Often times when gun rights activists get confronted by gun-control advocates, they respond with something like this:
"Well, people die in car accidents every year too. What are we going to do, take away cars from people? I bet you more people die by way of car accident than by gunfire ever year. Maybe we should worry more about making driving safer with laws than making guns safer."
This argument is, of course, quite flawed. First off, many more laws and regulations are already in place to limit car accidents as much as possible - much more so than with regard to firearms. Secondly, many more people own cars and drive them than own and shoot guns in this country. So, even without going into numbers, that argument doesn't hold much, if any, merit.
Even if we take the gun rights activists' argument seriously, however, a new study shows that their assumption isn't 100% accurate. A new Violence Police Center (VPC) study shows that while vehicle-related deaths have been on the decline in this country, gun-related deaths have held rather steady, and in 2011, gun-related deaths actually exceeded vehicle-related deaths in 14 states (and D.C.), including: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. In these 14 states (and D.C.), the motor vehicle death rate per 100,000 was 10.25, while the gun death rate per 100,000 was 12.30.
Not only that, but with all the laws and regulations put into place with regard to motor vehicles and the lack of them in many states with regard to firearms, the overall numbers with regard to deaths from both sources are inching closer together. In 1999, there were approximately 43,000 motor vehicle deaths and 29,000 firearm deaths. In 2011, there were about 36,000 motor vehicle deaths and 33,000 firearm deaths.
So, yeah, going back to that initial argument made by gun rights activists, perhaps it's time to think up a new one...
http://www.vpc.org/studies/gunsvscars14.pdf
"Well, people die in car accidents every year too. What are we going to do, take away cars from people? I bet you more people die by way of car accident than by gunfire ever year. Maybe we should worry more about making driving safer with laws than making guns safer."
This argument is, of course, quite flawed. First off, many more laws and regulations are already in place to limit car accidents as much as possible - much more so than with regard to firearms. Secondly, many more people own cars and drive them than own and shoot guns in this country. So, even without going into numbers, that argument doesn't hold much, if any, merit.
Even if we take the gun rights activists' argument seriously, however, a new study shows that their assumption isn't 100% accurate. A new Violence Police Center (VPC) study shows that while vehicle-related deaths have been on the decline in this country, gun-related deaths have held rather steady, and in 2011, gun-related deaths actually exceeded vehicle-related deaths in 14 states (and D.C.), including: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. In these 14 states (and D.C.), the motor vehicle death rate per 100,000 was 10.25, while the gun death rate per 100,000 was 12.30.
Not only that, but with all the laws and regulations put into place with regard to motor vehicles and the lack of them in many states with regard to firearms, the overall numbers with regard to deaths from both sources are inching closer together. In 1999, there were approximately 43,000 motor vehicle deaths and 29,000 firearm deaths. In 2011, there were about 36,000 motor vehicle deaths and 33,000 firearm deaths.
So, yeah, going back to that initial argument made by gun rights activists, perhaps it's time to think up a new one...
http://www.vpc.org/studies/gunsvscars14.pdf
Boy tell me about it. I just today wrote a post that was partially about gun control, and a gun advocate has already popped up with the "ban cars too" argument in the comments.
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