Gallup: Americans in love with their guns

[Tender Branson]

Self-Reported Gun Ownership in U.S. Is Highest Since 1993

Majority of men, Republicans, and Southerners report having a gun in their households











http://www.gallup.com/poll/150353/Self-Reported-Gun-Ownership-Highest-1993.aspx

[Tender Branson]

Record-Low 26% in U.S. Favor Handgun Ban













http://www.gallup.com/poll/150341/Record-Low-Favor-Handgun-Ban.aspx

[Tender Branson]

That must be an older study.

If Austria had 4 intentional firearm deaths per 100.000 people, that would result in a total of 340 firearm deaths.

Yet in the last year, according to the Crime Report by the Interior Ministry, only 18 cases of homicides out of 162 involved firearms.

Out of 1260 suicides, 210 involved firearms.

In total, that's a rate of 2.7/100.000 people

[Tender Branson]

I just wanted to look up the FBI statistics regarding homicide offenders by sex and race.

The statistics are:

9,972 male
1,075 female
4,047 unknown

5,770 Black
4,849 White
4,224 Unknown
   251 Other

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl03.xls

...

WTF ?

How is it possible that you classify more than 4000 homicide offenders as "unknown" ?

I know there are transgender people, but they cannot account for 30% of the offenders ...

[Tender Branson]

Besides, if we talk about the fact that "White Americans" are more likely to be killers than their European counterparts, it's TRUE - if we go by simple facts:

According to the 2010 Census, there were 196,817,552 "White only" (not Hispanic) people in the US.

4,849 homicide offenders where "White only" (even without the ridiculously high number of "unknown")

That would lead to a homicide rate of 2.5 per 100.000 white American people.

...

On the other hand, even the country with the highest murder rate in Western Europe (Finland) isn't as homicidal as the White American men or the White American woman, especially if we factor in the "unknown". If we factor in the "unknown", the rate would probably rise to about 3 per 100.000 Whites.

See here:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=141987.msg3049112#msg3049112

[Tender Branson]

I've just calculated that Black Americans are about 6 times more likely to be killers than White Americans:

White Americans: 2.5/100.000
Black Americans: 15.3/100.000

Without the "unknown" category, out of which many are probably Hispanics.

The average for the EU-27 is 1.3/100.000, where mostly everybody is considered "white". I think almost all EU countries only differentiate between "native" and "foreign" homicide offenders. Maybe the UK or France, which have larger Black populations do differentiate between "White" and "Black" , but I´m not sure.

[Tender Branson]

I've just calculated that Black Americans are about 6 times more likely to be killers than White Americans:

White Americans: 2.5/100.000
Black Americans: 15.3/100.000

Without the "unknown" category, out of which many are probably Hispanics.

The average for the EU-27 is 1.3/100.000, where mostly everybody is considered "white". I think almost all EU countries only differentiate between "native" and "foreign" homicide offenders. Maybe the UK or France, which have larger Black populations do differentiate between "White" and "Black" , but I´m not sure.

Which means we should probably allow our police forces to crack down harshly on all Americans residing within the borders of the EU-27, and that we should introduce racial profiling. After all, even the white ones are twice as likely to commit a crime than normal Europeans.

Which brings us back to the original topic: If you would take away the guns from these White Americans, or impose gun laws as restrictive as in many European countries, the average White American would be about as murderous as the average White Western European. After all, 70% of all murders in the US are carried out with a handgun, contrary to only 10-20% in Western Europe.

[Tender Branson]

Ok, serious question. Does anyone have any theories about why gun sales have continued to increase? I remember in 2009 there was a huge spate of articles about how Obama's election contributed to the surge in gun sales... but since then, gun sales have only continued to increase despite a sharp drop in the Democrats' electoral fortunes. Examination of the NICS data suggests that gun sales began their upward ascent in late 2005/early 2006.

(Bible) crazy as a lot of Americans are, Bgwah is most likely correct:

Americans are preparing for the coming apocalypse!

[Tender Branson]

Can we explain Switzerland? I know the government gives people guns, but how do they keep crime rates so low?

It should be noted that Switzerland's intentional firearm death rate is not the 6/100.000 anymore like it is pictured here, but only 3/100.000 in the year 2008.

http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/14/02/04/key/01.html

259 gun-deaths took place in Switzerland in 2008, of which 239 were gun-suicides and 20 were gun-homicides.

20% of suicides in Switzerland are comitted with a gun, 5% in Germany and 55% in the US.