would you support a constitutional amendment to ban handguns?

[CARLHAYDEN]

Speaking of suicide, in Japan the suicide rate is more than double what it is here. http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/
In fact their combined rate of suicide and homicide is also higher than ours. In Japan handguns are outlawed and that fact is frequently cited as the reason for Japan's low homicide rate. So how come they have such a high suicide rate?

Cultural differences, one of the many reasons why it's very difficult to make valid comparisons internationally when it comes to guns and various other issues.

Well I'm tempted to say the Japanese are committing suicide because they are so depressed over the lack of guns. But actually I think your assessment is exactly correct, cultural differences. But no one ever considers that as a possible explanation for their low murder rate.

Canada a murder rate per capita that is almost a third of America's, and I don't particularly see all that many cultural differences between those two countries.

A random fact that I noticed while thinking about the suicide rates mentioned is that Canada has slightly higher suicide rates than America in every age group except those above age 65, at which point American suicide rates go way up, easily passing Canada's rates.  I don't really know how to explain that one.

Also, another interesting fact is that Americans are subject to 68% more burglaries per capita than Canadians, but 78% of Americans feel that they are not at a high risk of burglary, compared to only 66% of Canadians who feel the same way.  I guess this goes to show that guns make people think they're safer...

You really must be ignorant.

Sometime look at the murder rate among the various racial groups in the United States, then use the racial percentages of Canada.  If the United States had the same racial percentages as Canada, we would have a murder rate of about the same (look at the murder rates in the Dakotas for example)

[CARLHAYDEN]

You really must be ignorant.

Sometime look at the murder rate among the various racial groups in the United States, then use the racial percentages of Canada.  If the United States had the same racial percentages as Canada, we would have a murder rate of about the same (look at the murder rates in the Dakotas for example)

Here is the racial breakdown of Seattle:

White 73.49%
Asian 13.12%
Black 8.44%
Native American 1.00%
Pacific Islander 0.50%
Other 2.38%
Multiple 4.46%

Here is the racial breakdown of Toronto:

White 57.2%
Asian 29.0%
    Chinese 10.6%
    South Asian 10.3%
    Filipino 3.5%
    West Asian 1.5%
    Southeast Asian 1.4%
    Korean 1.2%
    Japanese 0.5%
Black 8.3%
Hispanic 2.2%
Arab 0.9%
Other 1.5%

They look pretty similar, right?  Toronto just has more Asians.  So this would likely give Toronto a similar homicide rate to Seattle, right?

HOMICIDE RATE PER 100,000
Seattle - 5.9
Toronto - 1.8

Whoops.

Whoops is right.

You played a number of games with your demographic data.

First what percentage of Seattle's population is "hispanic"?  You furnished the data for Toronto but omitted it for Seattle.  I wonder why?

Second, murder rates among asians groups are lower than among white groups, and curiously Toronto has a higher percentage of asian groups than Seattle.

Three, just as you have a MOE in political surveys, so you have statistically insignificant variations as total populations decrease.  If you were to compare California with Canada you would get a more accurate view.