Why not look at the statistics? Here are some :
Percent of households with a handgun:
United States 29%
Finland 7
Germany 7
Canada 5
Norway 4
Europe 4
Netherlands 2
United Kingdom 1
Murders committed with handguns annually:
United States 8,915
Switzerland 53
Sweden 19
Canada 8
United Kingdom 7
Murder rate (per 100,000 people):
United States 8.40
Canada 5.45
Denmark 5.17
Germany 4.20
Norway 1.99
United Kingdom 1.97
Sweden 1.73
Japan 1.20
Finland 0.70
Who needs long dissertations to prove that guns kill?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] a *crit :
>
> I hope I'm not starting a flame war here, but I just read an article in _The
> Economist_ that mentions the now-famous Lott and Mustard study of concealed
> carry laws and two subsequent studies whose conclusions disagree with it. After
> searching on the web, I was able to read the Lott and Mustard article and the
> Derzhbakhsh (?) and Rubin article. (The third one is a working paper that
> hasn't been published yet, so I could only find its abstract.)
>
> I'm having trouble deciphering the competing claims, and I was wondering if
> anyone on this list who doesn't have too strong an ideological or emotional
> investment in the debate (a naive hope?) might be able to enlighten me further
> on this issue.
>
> Many thanks,
> James
