Shooting at Virginia Tech

[AgentApathy]

Originally Posted by duck_duck

Not once did I form my opinion based on a movie and I don't care about mob violence, I'm talking about daily violence. Compared to where I'm from crime in america is rampant. You have armed gangs roaming the streets so how can you say it isn't out of control?

Imagine this: I'll be 36 next week, and I have *never* seen a gun used aside from the rifle that my friends and I used in the country to shoot cans off of a wall. I've lived in 4 cities so far, two of them metropolitan cities, and I've never seen a gun used or known anyone who has been shot, and I know a LOT of people.

To address those who think that NO ONE having a gun is a good idea, consider this: when guns are totally banned, the only ones who will have them will be exactly the people you want to defend yourself against. People with ill intent *will* find a way to get a gun if they really want one, so relieve yourself of the utopian notion that banning guns will mean that there will be no more guns. The black market is ingenious and capitalistic, and as long as there is easy money to be made, it will be made, laws be damned.

[freshnesschronic]

Originally Posted by AgentApathy

Imagine this: I'll be 36 next week, and I have *never* seen a gun used aside from the rifle that my friends and I used in the country to shoot cans off of a wall. I've lived in 4 cities so far, two of them metropolitan cities, and I've never seen a gun used or known anyone who has been shot, and I know a LOT of people.

To address those who think that NO ONE having a gun is a good idea, consider this: when guns are totally banned, the only ones who will have them will be exactly the people you want to defend yourself against. People with ill intent *will* find a way to get a gun if they really want one, so relieve yourself of the utopian notion that banning guns will mean that there will be no more guns. The black market is ingenious and capitalistic, and as long as there is easy money to be made, it will be made, laws be damned.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by AgentApathy

Imagine this: I'll be 36 next week, and I have *never* seen a gun used aside from the rifle that my friends and I used in the country to shoot cans off of a wall. I've lived in 4 cities so far, two of them metropolitan cities, and I've never seen a gun used or known anyone who has been shot, and I know a LOT of people.

Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Usually all the violence happens in one neighborhood so if you don't live in that neighborhood then you won't see anything.

Originally Posted by ichv.org

FACT:In 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 29,569 gun deaths in the U.S:


16,750 suicides (56% of all U.S gun deaths),
11,624 homicides (40% of all U.S gun deaths),
649 unintentional shootings, 311 from legal intervention and 235 from undetermined intent (4% of all U.S gun deaths combined).
-Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2007.

http://www.ichv.org/Statistics.htm

They do happen whether you see them or not.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

http://www.ichv.org/Statistics.htm

They do happen whether you see them or not.

They may be accurate, but I will question anything that comes from an anti-gun site before I see the original source of the statistic from the CDC. There is motive from these people to show you factoids that have been altered and doctored to show what they want you to see just to bolster their message.

[Shawnee123]

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[AgentApathy]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

Quote:
Originally Posted by ichv.org
FACT:In 2004 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 29,569 gun deaths in the U.S:


16,750 suicides (56% of all U.S gun deaths),
11,624 homicides (40% of all U.S gun deaths),
649 unintentional shootings, 311 from legal intervention and 235 from undetermined intent (4% of all U.S gun deaths combined).
-Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2007.
http://www.ichv.org/Statistics.htm

They do happen whether you see them or not.

To look at these figures, it seems like we need to balance US suicide figures against those of others where violence is "less rampant." Do you really think that suicides will cease to happen if guns aren't available, or (more likely) that people will just find another way?

It frustrates me that there isn't a further breakdown on how the guns were used: drug related crime, B&Es/robbery, crimes of passion, organized crime, etc. Really, that tells a lot more of a story to me than a black and white total number. I don't live in the hood but I don't live in a gated community either; I think I live the way most Americans do, and I think my chances are ridiculously small of ever seeing any kind of firearm violence. I'm not afraid!