December 9, 201510 yr Author This may not be what you want but here is my take: Common sense to me says _ The more guns the more gun killings and gun violence, however you define it, there will be The more unprotected sex taking place the more babies being born. The more cars there are the more traffic accidents there will be. The more smoking you do the greater chance of dying of lung cancer. The more gambling you do the more money you will lose. Some of these are controlled some not. Results are still the same. You will not stop gun deaths by controlling it or giving people more guns. You will lessen them by controlling but not stop them. You will increase gun violence with more people having guns. Just common sense to me. So essentially the more guns I have, I am more likely to be shot by one? Whether I am proficient with one or not?
December 9, 201510 yr Short answer for Kentucky is that Kentucky is near the very low end of the Violent Crime Spectrum...Kentucky is Ranked 47th in Violent Crime per 100,000 at 198.8 per year. By Comparison... Ohio 32nd 275.5 Indiana 23rd 349.9 Tennessee 5th 579.7 Illinois 21st 372.5 Compared to our surrounding neighbors Kentucky is by far the safest place to be to avoid violent crime. Kentucky Violent Crime Offenses Do Kentucky and Tennessee have remarkably different gun laws?
December 9, 201510 yr I don't think it would stop it all together either. All I'm asking is that if the availability of guns is correlated with the rate of suicides why would we not also consider that a problem? Maybe, but I don't think it's as easy as that correlation.
December 9, 201510 yr Do Kentucky and Tennessee have remarkably different gun laws? Not that I know of, very similar.
December 9, 201510 yr So essentially the more guns I have, I am more likely to be shot by one? Whether I am proficient with one or not? That is not what I said. Whether you have 50 guns or not you are more likely to be shot the more guns there are. Just common sense.
December 9, 201510 yr Author I don't think it would stop it all together either. All I'm asking is that if the availability of guns is correlated with the rate of suicides why would we not also consider that a problem? So now we need less guns so people that want to kill themselves have to work a little harder to do it? I'm sorry that I'm being insensitive, but geeze man. If someone wants to kill themselves they will do it, with or without a gun.
December 9, 201510 yr Do Kentucky and Tennessee have remarkably different gun laws? From the time that I've spent in Tennessee the Rural Areas seem more lawless and unconnected to the rest of the world and the Metro areas are as violent as most metro areas in the country. Memphis, Knoxville and Nashville have some real life crime problems...worse than we see in Lexington and Louisville.
December 9, 201510 yr Author That is not what I said. Whether you have 50 guns or not you are more likely to be shot the more guns there are. Just common sense. Thats not common sense at all, IMO.
December 9, 201510 yr So now we need less guns so people that want to kill themselves have to work a little harder to do it? I'm sorry that I'm being insensitive, but geeze man. If someone wants to kill themselves they will do it, with or without a gun. I'm not looking at any numbers to find out if there is or isn't a correlation (I suspect there is, but I won't claim that without evidence). But if there is a correlation (more guns = more suicides) then your conclusion that "if someone wants to kill themselves they will do it" would be incorrect.
December 9, 201510 yr I'm not looking at any numbers to find out if there is or isn't a correlation (I suspect there is, but I won't claim that without evidence). But if there is a correlation (more guns = more suicides) then your conclusion that "if someone wants to kill themselves they will do it" would be incorrect. Texas suicide rate is ranked 42nd...there are plenty of guns in Texas Mississippi, Ohio, No Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, Nebraska and Maryland all rank 30th or lower in suicide rates and they are all gun friendly states.
December 9, 201510 yr Author I'm not looking at any numbers to find out if there is or isn't a correlation (I suspect there is, but I won't claim that without evidence). But if there is a correlation (more guns = more suicides) then your conclusion that "if someone wants to kill themselves they will do it" would be incorrect. How come? Are they not intelligent enough to find another way? I've seen a car drive into a concrete retaining wall at 80+ mph. Ive seen someone jump off a bridge. All inn the Ashland area. What makes you think someone determined to kill themself would just give up and say "its not happening today" if they can't get their hands on a gun?
December 9, 201510 yr How come? Are they not intelligent enough to find another way? I've seen a car drive into a concrete retaining wall at 80+ mph. Ive seen someone jump off a bridge. All inn the Ashland area. What makes you think someone determined to kill themself would just give up and say "its not happening today" if they can't get their hands on a gun? I'm not saying there aren't other ways to kill yourself. I'm saying that if there is a correlation between the number of guns and the number of suicides then it would show that people are less likely to kill themselves when they don't have easy access to a gun. That would indicate that some people who are suicidal won't do it if it's not easy enough. And to me that would be important.
December 9, 201510 yr How come? Are they not intelligent enough to find another way? I've seen a car drive into a concrete retaining wall at 80+ mph. Ive seen someone jump off a bridge. All inn the Ashland area. What makes you think someone determined to kill themself would just give up and say "its not happening today" if they can't get their hands on a gun? My guess is people who are down that far use the easiest method. If that is a gun then they use it. I doubt they worry about how bad it's making guns look.
December 9, 201510 yr Texas suicide rate is ranked 42nd...there are plenty of guns in Texas Mississippi, Ohio, No Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, Nebraska and Maryland all rank 30th or lower in suicide rates and they are all gun friendly states. I also see New York, New Jersey, Mass, Illinois, and California in the bottom 10. The problem is this discussion is never going to go anywhere unless we have better raw data to work with on gun violence (especially if we want to disaggregate suicides and accidents from homicides) and from what I gather it's not readily available.
December 9, 201510 yr Author I'm not saying there aren't other ways to kill yourself. I'm saying that if there is a correlation between the number of guns and the number of suicides then it would show that people are less likely to kill themselves when they don't have easy access to a gun. That would indicate that some people who are suicidal won't do it if it's not easy enough. And to me that would be important. Now your really reaching. Take all the guns away in the world and its not going to stop people from commiting suicide. A car is as dangerous of a weapon as a gun, potentially more dangerous. Maybe we should limit the purchase of cars too. I get it, you hate guns. That's fine, you don't ever have to touch one if you don't want to. However I'd like to keep mine.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.