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Why Are Americans So Obsessed With Guns?

posted by on Monday January 09 2017, @08:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the second-amendment dept.

mrpg writes:

The love of guns in the United States has been well documented, as have multiple mass shootings across the country such as those in Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, and Virginia. The ease of access to guns in American society comes at a shocking cost.

As of September 2016, almost 11,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence. Despite this high death toll, mass shootings in America show no sign of disappearing.

The Stateside obsession with guns can appear baffling to UK observers unfamiliar with its origins. So just how did this gun culture become so deep-rooted in the American psyche?

BBC source: Why Are Americans so Obsessed with Guns?

Wikipedia: Gun politics in the United States

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:40AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:40AM (#451983)

    Taking the big assumption that your figures are correct, and applying them only to the murder rates above, then :

    4,850,000 population 69% White 31% Black :
    3,346,500 White 1503500 Black

    20.05/100000 * 1503500 * .9 = 271 Black Kills Black
    20.05/100000 * 1503500 * .1 = 30 White Kills Black
    15.3/100000 * 3346500 *.15 = 77 Black kills White
    15.3/100000 * 3346500 * .85 = 435 White kills White

    465 White killers in total /pop 3346500 *100000
    348 Black killers in total / pop 1503500 *100000
    =
    Blacks are killers at 23 per 100000
    Whites are killers at 14 per 100000.

    Isn't playing with numbers fun? I wonder what those numbers become if you manage to exclude gun suicides.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:05PM (#452154)

    Blacks are killers at 23 per 100000
    Whites are killers at 14 per 100000.

    So, you're saying that, based upon your numbers, black-skinned people are 1.6 times as likely to murder someone as white-skinned people?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @06:25PM (#452165)

      Kill someone, not necessarily murder. Those figures include suicide and lawful kills too.