Posted on 07/17/2013 10:07:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In 1994, the United States was home to about 200 million privately owned guns. Today, that number has ballooned to between 270 million and 300 million. That's almost half of all privately owned guns worldwide, according to a new essay from the Brookings Institution.
The essay, titled The Promise by Matt Bennett, looks back at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and the way ahead for gun control. The piece breaks down some other big numbers surrounding the battle for more gun regulation: More than 10 firearm deaths per 100,000 Americans every year; 600 annual accidental shootings; 11,400 murders; about 31,000 total gun deaths. The most common age of people who commit gun crimes is 19, then 20, then 18. That's despite regulations that bar licensed dealers from selling handguns to anyone under the age of 21. Almost 100 million adults live in a home with a gun.
Bennett ties these numbers back to last year's tragedy in Newtown, Conn.:
Still in the arena as well are the families of Sandy Hook. Despite the glare of a spotlight that has forced them to repeatedly relive their darkest hour and subjected them to a stunning level of personal vitriol, they continue to come to Washington, meet with senators and talk to the press. They accepted early on that this was a long roadthat a 20-year gridlock on gun policy was not likely to change in an instant.
The motto of Sandy Hook Promise is: "Our hearts our broken; Our spirit is not." And the extraordinary generosity of spirit that these brave people bring to this nasty, brutish political debate could, in the end, make all the difference.
You can read the full piece here.
51,000,000? Just think how long it would take AG Holder and his brownshirt thugs to confiscate our guns? /s
Finally some good news.
Those numbers mean nothing what with so many unregistered guns.
Let’s go for 51%, folks!
What's the deal with the lowest one, Pockeestahn? My guess is: no record-keeping.
My brother tells me not to worry about Feds taking over Texas, they’ll have to get through OK first. hee hee hee
“Where is the other half?”
Under water. The USA suffers a remarkable number of boating accidents.
So don’t mess with us.
Go mess with a Lapp, if you must mess with anyone.
What a wonderful fact!
Molan Labe!
I'm with you. What is their statistic based on? Gun Sales? Dating back how far? I have family that has weapons passed down across 3 generations. Model 1870 Winchesters, M1 Garand, 1906 Entfield (?), etc. Most of them shoot just fine. I don't expect my relatives admit to having these firearms if surveyed. They would only mention the ones they purchased and keep.
I don't have many but own more than I talk about or would offer if asked. I doubt I am much different from most other gun owners.
...and how do we get those too? LOL
In Pakistan, Homicide is considered "Natural Causes".
That map is now outdated (as of a week ago or so). :o)
IL has joined the “Shall Issue” class.
It's not just Texas my FRiend. Collectively, as an extended family, I have access to an impressive arsenal, most of which are pretty old guns, some dating back to the 1800s. Most are in firing condition when you can find ammo for them.
Silly Americans. Why we take so many guns fishing is the real mystery.
"Homicide" isn't necessarily murder. It also includes justifiable homicide, or self-defense.
But in this case, that isn't what is inflating it: it's the inclusion of "suicide" in the count, although they don't explicitly say so.
Suicide rates are driven by culture. If you restrict one means of suicide, other means increase to compensate. That's exactly what happened in Canada.
Yep, and that 200 million stat was 1994, right when Clinton took office and the USSR/East bloc began selling it’s inventory in earnest. A NICS check isn’t going to tell you how many old cheap Enfields, Mausers, SKS’s or Suomi’s one is buying. No one’s telling me that the number of guns sold since then is only 70-80M with all that’s been dumped on the market the last 20 years.
Think of how much better off the world would be if our privately owned 270M firearms was not half but only 20% of all privately owned firearms. The world’s streets would be safer, the populace more free with fewer socialist dictators and police states. In many parts of the world women would be more safe from the men in their lives. I believe it was Robert Heinlin who said “an armed sociey is a polite society.”
In case you hook a real fighter... sometimes a net just won’t cut it.
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