European Rates of Mass-Murders are not much better than America's

[tuoder]

Gun Control and Mass Murders - John R. Lott Jr. - National Review Online

I don’t have exactly comparable data for Europe; however, the data I have been able to collect for the nine and a half years from 2001 through now indicate that on average some 12.5 people per year have died in such attacks. To be sure, Western Europe has a lower per capita rate, since its population over the last decade has been about 48 percent larger than the U.S. population over the earlier period (about 387 million to 262 million). Still, the fact that there are such attacks at all belies the conventional wisdom.

In places where guns laws are much more restrictive, rates of mass murders are not much less common. I see it this way: A mass murder is a scary way to die. But it's not a likely way to die. I'll give two illustrative examples.

You are more likely to die from hot tap water than from a shark attack:

Cause of Death Total Number Shark Attack 4 (out of 57 total attacks) Contact with hot tap-water 26

Source:
Your Odds Of Dying In A Shark Attack (And Other Accidental Death Stats)

More people died as a result of additional car crashes after 9/11 (pwople drove instead of flew in fear for their safety, but this fear made them less safe).

The crashes of four airplanes and the massive loss of life in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks traumatized people throughout the nation. Tragically, in the last 3 months of that year, fear of flying revved up car use and caused a second toll of lives on U.S. roads, a new analysis suggests.
Compared with the average number of automotive fatalities for the same months from 1996 through 2000, an additional 353 people died in car crashes in October, November, and December of 2001, says psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Surplus road fatalities following the terrorist attacks thus exceeded the 266 fatalities on the four ill-fated aircraft.

Source:
9/11's fatal road toll: terror attacks presaged rise in U.S. car deaths - This Week | Science News | Find Articles at BNET

So if someone cite fear of death from a crazy person getting a hold of a gun as a reason to restrict what sort of guns you may own, you can tell them that this has been shown to be an ineffective strategy in Western Europe (although their gun ownership rates are far lower), and this type of thinking has lead to many deaths in other fields of human endeavor. One should be wary not to think too much about the scary ways to die, and instead use science to find likely ways to die, and to try to find strategies to deal with that, if indeed your goal is to save lives.

 

[6birds]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_3_165/ai_112943643/

"So if someone cite fear of death from a crazy person getting a hold of a gun as a reason to restrict what sort of guns you may own, you can tell them" to go to hell, they are my rights, not up for discussion. If you want to live in a cave, go get a cave.

"One should be wary not to think too much about the scary ways to die, and instead use science to find likely ways to die, and to try to find strategies to deal with that, if indeed your goal is to save lives."
You not going to save any life, maybe just delay the inevitable. Save your own life, stay the hell out of mine.

 

[tuoder]

"So if someone cite fear of death from a crazy person getting a hold of a gun as a reason to restrict what sort of guns you may own, you can tell them" to go to hell, they are my rights, not up for discussion. If you want to live in a cave, go get a cave.

"One should be wary not to think too much about the scary ways to die, and instead use science to find likely ways to die, and to try to find strategies to deal with that, if indeed your goal is to save lives."
You not going to save any life, maybe just delay the inevitable. Save your own life, stay the hell out of mine.

I find it a much more effective debate strategy to defeat their arguments on their own terms instead of just telling them to bugger off, as they will bugger off to the ballot box.

 

[6birds]

I find it a much more effective debate strategy to defeat their arguments on their own terms instead of just telling them to bugger off, as they will bugger off to the ballot box.

I bet it sounded good in your head, but as I've mentioned before, my rights aren't up for discussion.

 

[tuoder]

I bet it sounded good in your head, but as I've mentioned before, my rights aren't up for discussion.

I believe I stated that my original argument was directed at people who think differently than you. Are you under the impression that we disagree?