Gun advocates typically want to distil the conversation down to particular crime categories and then make the argument that “because this one, very specific data point seems to support what I’m saying, this is ultimate proof that guns r awsum and no deeper analysis is now necessary”. The fact is that most studies on the effects of gun ownership in regards to their effect on overall violence and crime rate suggests that countries with low gun ownership typically have far lower crime rates.
I don’t give a flying fuck if you care to cherry-pick particular states as examples that prove you point. Choose countries. You are a country. A state is not a god analogue for a country, particularly US states since it’s a matter of triviality to get a gun from another state with events that don’t properly check purchases (gun shows) or for a small amount of money on the streets.
No one’s saying that “gun ownership is the major factor in homicides” but you, because it’s the set-up for your whole argument. Other reasons for higher or lower levels of homicide include: overall rule of law, effectiveness of the police, job and social prospects, availability of weapons and the ability of authorities to control those weapons. If you look at the US in terms of homicide rate and firearm homicide rate, you guys are a pathetic laughing stock. But you already know this because we had this discussion last week - before another horrific murder spree had taken place.
Firearm-related death per 100k
I cut it at Israel, the first country on the list that has a truly comparable socio-political situation as the US and their homicide by firearm rate is less than 1/3 of the US.
I won’t screencap this one because it’s just too long but this chart has overall homicide rate per 100k: List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia
Again… the US sits among countries you would not choose to go to and ones which you’d regard as dangerous places to go. The axis-of-evil Iran and Libya are safer places to be than the US. Sri Lanka is a safer place to be. Israel’s murder rate is less than half that of the US… funny that the two comparable countries on the deaths by firearm list have similar positions on the overall homicide rate list. Must just be coincidental.
