re gun control was re we re mad as hell at the tv news in article c u x fw magpie linknet com manes magpie linknet com steve manes writes i don t know how anyone can state that gun control could have no effect on homicide rates i don t think anyone is arguing that there would be no effect but there would be no net positive effect you also have to consider the negative side law abiding citizens armed with fireamrs pistols for the most part prevent between national crime survey and dr kleck crimes each year those are the extremes most studies find the number to be to about of those crimes are homicides so private ownership of firearms saves approximately lives each year there are roughly criminal homicides and fatal accidents involving guns each year for there to be any net benefit you would have to show that gun control measures would disarm over of the criminals currently using guns that would be very hard to do according the the federal batf only of criminals buy their guns over the counter since gun control laws by their very nature only effect legal sales such a law would remove all the benefits of armed law abiding citizens while having only a minimal effect on armed criminals who by and large get their guns illegally that doesn t sound like a net benefit to me there were over accidental handgun homicides in america in most with licensed weapons since most were with licensed weapons i assume you are not supporting reasonable laws i e waiting periods background checks licenses etc since only a complete ban would alter the statistic you refer to i assume that s what you are supporting by the way people dies in from falling down stairs accidental handgun deaths isn t significant next to other household accidents more american children accidentally shot other children last year than all the handgun homicides in great britain children under the age of died by drowning from drinking poisonous household chemicals like drano from falls if the real goal is to reduce the tragic accidental deaths of children wouldn t a ban on drain cleaners be a better palce to start or perhaps restricting ownership to professionals like plumbers please no dictionary arguments about rates vs total numbers okay they re offered for emphasis not comparison while you might call it emphasis refering to completely two statistics in the same sentence implies a comparison if it isn t valid and you put the numbers together to convince people you are right the kindest thing i could call it is propaganda frank crary cu boulder
