Strange New World
As someone with a gun license in the UK I am often annoyed by the levels of consistency by the government in this country. Guns are bad is the general view and having widespread gun access is a terrible idea seems to be the norm. I support this position to a large extent. Evidence around the world shows that increase in access to guns results in an increase in gun related deaths. No shit.
Why would anyone want to allow the public general access to something that will increase deaths? We can look at the statistics before gun's were restricted. It is important to note that the government and the majority of people in this country would claim that the rights of the individual gun owner are overridden by the good of society.
So let's look at the stats.
One set of stats shows that deaths were at the rate of 54 per 100,000 population. On top of that there were significant numbers of injuries from gun ownership which were not recorded accurately and so have no exact quotable statistics.
You have to agree that deaths at those rates is unacceptable. As society was fed up of the high loss of life we saw gun control take hold. The arms companies claimed that guns were not the cause of death and that gun owners had the right to ownership and usage of arms.
I have to agree with history. Why would government not put in place arms controls to curb the death rates.
But I have not been quite straight forward. The logic of gun control and essentially banning general usage of guns without good reason has cut gun deaths down to 0.15 per 100,000 in 2002. Success?
Well the other reason I have not been clear is that the statistic of 54 per 100,000 of population is not the death rate by guns but the current death rate by lung cancer caused by smoking. The 0.15 IS the death rate by guns (roughly current). Death rate due to smoking related lung cancer is 360 times higher than gun deaths.
So can anyone tell me why the rights of smokers are different to the rights of gun owners? To put the stats in perspective. Gun deaths in the US where they are relatively freely available is around 3.98 per 100,000.
Nobody would condone going back to widespread gun crime but perhaps it is a simple logical step to say that the rights of people to smoke are no different to the right of gun ownership. Guns kill, cigarettes kill. Isn't it about time we stopped mucking around and just ban smoking.
Why would anyone want to allow the public general access to something that will increase deaths? We can look at the statistics before gun's were restricted. It is important to note that the government and the majority of people in this country would claim that the rights of the individual gun owner are overridden by the good of society.
So let's look at the stats.
One set of stats shows that deaths were at the rate of 54 per 100,000 population. On top of that there were significant numbers of injuries from gun ownership which were not recorded accurately and so have no exact quotable statistics.
You have to agree that deaths at those rates is unacceptable. As society was fed up of the high loss of life we saw gun control take hold. The arms companies claimed that guns were not the cause of death and that gun owners had the right to ownership and usage of arms.
I have to agree with history. Why would government not put in place arms controls to curb the death rates.
But I have not been quite straight forward. The logic of gun control and essentially banning general usage of guns without good reason has cut gun deaths down to 0.15 per 100,000 in 2002. Success?
Well the other reason I have not been clear is that the statistic of 54 per 100,000 of population is not the death rate by guns but the current death rate by lung cancer caused by smoking. The 0.15 IS the death rate by guns (roughly current). Death rate due to smoking related lung cancer is 360 times higher than gun deaths.
So can anyone tell me why the rights of smokers are different to the rights of gun owners? To put the stats in perspective. Gun deaths in the US where they are relatively freely available is around 3.98 per 100,000.
Nobody would condone going back to widespread gun crime but perhaps it is a simple logical step to say that the rights of people to smoke are no different to the right of gun ownership. Guns kill, cigarettes kill. Isn't it about time we stopped mucking around and just ban smoking.
posted by So long and thanks for all the fish at
8:02 pm
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