killed by automibles every year than by firearms. In as much as the subject at hand is concerned. Any citizen who owns a firearm legally should by our other constitutional
rights be allowed to travel freely with it. As did our fore fathers before us.

As long as we permit criminals to have stronger rights than victims, talking will always be cheap and academic. I bet you'd blame the pencil and pen companies for mispelled words too.
Accountability, and Responsibility two things foreign to our modern culture.
It's people that commit acts, then refuse to take the consequences , saying its somebody elses fault, not mine, not mine.

When will enough be enough?

By Fred

Jul 3, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this

Here is the answer you wanted Rick, accidental deaths from handguns have actually declined more, since 1965, when individual gun ownership rose dramatically.
Unless you are willing to donate your time to a suicide watch program, depressed people will continue to kill themselves, if not guns, ropes, pills, rooftops, etc.
Table 2.1 of Kleckýs ýPoint Blanký shows that handgun sales jumped dramatically around 1965 ý from around 0.5M per year to 1-2M per year afterwards. This is presumably the reason for the increase in the percentage of households owning handguns from 16% in the early sixties to 25% in the late eighties. (Table 2.2 of Kleck)

Table 7.1 of Kleck shows that the fatal gun accident rate declined from 2.4 per 100k population in 1933 to 1.21 in 1965 and then to 0.57 in 1987. That is a decrease of 1.19 before handgun ownership increased, and a decrease 0.64 afterwards. The rate of decrease was slower after 1965 than before.