CMV: Guns don't make us safer.

The 2015 FBI Crime Report shows that handguns are by far the largest source of homicides (48%), while rifles are a much lower (2%), compared to homicides by knife (11%) or fist/feet (5%). : https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-20

This is why Michael Bloomberg focuses his gun control campaign on handguns, acknowledging that assault rifles have much less contribution to gun homicides. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-discusses-gun-control.html

Another interesting stat: 64% of handgun deaths in the US in 2014 were suicide (reference 2014 CDC report) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_04.pdf

The 2015 FBI Crime Report shows that handguns are by far the largest source of homicides (48%), while rifles are a much lower (2%), compared to homicides by knife (11%) or fist/feet (5%). <note a significant 20% are "unknown firearm" sources> This is why Michael Bloomberg focuses his gun control campaign on handguns, acknowledging that assault rifles have much less contribution to gun homicides.

The CDC Injuries report report also shows that roughly the same number of people in the US are killed each year from vehicle deaths as guns (if including suicides, homicides, and legal intervention such as law enforcement shootings), but the vehicle death rate is over twice the rate compared to only gun homicides (10.9 vs 4.13 deaths per 100K people in 2015). This means we are much more prone to death from a vehicle accident than from a person of ill intent using a gun. This makes sense when one realizes that 64% of US handgun deaths in 2014 were suicide as per this 2014 CDC report.

By using the CDC's Fatal Injury Data, we can see the trend of gun homicides per capita has fluctuated up and down between 3.5 to 4.25 deaths per 100K people over the past 15 years. One might conclude that this shows that the gun control laws have not had a significant effect on gun-related homicides. At the same time, if we take into account the significant decrease in gun ownership over the past 30 years one can argue that ownership of guns does not For comparison, there was been a the significant decrease in vehicle deaths over time (from 15.3 to 10.9 deaths per 100K people over the same 2000 to 2015 time frame). One could reasonably conclude that riding in vehicles has become "safer" over time, and I believe this can be attributed to regulations which mandate the increased usage of safety technology (air bags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, etc.) although these requirements increases the cost of a vehicle.

How often do citizens use their guns to protect themselves? According to the Gun Violence Archive site, there were 15,060 gun deaths in 2016, of which 1,971 were from defensive use. If we eliminate 60% of those total gun deaths from suicide, that leaves 6,024 non-suicide guns deaths in 2016. That means the deaths from defensive use account for 33% of those deaths. One could argue that's a significant number of times that citizens were able to protect themselves with guns, and thus they made those citizens safer.

Statistically speaking, if effective laws were passed that removed the circulation of guns from citizens, it's reasonable to assume there would be a significant reduction in gun homicides as guns have higher lethal effects compared to other weapons, and over 70% of homicides are performed by guns.

Whether such laws are constitutionally legal and even reasonable to be broadly applied to all citizens (e.g. those who hunt for a living, or live in environments with dangerous natural wildlife) is a different matter altogether.

/r/changemyview Thread Parent