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Guns killed more Arizonans than cars
Study shows more 2009 deaths from firearms than motor vehicles in 10 states
Posted May 22, 2012
Dylan Smith TucsonSentinel.com
More Arizonans were killed in firearms-related incidents in 2009 than in motor vehicle crashes, a new study said. While 809 people died in vehicle crashes, there were 856 gun deaths, a state-by-state analysis showed. A local gun-rights activist dismissed the call for more gun control: "You want them to be dangerous or they're no damn good."
Even if you oppose gun ownership, do you really like being lied to? And lies are exactly what the Violence Policy Center peddles. However, for anyone with a shred of objectivity, it really isn’t all that difficuly to see right through those lies. There are roughly 30,000 deaths annually in the US involving firearms. Roughly 16,000 of those are suicides, 12,000 homicides, 600 or so are justifiable defensive shootings, and 600 are accidents. (I don’t have the Arizona numbers, but I am certain they break down in a similar way).
Stop and think for one moment. The VPC argues a) more people are killed by guns than cars, b) there are more car safety regulations than gun safety regulations, therefore c) we should be imposing more “safety regulations” on guns. That makes zero sense because the VAST majority of gun deaths have absolutely nothing to do with the safety—the mechanical functionality and reliability—of the guns themselves. Rather, the vast majority of gun deaths involve complex causative factors touching on criminology, sociology, and mental health. “Gun safety” is a complete red herring.
The Violence Policy Center has absolutely no interest in “gun safety.” Scratch the surface and you will plainly see that what they really want is to limit private firearms ownership to the extent possible—to make it outright illegal, or at elast as difficult as possible, for law abiding citizens to own guns.
Don’t buy into their lies. If you are truly interested in gun safety, join the NRA and promote safe gun handling classes in schools, and vote for elected officials who will take sensible, humane and constructive measures to reduce crime and improve mental health screening and treatment.
When the alarming national statistics on shootings push the gun guys into a corner, they often counter with the red herring argument, “But there are more car deaths than gun deaths, despite more regulation of cars, so you shouldn’t regulate guns.” This study has certainly put a dent in that fallacious argument.
The gun extremists refuse to believe statistics, no matter if they come from peer-reviewed international journals or governmental authorities, but the rest of us see the wisdom these numbers present. It is clear that guns need tighter regulation. At 110,000 shootings a year in America, not counting non-shooting gun crimes, it’s time to do something about it.
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2 comments on this story
Even if you oppose gun ownership, do you really like being lied to? And lies are exactly what the Violence Policy Center peddles. However, for anyone with a shred of objectivity, it really isn’t all that difficuly to see right through those lies. There are roughly 30,000 deaths annually in the US involving firearms. Roughly 16,000 of those are suicides, 12,000 homicides, 600 or so are justifiable defensive shootings, and 600 are accidents. (I don’t have the Arizona numbers, but I am certain they break down in a similar way).
Stop and think for one moment. The VPC argues a) more people are killed by guns than cars, b) there are more car safety regulations than gun safety regulations, therefore c) we should be imposing more “safety regulations” on guns. That makes zero sense because the VAST majority of gun deaths have absolutely nothing to do with the safety—the mechanical functionality and reliability—of the guns themselves. Rather, the vast majority of gun deaths involve complex causative factors touching on criminology, sociology, and mental health. “Gun safety” is a complete red herring.
The Violence Policy Center has absolutely no interest in “gun safety.” Scratch the surface and you will plainly see that what they really want is to limit private firearms ownership to the extent possible—to make it outright illegal, or at elast as difficult as possible, for law abiding citizens to own guns.
Don’t buy into their lies. If you are truly interested in gun safety, join the NRA and promote safe gun handling classes in schools, and vote for elected officials who will take sensible, humane and constructive measures to reduce crime and improve mental health screening and treatment.
When the alarming national statistics on shootings push the gun guys into a corner, they often counter with the red herring argument, “But there are more car deaths than gun deaths, despite more regulation of cars, so you shouldn’t regulate guns.” This study has certainly put a dent in that fallacious argument.
The gun extremists refuse to believe statistics, no matter if they come from peer-reviewed international journals or governmental authorities, but the rest of us see the wisdom these numbers present. It is clear that guns need tighter regulation. At 110,000 shootings a year in America, not counting non-shooting gun crimes, it’s time to do something about it.
My blog post on this study:
http://newtrajectory.blogspot.com/2012/05/death-by-gun-now-higher-in-10-states.html