Changes in gun ownership and firearm deaths in Australia

"Stephen Heyer" writes:

When confronted with the fact that "In the last 16 years the number of guns
owned in Australia has quadrupled. The number of firearm deaths have
dropped by 46% in that period and guns are being used less in crime."

What bothers me is that this bogus "fact" has been repeated several
times and nobody has noticed how wildly incorrect it is.

I looked in the reference you cite: "How Firearm Crime is Declining"

It claims that the number of firearms owned in Australia has increased
from about 2.5 million to about 4 million (Graph 1). I do not believe
that "quadrupled" is the appropriate way to describe this increase.

In any case, the number of guns around is not a measure of the rate of
lawful gun ownership. As far as gun ownership rates go this appears
to have declined along with the firearm homicide rate. According to
the 1975 General Social Survey 25% of Australian households possessed
firearms, while the 1989 International Crime Survey got a figure of
20%. It doesn't necessarily follow that the decline in gun ownership
caused the decline in gun homicides, put it's certainly possible.

With the exception of the most psychopathic, people automatically adjust
their level of force so that they achieve their desired outcome with
whatever means they use. If they do not intend to kill, and are using a
gun, then they will be careful not to kill with the gun. If they intend to
kill, and only have a knife, they will just try a bit harder.

Really? So how come assaults with large calibre guns have larger
fatality rates than with assaults with small calibre guns? Are you
seriously suggesting that someone who shoots someone with a 22
believes that it has no chance of killing?

Tags

More like this

Mark Addinall writes: Tim Lambert writes: I looked in the reference you cite: "How Firearm Crime is Declining" It claims that the number of firearms owned in Australia has increased from about 2.5 million to about 4 million (Graph 1). I do not believe that "quadrupled" is the appropriate way to…
Canada. Gun law in 78. Homicide rate (per 100,000 population) 74-78 2.7 3.1 2.9 3.0 2.8 average 2.9 79-83 2.7 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.7 average 2.6 (a t test on the statistical significance of the difference of the means gives p=.01) Thomas Grant Edwards said: From "Gun Control and Rates of Firearm…
Wright & Rossi's survey of criminals showed that the main reason why criminals carry guns is self-defence, so a large number of the 500,000 gun assaults may be illegal self-defence uses. Rick Bressler said: I have a problem with confusing an assault with a defense. The two are mutually…
bob (really Edgar Suter?) writes: From an early DRAFT of Gary Kleck's TARGETING GUNS : FIREARMS AND THEIR CONTROL scheduled to be published this month: The Medical/Public Health Literature on Guns and Violence False Citation of Prior Research One final problem in the medical/public health…