Can you smell what LIBERTY is cooking?

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/girl-9-accidentally-shoots-dead-gun-instructor-in-us-1.1909440

A 9 year old. A freaking 9 year old. Good Grief.

That FREEDOM baby!!!

That technically is freedom. The freedom to take your 9 year old to the shooting range and give her lessons on how to use an Uzi. But that’s why we need laws- because there are too many stupid people who crap out kids. And then those kids grow up and crap out their own kids.

I actaully was reading recently that gun training has positive benefits for children (of course, this doesn’t include uzis). But the article didn’t cite any research – but the state of gun research in the USA is absymal due to Congressional mandates, so I didn’t have my normal reaction of ignoring it. The article talked about how it trained discpline, focus, and a couple of other things. And described the typical class for children. Not sure where I stand on the issue – I’d love to see research, but in the USA that won’t happen.

That may be true but I am quite certain there are a number of other activites that instill the same positive benefits without having a margin of error that includes someone’s life.

Freak accident. This is just knee jerk anti-Americanism. Such shooting ranges exist in many countries.

So, apparently America is 12’th worldwide in ‘freak accidents’ or unintentional deaths due to firearms.

The 10 countries ahead of it include countries like Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and S.Africa. 2 of those countries also dwarf the USA when it comes to homicidal death due to firearms. You would assume that the drug problems in Central America and the massive social problems in the other 2 were having a spillover into their numbers.

Exalted company (At present times) America seems to be in there.

Also yes, as a self flagellating bearded mullah who has declared allegiance to the Ayatollah’s, I am obliged to say Fuck America.

You’re in India right?

Nope. I am in Samdrup Jongkhar, Bhutan.

Which is why your posts say that you’re in Equatorial Guinea.

So you are saying… that the US is not even in the top 10 countries in terms of firearm deaths? That’s great!

Another aspect was the seriousness of it making the kids take it seriously while also feeling they could be trusted. But like I said, who knows if it’d hold up to rigor.

Yeah, like driving a car which results in hundreds, if not thousands, of times more accidental deaths than firearms. Nearly everything carries remote risk of serious injury or death. This is all just knee jerk anti gun reaction from people that can’t rationally comprehend risk.

According to wiki (the definitive source for everything in the universe), the intentional homicide rate in the US is only 4.7 per 100,000. This is higher than most first world countries but relatively low, and a lot lower than many other places (the global average rate according to this is 6.2-6.9, although the data is imperfect).

I assume this does not include accidental gun deaths which is probably a meaningful figure but the US is not the wild west people make it out to be unless you live in South Central LA or inner city Chicago or whatever. And give credit where credit’s due, the rate has declined significantly over the last several decades.

I know that a lot of people around these parts are allergic to facts but that’s what it is. Kind of amazing that we don’t have a much higher rate of violence in this country given the ~300 million guns in the US. And actually – not to get overly beholden to facts here (nobody likes that!) – but gun violence in the US has materially has decreased in recent decades.

And as someone pointed out above, you’re way more likely to die in a car wreck than due to violence – about 2.5x more likely, in fact. I guess we all better stop driving or maybe we can move to some random hick country like Bhutan – it will be a huge hit to quality of life but we’ll be marginally safer, maybe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate_by_decade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

Guns dont kill people, Dick Cheney does.

Guns are great because you can sell them to the population, and to other countries, and make lots of money, which is what it’s all about. The deaths are externalities, nobody cares about those.

She was fine until the moron thought it would be a good idea to put it on full auto.

This is what bro is saying guys:

In Chapter 5 of Freakonomics, which explores the art and science of parenting, we pose this question: Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? It turns out that far more children die each year in swimming pool accidents than in gun incidents. For parents in warm-weather states like Florida, California, and Arizona, this is plainly a year-round concern, and now that summer seems to have leapt over spring (at least here in New York City, where it hit 80 F. yesterday), swimming-pool season is nearly here for all of us.

http://freakonomics.com/2006/04/16/are-you-ready-for-swimming-pool-season/

He he, now in pink for your daughter

I love America. So unapologetically crass and ostentatious.

This is cool, a similar source here seems to draw it’s data from the UNODC and while it has data only for 70 odd countries seems to have the break up for intentional and unintentional deaths. (Data is imperfect though like you mentioned)

The USA comes in at a respectable 15’th for homicidal deaths with 3.6 deaths per 100,000 and lesser than the global average of 5.61. However if you remove the outliers which for arbitary sake say is >10 you remove the following block of countries :

_ Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica, Venezuela, Swaziland, Guatamela, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa and Panama. _

Most of those countries are racked with drug violence and extreme poverty which is no doubt skewing their numbers.

The remaining block of countries contain countries like Mexico and Nicaragua which almost certainly have a spillover of drug violence. However keeping these countries in consideration, USA comes in 5’th highest and this time the homicidal death rate due to firearms is now 3.36x the global average of 1.06. Once you limit for the developed world it compares even more poorly.

Taking into account only accidental deaths due to firearms and USA lies 10’th globally once you remove the outlier countries from the above list which this time only include South Africa and Venezuela. The countries above it still include countries like Mexico and Nicaragua and while USA does better that the homicidal rate it still ranks poorly this time coming in at 1.5x the global average of 0.19. Again, ranks even worse once you limit for the developed world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

The car wreck comparison is ridiculous. Cars have an intrinsic worth to society, most of the world seems to get by just fine without seeing the need to have a personal cache of weapons for whatever warped up reason.

It’s also hilarious that a resident of America would refer to the genteel, great and ancient Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan as ‘hick’. Dirt poor? Yes. Hick? No

America, Americaaaa, it is wunderbaaarrr!!!

You do realize that drugs and gangs represent a lot of gun deaths in America as well. . .