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From: sharp@kpnoa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Guns, deaths and DATA
Message-ID: <360@kpnoa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 15:36:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: kpnoa.360
Posted: Thu Aug  2 15:36:11 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 03:39:35 EDT
Organization: Natl. Optical Astronomy Observatories   Tucson AZ  USA
Lines: 63

Why is it that so many people involved in this USELESS round of gun
arguments, which comes up regularly and NEVER EVER changes anyone's mind,
abide by the "I don't know, but I expect .. " form of 'statistics' ??
It's really not difficult to find out FACTS, and I am obviously being
very idealistic in expecting this to change anything, but I offer the
following for consideration.
Because I am using the numbers here in my office, they are for 1974: I have
not made the walk to the library to get more recent ones because, frankly,
I doubt that it's worth the effort.

                      USA  Canada   UK  Australia France West Ireland Spain
                                                        Germany
Causes of death
(% of total deaths)
  Neoplasms/cancer    18.9   20.4   20.8   17.4   21.7   21.4   17.6   17.3
Diseases of:
  Circulatory sys.    53.2   49.3   51.9   54.0   37.9   46.4   50.8   44.2
  Respiratory sys.     5.6    6.5   13.3    7.6    6.6    5.9   13.1   11.9
  Digestive sys.       3.8    3.7    2.5    2.6    6.2    5.6    2.2    5.5
Ill-defined conditions 1.6    0.9    0.6    0.8    8.0    3.8    1.6    5.6
Accidents, poisoning
 and violence          8.1   10.1    3.9    7.7    8.9    6.6    5.1    5.1

OK, now lets look at the accidents in more detail.
No. of accidental deaths per 100000 deaths caused by:
 motor vehicle        2399   3792   1126   3294   2139   1958   1609   1609
 poisoning             286    417    142    114    120     66    115    115
 falls                 845   1098    957   1033   2494   1626   1397    919
 firearms              130     73      7     53     23      7     31     24
 industrial            289    529    125    292     99    175    283    200

There are a few other categories, but that will do for now.  There are also
figures for other countries available (lowest firearms figure I have available
is "2", for Denmark: Switzerland is "13").  Source: World Health Organization.

Let's try something else.  Crime rate figures are difficult to intercompare,
because different countries use different methods, but ...

Murders and attempted murders known to the police, per 100000 population:
 USA, 9.6 | Canada, 3.4 | UK (excluding N.Ireland), 2.4 | Australia, 2.7 |
 France, 2.7 | W.Germany, 4.5 | Ireland, 0.03 | Spain, 0.7
[For sex offenses, the numbers are 26.3, 55.0, 49.7, 90.8, 26.2, 77.5, 8.7
and 12.2, respectively.  Make of this what you will.]
Source: Interpol/FBI

You might also like to know that the US has the highest percentage figures for
a) people who suffered burglary or attempted burglary
b) people who have had property stolen
with Australia 2nd, Canada 3rd (well down), but that all three countries have
about the same rate for people who have been physically assaulted, with the US
actually slightly below the other two.
Source: Gallup International affiliated institutes
It is also sad to note that in the same poll (1974-75), more than a third of
those questioned said they were afraid of areas within 20 minutes walk of
their own front door.

I have moved off the question somewhat, but because people are different in
different countries (as pointed out by various participants in the 'raving'
[it's not a debate]), I thought some other comparisons would help.

Yours, in the interests of information and knowledgeable discussion,
-- 
	Nigel Sharp   [noao!sharp  National Optical Astronomy Observatories]