GrumpyRabbit on Nostr: Guns are FAR from the major cause of death in the United States: The per-capita rate ...

Guns are FAR from the major cause of death in the United States:

The per-capita rate of death by vehicular accident in the United States is roughly DOUBLE that of the per-capita rate of death by firearms--and that INCLUDES suicides.

Iatracide (death by medical treatment errors) is harder to measure, but even the most minimal stats have it as somewhat higher than the per-capita rate of death by firearms.

Those are only two examples of many. So, if you claim that gun-related deaths justify, or ethically require, broad and deep restrictions on the private possession of firearms, but ignore all the other causes of death, then that proves that you are not sincere at all, just firearm-phobic.

Here are the core logical fallacies of the anti-gun narrative:

Violent crimes don't happen because people have guns. People acquire guns--when and if they are able (they may not be)--because violent crimes are happening where they live and work.

Laws that impose prohibitions just make things worse, as history has proven repeatedly and emphatically. At best, prohibition laws have no effect. That's why it's so easy to buy marijuana or cocaine. _Even in high security prisons!_ And that's why outlawing guns totally won't work, no matter how many centuries go by while we wait for the supply of guns to diminish to zero. That's why the effects of the United Kingdom's comprehensive restrictions on the possession of firearms—imposed following the Dunblane school shooting—had no measurable, positive effect on the all-cause homicide rate.

The common claim is that 'the US is the most violent country in the world,' or that 'the murder rate in the US is higher than just about anywhere else because of the prevalence of guns.' Such claims are false:

Firearm Ownership Density: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

Yes, the US has the highest firearm ownership density. However, it's homicide rate (4.1 per 100k in 2025, according to the FBI) is far lower than the worldwide average (which may be as low as 7 per 100k, but is higher according to most of the studies.) More importantly, other nations with relatively high firearm ownership densities have far lower murder rates than does the US — and that’s true irrespective of the strictness of their gun laws.

Mexico, for example, forbids bearing firearms outside the owner's home and has a firearm ownership density 7 times lower than that of the US (12.9 per 100k versus 120.5 per 100k,) but it's murder rate (25.638 per 100k) is _6 times higher_ than the US (4.1 per 100k.) The number of firearm-homicides per 100k gun owners in the US is no higher than 20, whereas the number of firearm-homicides per 100k gun owners in Mexico is no less than 110, which is more than 5 times higher than the rate of homicides per gun owner in the US. That alone falsifies the claim that the density of gun ownership is the problem, or that very strict gun laws solve the problem.