Why Does the US Lead First World Countries in Gun Deaths?

Question

Look at Great Britain, Japan and other first world countries, what gives?

Leroy, please your skewed statistics are killing me!! I said first world countries.

Answer 1

Because of guns? Because Americans are so arrogant they like to believe that they can handle everything.. no problem everyone should have a gun.

You know they never do answer the question of why other countries can get along without every other person having a gun and yet they feel the need too. Talk about us being paranoid.

Answer 2

In my personal opinion, on a subject that I have done a great deal of quantitative research, it has more to do with our extreme individualism that it does weapons. People always ask this question, and they ask what makes us so different from our European counter parts.... the answer in my view--if you look at survey data about public attitudes in different countries--is that we place a high degree of value on individualism com paired to other modernized countries.

In some surveys, you can see quite clearly where people place their values, most countries value the "State" or society as a whole, or their community.........In the United States, we value ourselves and individual freedom. In other words, we value others less, and place a great deal of importance on competition...........At least that is what the research suggests.

I think when you couple those who are unsuccessful within our system (or who cannot be successful be any acceptable means) with readily available weapons, you get school shoots and high murder rates....... Unfortunately, most research in this area is done for the purpose of marketing and is not geared to easy access. I hope to find more data on school level social pressures in the US versus other first world countries here in couple of weeks when I find time.

For Leroy above..... that is sort of my point, that it is a problem with society, more so than guns, but that the presence of guns likely increases the problem...... I doubt that VT would have happened if he used a combat knife instead.

OH, and be very careful with crime statistics, they are inherently difficult to make meaningful data with.

Answer 3

OK, let's try to get some facts here instead of just politicizing. I'm sure that no one here thinks that what happened at Virginia Tech was a good thing, whatever their views on gun control.

http://guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvintl.html says the U.S. is first in gun ownership (39%) and first in per capita gun suicide, 6th in gun homicide, but 13th per capita in violent deaths. Leroykbrown cites a more recent study, but the study has sample years all over the place, from 1990 thru 2005. To compare apples to apples, it makes sense for the time spread to not be so extreme.

http://guncite.com/cnngunde.html cites the U.S. as #1 in gun deaths per capita. This appears to use dates similar to the study above. Therefore, at least one of these two studies is inaccurate, or they use different definitions to measure things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics is Wikipedia's take on the subject

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st176/s176c.html says that local bans in the U.S. make things works, and backs it up with statistics. It suggests that the law-abiders comply and the other folk don't.

Answer 4

Just to confirm the accuracy of your question I found the following data....

1. South Africa
2. Colombia
3. Estonia
4. Brazil
5. Mexico
6. Philippines
7. Taiwan
8. N. Ireland
9. USA
10. Argentina
15. Israel
16. Italy
18. Canada
20. Australia
25. England/Wales
28. Denmark
30. Germany
37. Japan
38. Ireland

Answer 5

Botton line, as long as paranoid rednecks possess guns in this country we will continue to see gun deaths spiral out of control.

Funny enough there are as many guns per capita in Canada, but not as many deaths. I think it has to do with paranoia more than anything.

Answer 6

In US there are more gun than in any country in this world. Even more than some African countries which have armed-conflicts.

Answer 7

Because people in America lack parental guidance in their youth. Just grow up and be responsible!
Do you want a nice strong TYRANT to give you the guidance you need to MAKE you behave, or would you prefer the ability to handle your security for yourself?

Answer 8

I agree.Someone should stop these guns.Yesterday a GUN walked onto VT and started killing people.Guns are bad.Bad gun.I wish someone would stop these mindless guns from killing people.I have a novel idea.Lets ban these guns from campuses.

Answer 9

Because the figure you are being spoon-fed and greedily ingesting includes suicides and legitimate shootings in self defense, even for police officers.

Edit: I sensed your whine...If I wanted to kill myself, a lack of a gun wouldn't even slow me down. 5 gallons of gas in a can on the passenger seat of my pickup at 120 mph headed for a bridge support might do it, you think?

Answer 10

What gives? I have read about increasing crime rates in Great Britain, and wasn't the Japanese Transportation Minister just severly wounded in an assassination attempt? How do you explain that.