Why More Americans Want to Own Guns

[Ben Davis]

That's not evidence of what is claimed, which is a drop in homicide rate.

Who's claiming this? I've only encountered gun control proponents who are trying to reduce the numbers of gun-related deaths. Are there seriously people who are trying to equate the two?

What's the point of having low gun deaths if your murder rate is still the same?

And this illustrates why I asked the above question, there's a misconception under which I think you're labouring: most gun deaths are not murders. In Europe, accidental death, death by misadventure and suicide (in no particular order) are the most common categories. I think the same is pretty much true in the US. In fact, the overwhelming majority of murders are not carried out using guns in either Europe or America. So the point of having low gun deaths is to reduce the number of deaths, period.

Would you much rather live in a society with low gun deaths or a low homicide rate?

Can I pick both? I'd prefer that.

Homicide rate is the only stat that matters. 'Gun deaths' is just a propghanda statistic designed to look like a murder rate and designed to make it look like the murder rate drops. But if it doesn't actually, what's the point?

As I've said, homicide rate is the least important statistic when discussing gun controls. Far from being a 'propaganda' stat, gun-related deaths are the only truly representative measure of the effectiveness of controls.