Gun homicides around the world last year

Great post Wake!

I predict crickets.

Even from the dullard.

Wake- Everybody needs an editor, including me. I got the stats wrong in my late night post, and for that I apologize. My bad.

According to gunpolicy.org, the total number of homicide by gun in the U.S. was 9,484 in 2008. That clocks out at 3.12 per 100k.

By comparison, Isreal reports 193 homicide deaths in 2008, or 2.3.

One could conclude, given the differential in gun ownership (88 guns per 100 in US versus 7.7 per 100 in Israel) that the US isn't as trigger happy as some suggest. This is certainly the case in the area where I live where there are probably 4 times as many guns per square miles as cars.

The basic point of my late night post was that Israel isn't as heavily armed as the poster I was responding to had suggested. In hindsight, I should have just laughed it off rather than stirring a fuss of my own.

I agree with you, Wake, about the improper use of stats, and I apologize for posting a glaring mistake. My bad. I'm probably the least ideological person on this forum. As I have stated in other posts here in recent days, I think mental health is the bigger and more urgent issue than guns by far.

Wall,

I agree. As I stated in my original post where I screwed the pooch on the numbers, comparing the US and Israel is apples and oranges.

You have to take cultural and political issues into account, as well, when making these comparisons. That's why I say my experience living in a mostly rurual area of the country, gun owneship is high but homicide by gun is low.

I don't know if you can transport my experience to an urban environment, though, where people live and think differently. We all know what happens when you put too many rats in a cage with a single feeding tube. That's not a fair comparison, either, but you get my point.