The correlation between guns and mass murders

vibise

Well-known member
The NYT has a serious analysis of mass murders among the countries of the world, and the clear conclusion is that the high rate unique to the USA is due to our high rate of gun ownership and relatively lax laws dealing with guns.


The article has multiple graphs and links, but I think it is behind a paywall, so I will provide some key passages:

Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns. From 1966 to 2012, 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American...

a country’s rate of gun ownership correlated with the odds it would experience a mass shooting. This relationship held even when he excluded the United States, indicating that it could not be explained by some other factor particular to his home country. And it held when he controlled for homicide rates, suggesting that mass shootings were better explained by a society’s access to guns than by its baseline level of violence.

If mental health made the difference, then data would show that Americans have more mental health problems than do people in other countries with fewer mass shootings. But the mental health care spending rate in the United States, the number of mental health professionals per capita and the rate of severe mental disorders are all in line with those of other wealthy countries...
countries with high suicide rates tended to have low rates of mass shootings — the opposite of what you would expect if mental health problems correlated with mass shootings.

Whether a population plays more or fewer video games also appears to have no impact. Americans are no more likely to play video games than people in any other developed country.

Racial diversity or other factors associated with social cohesion also show little correlation with gun deaths.

United States is not actually more prone to crime than other developed countries, according to a landmark 1999 study by Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins of the University of California, Berkeley. Rather, they found, in data that has since been repeatedly confirmed, that American crime is simply more lethal. A New Yorker is just as likely to be robbed as a Londoner, for instance, but the New Yorker is 54 times more likely to be killed in the process.
 
I mean.... a nation of 330 million people, a great many of whom possess guns, in a place that has tons of conflict built into it with all the political and social division...

Yeah, it's not surprising there's a lot more gun violence/mass shootings here than in other places.
 
The NYT has a serious analysis of mass murders among the countries of the world, and the clear conclusion is that the high rate unique to the USA is due to our high rate of gun ownership and relatively lax laws dealing with guns.


The article has multiple graphs and links, but I think it is behind a paywall, so I will provide some key passages:
If your solution to gun violence were applied equally across the board, cars would be banned because people are killed Y drunk drivers
 
I mean.... a nation of 330 million people, a great many of whom possess guns, in a place that has tons of conflict built into it with all the political and social division...

Yeah, it's not surprising there's a lot more gun violence/mass shootings here than in other places.
As the article points out, analysis of all suggested factors finds none are relevant except for the high rate of gun ownership. If the US is removed from consideration, results show that, in other countries, the higher the gun ownership, the more mass murders. No other factor correlates.
 
If your solution to gun violence were applied equally across the board, cars would be banned because people are killed Y drunk drivers
No. Cars serve transportation needs, and only kill accidentally.
Besides anything, wrenches, soup caps, string, etc. can kill.

Guns have no purpose other than killing.
 
As the article points out, analysis of all suggested factors finds none are relevant except for the high rate of gun ownership. If the US is removed from consideration, results show that, in other countries, the higher the gun ownership, the more mass murders. No other factor correlates.

Well yes, duh. Much higher rate of gun ownership = much more gun violence.

This ain't rocket science, vibise.

I bet if you did a study on the connection between pool ownership and death of kids by drowning, you'd find that higher rates of pool ownership = higher rates of kids dying by drowning.

EDIT: It's already been done. See: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1167&context=ijare

Not only are there more drowning deaths in areas with more swimming pools, there are more drowning deaths in the months where people are more likely to use their pools.

Incredible. Who'da thunk it?
 
No. Cars serve transportation needs, and only kill accidentally.
Besides anything, wrenches, soup caps, string, etc. can kill.

Guns have no purpose other than killing.

Abortion has no other purpose than killing as well.

2020 gun deaths in the USA:

Homicide: 6.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~3,300 total)
Suicide: 7.0 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~23,100 total)
TOTAL: 13.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~26,400 total)

2020 abortion deaths in the USA: 930,160

So approximately 35 times the number of deaths caused by abortion than deaths caused by guns in the US in 2020.
 
Abortion has no other purpose than killing as well.

2020 gun deaths in the USA:

Homicide: 6.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~3,300 total)
Suicide: 7.0 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~23,100 total)
TOTAL: 13.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~26,400 total)

2020 abortion deaths in the USA: 930,160

So approximately 35 times the number of deaths caused by abortion than deaths caused by guns in the US in 2020.

But abortion is a constitutional right.

Not anymore it isn't. And oh wait...one of these actually IS a constitutional right. As in, it's actually written IN the Constitution. (not killing with guns...but gun ownership)
 
The NYT has a serious analysis of mass murders among the countries of the world, and the clear conclusion is that the high rate unique to the USA is due to our high rate of gun ownership and relatively lax laws dealing with guns.


The article has multiple graphs and links, but I think it is behind a paywall, so I will provide some key passages:
New York Times ... ????? ... biased and slanted analysis and findings guaranteed.
 
I mean.... a nation of 330 million people, a great many of whom possess guns, in a place that has tons of conflict built into it with all the political and social division...

Yeah, it's not surprising there's a lot more gun violence/mass shootings here than in other places.
400 million guns in America that have never been pointed at a human being.

Clearly guns are not violent.
 
Well yes, duh. Much higher rate of gun ownership = much more gun violence.

This ain't rocket science, vibise.

I bet if you did a study on the connection between pool ownership and death of kids by drowning, you'd find that higher rates of pool ownership = higher rates of kids dying by drowning.

EDIT: It's already been done. See: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1167&context=ijare

Not only are there more drowning deaths in areas with more swimming pools, there are more drowning deaths in the months where people are more likely to use their pools.

Incredible. Who'da thunk it?
We have enacted laws to prevent drowning deaths in pools, like having lifeguards present, required fencing, etc.

The gun lobby objects to any and all measures designed to limit gun deaths.
 
Abortion has no other purpose than killing as well.

2020 gun deaths in the USA:

Homicide: 6.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~3,300 total)
Suicide: 7.0 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~23,100 total)
TOTAL: 13.4 gun deaths per 100,000 people (~26,400 total)

2020 abortion deaths in the USA: 930,160

So approximately 35 times the number of deaths caused by abortion than deaths caused by guns in the US in 2020.
Except the law does not recognize abortion as murder, and neither do most Americans.
 
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