This message was self-deleted by its author

[billh58]

This message was self-deleted by its author (billh58) on Fri Mar 13, 2015, 04:38 AM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[Doctor_J]

1. But there's still the swimming pools and lighting strike and snake bites and

baseball bats and blow guns!!!11!!1

[BrotherIvan]

2. Don't blame inanimate objects!

It's not like they can kill people!

Did they get rid of suicide yet? Because it's all just suicide!

We have perfectly wonderful gun regulations right now!

Tyranny! I'm arming for the next Revolutionary War, Control Sissies!

But did they all get killed with a semi-auto shaped like a freeway offramp with a 2mm dohickey and a scope that sees rainbows? Because you can't ban that!!!!!!!

[russ1943]

3. Let's get current.

Last July VPC released a study “Gun Deaths Outpace Motor Vehicle Deaths in 14 States and the District of Columbia in 2011”.
The point being made is in a final statement “America is reaping the benefits of decades of successful injury prevention strategies on its highways, but continues to pay an unacceptable, yet equally preventable, cost in lives lost every year to gun violence”. This is the third year the VPC has issued its annual report comparing gun deaths to motor vehicle deaths by state.
A couple of days ago a poster in another gun related group noticed a post here on DU, probably this one http://www.democraticunderground.com/12627735 and decided to comment. Offering the gun enthusiasts perspective, noting among other things that the graph representing the number of firearm deaths (accurately showing the number of firearm deaths) “shows raw numbers, not rates. The slow increase in gun deaths is not adjusted for population growth; rates have actually been falling!”

A couple of points.
First, the VPC study referenced in these posts is from two and a half years ago Tuesday, May 22, 2012 for the years 1999 thru 2010. The most recent one from about 5 months ago is dated July 15, 2014, and covers the years 1999 thru 2011. https://www.vpc.org/press/1407cars.htm

2nd, & more importantly, to say “rates have actually been falling” re; VPC’s graph showing Firearms Deaths increasing, is more of a distortion than the image that graph presents. The (crude) rates have been steady. There has been so little change, variation in rate, as to be considered insignificant by any known standard. Keep in mind this other posters comment is not to correct anything or point out any error in VPC’s study (there aren’t any).
The gun enthusiast concluded with some advice; “Be careful what you read, be especially careful of your logical fallacies and always check what the variables are on a graph and where the origin point is.”
In general, I’d agree with that thought.

[billh58]

4. Thank you for arguing the

gun lobby's point-of-view on this issue, but the fact remains that gun deaths will soon out pace automobile accident deaths, regardless of which study you look at. The main reason is because of this statement from VPC's (and other astute observers') research:

"Firearms are the only consumer product in America not regulated by the federal government for health and safety. Meanwhile, motor vehicle deaths are on a steady decline, thanks to decades of public health-based injury prevention strategies and proven consumer product safety regulation standards designed to reduce death and injury.

Gun violence is a public health crisis with an unacceptable toll on human life,” states VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand. “To reduce gun death and injury, firearms must be regulated for health and safety just as we regulate motor vehicles and all other consumer products.”

“We didn’t put up with a free-for-all on our highways, and it’s time to end the gun violence free-for-all in our schools and neighborhoods,” states Sue Hornik, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence."

You can argue "statistics" and twist them anyway you like, and that is the Second Amendment Absolutists' preferred method of defending the needless deaths and injuries brought about by lax gun control regulation in this country, but you can't argue away the fact that the USA leads the civilized world in preventable gun-related violence and deaths.

[russ1943]

6. I've not taken the gun lobby's point of view.

The CDC published a paper in January of 1994……...21 years ago………………. predicting based on linear regression that firearm-related deaths will surpass deaths from motor vehicle-related injuries by the year ………………………..2003. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00023655.htm

[billh58]

7. I misunderstood your post

and I apologize.

[billh58]

5. I apologize for misinterpreting

your post as agreeing with the other side. Mea culpa. My response, however, stands as a defense of the studies by the VPC and other organizations which aim to reduce the gun violence epidemic in this country.

Cheers...

[jimmy the one]

8. little joke here

... gun deaths outpaced motor vehicle deaths in 10 states in 2009,

Is that counting getting shot while sitting or driving in a car?
.. drive by shootings? road rage?
... wouldn't they qualify as an intertwining 'both'?