A couple of points about the data that no one has mentioned yet:
1) In the U.S. half again as many people commit or attempt suicide by gun as commit or attempt homicide. Put another way, you are more likely to kill yourself with a gun than you are to get killed by someone else. Of course, in Canada you are 5 times as likely, and in Switzerland
10 times as likely. Yes, I realize that this is only the most primitive sort of reading, but the numbers really jumped out at me as something I didn't expect.
2) Switzerland's numbers are very interesting (and Canada's as well, but less extreme) in that their rate of suicide by gun is nearly as high as ours while their rate of homicide is 1/8 of ours. That says something about culture vs. access to firearms.
3) I hate to be that guy, and I'm not saying this changes anything, but the most recent statistic shown is 7-8 years old. Just saying so no one else has to...
I'm sure that (in the U.S. at least) a more detailed breakout would be even more illuminating. I'd be willing to bet that rural vs. urban, geographic region, age, and economic strata would produce some very unbalanced numbers. I'd be curious to see how those things work out, just as a point of interest.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Homicide/Suicide/Unintentional
USA 4.08 (1999)/6.08 (1999)/0.42 (1999)
Canada 0.54 (1999)/2.65 (1997)/0.15 (1997)
Switzerland 0.50 (1999)/5.78 (1998)/-
Scotland 0.12 (1999)/0.27 (1999)/-
England/Wales 0.12 (1999/00)/0.22 (1999)/0.01 (1999)
Japan 0.04* (1998)/0.04 (1995)/<0.01 (1997)
* Homicide & attempted homicide by handgun
Data collected by Philip Alpers, Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and HELP Network
Arguments for loosening gun control so everyone has the capacity to return fire?!  The Wild West was over with nearly 120 years ago.
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