- #1
Loren Booda
- 3,125
- 4
Are legal gun owners more violent than the general population?
drankin said:I would venture that those who legally own guns are no more or less violent than those who do not.
kasse said:I would bet they are! What's the chance they are exactly the same violent?
It would seem to stand to reason that the fearful would prefer to avoid violence. You would think that a violent person would get much more satisfaction out of beating someone up with a baseball bat than simply shooting them. Do wife beaters often shoot their wives? People who beat their children tend to shoot them? Rapists often shoot their victims? I'm pretty sure the answer to those questions are all no. Violent people do not seem to prefer guns. People worried about violence seem to be the ones who tend to own guns.Kasse said:More fearful people are more likely to perceive something as a threat (real or imagined), and it stands to reason that they may be more likely to act on their perception of a threat by using force.
Sypher said:And another thing is that every terrorist has an AK-47 in their taxi so how are we to defend ourselves and families without a weapon.
cristo said:I wonder whether anyone will even try and post some statistics in this thread, or are all comments on this topic just going to be anecdotal?
Like any good statistician would. You make it up. 26% sounds good to me.Cyrus said:I would bet none of you have any data to support either proposition.
whitay said:Like any good statistician would. You make it up. 26% sounds good to me.
TheStatutoryApe said:People worried about violence seem to be the ones who tend to own guns.
KingNothing said:Yes.
negitron said:Evidence?
KingNothing said:No.
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Just for the record, here are the statistics we should take with a grain of salt. As you say, these are from a poll and are highly suspicious.turbo-1 said:In fact, Maine is probably one of the most heavily-armed states in the union - mostly because of the hunting traditions. Lots of guns around here wouldn't be counted in polls, and guns aren't required to be registered here, so statistics on gun-ownership here should be taken with a grain of salt.
Chi Meson said:I'm worried more about shoe owners. They seem to be behind almost every crime, from white-collar embezzlement to candy-store misdemeanors.
jimmysnyder said:Just for the record, here are the statistics we should take with a grain of salt. As you say, these are from a poll and are highly suspicious.
jimmysnyder said:The District of Columbia had fewer weapons per capita than any state. Probably DC has a higher percentage of city dwellers than any state and that may be a factor.
The poll had nothing to do with violence, just gun ownership. I posted it in response to turbo-1's assertion about the level of ownership in the State of Maine.CRGreathouse said:Worse than that, they don't give any indication of the direction of causation.
Well, would you tell someone who claims to be a pollster whether or not you have a gun? Absent legal requirements for registration, it's going to be pretty tough to get good numbers on per-capita ownership. Until I sold my collection of Winchester lever-actions to buy some camera gear, I balanced out at least 3 dozen "No" responses, and I'm still skewing the average pretty heavily. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if guns outnumber people in this county. In the southern counties (York, Cumberland, etc) that are more urban I would expect a lot fewer deer-rifles, shotguns, etc per capita. Varying the areas from which the poll samples were drawn could skew the results greatly.jimmysnyder said:Just for the record, here are the statistics we should take with a grain of salt. As you say, these are from a poll and are highly suspicious.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/health/interactives/guns/ownership.html"
I took the liberty of sorting the table by ownership and found Maine to be 24th among the 50 states making it one of the most heavily-armed, as you say. Pass the salt though. I see my beloved NJ as 49th out of 50 which also makes it one of the most heavily-armed, but just by a hair. At 50th, Hawaii is one of the least heavily armed (as are Maine and NJ). I had the impression that there were more guns in Newark than in the whole freedom-loving midwest put together. The District of Columbia had fewer weapons per capita than any state. Probably DC has a higher percentage of city dwellers than any state and that may be a factor.
jimmysnyder said:The poll had nothing to do with violence, just gun ownership. I posted it in response to turbo-1's assertion about the level of ownership in the State of Maine.
KingNothing said:To be fair, the original question did not ask about causation. It only asked about correlation.