Amplifying Fred's point below, murder rates in the United States reflect
very intense pockets. For example, the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows that
Washington, DC, had a 1998 murder rate of 50 per 100,000 (down from recent
years), compared to the U.S. rate of 8.4 reported by Girard below.
Meanwhile, South Dakota had a 1998 murder rate of 1.4 per 100,000, lower
than the rate of 1.97 reported below for the United Kingdom.
One might speculate that the frequency of gun ownership in South Dakota is
much higher than in the United Kingdom. Further, at first blush, it seems
unlikely that frequency of gun ownership could explain the intense pockets
of murder that account for so much of the U.S. total.
The crime data are available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/datast.htm
Walt
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Foldvary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 8:54 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: More Guns, Less Crime?
On Fri, 19 Jan 2001, Girard wrote:
> Why not look at the statistics? Here are some :
> Percent of households with a handgun:
> United States 29%
> United Kingdom 1
>
> Murders committed with handguns annually:
> United States 8,915
> United Kingdom 7
>
> Murder rate (per 100,000 people):
> United States 8.40
> United Kingdom 1.97
>
> Who needs long dissertations to prove that guns kill?
Nothing is proved. This is post-hoc ergo propter-hoc.
Culture is a key variable here. Given the culture, the freedom to defend
oneself may well be correlated with lower crime rates. Vermont in the US
has the most liberty in self-defense and low crime rates relative to other
states.
Fred Foldvary
