[geeks] [rescue] Guns - what are they good for? - was Re: TME and Apple II and other Drive emulator questions.

[Phil Stracchino]

On 05/21/14 02:36, Jonathan Groll wrote:
> Every reliable source that I can find shows the US has more guns per capita
> than any other nation on earth.

As I already pointed out, from the violent crime perspective that's the
wrong question.  The key statistic there is not *guns* per 100,000
population, it's gun *owners* per 100,000 population.  Very, very few
gun collectors are criminals.  If I own 27 firearms, and I murder my
neighbor in a fit of jealous rage, I don't carefully make sure to shoot
him once with each.  Nor am I 27 times more likely to murder him because
I own 27 firearms.

It's not an unclear answer.  It's just answering the wrong question.

However, if you WANT to work with that answer, do a statistical
experiment for which it's actually meaningful.  Divide the murder rate
by the gun ownership rate to derive a likelihood of any specific gun
being used as a murder weapon in a given year.  You will find that the
US compares *VERY* favorably with most of Europe; in fact, in some
European nations, a randomly chosen gun is more than 20 times as likely
to be used as a murder weapon in a given year than a random gun in the US.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino
  Babylon Communications
  phils at caerllewys.net
  phil at co.ordinate.org
  Landline: 603.293.8485