Why More Americans Want to Own Guns

[The Grand Nudger]

I was only talking about gun-related deaths. The higher the rate of gun ownership, the higher the rate of gun-related deaths. I mentioned Australian mass shooting stats as they're a good attention-grabber but it should be noted that gun-related deaths, period, have plummeted since the 1996 changes to their gun control legislation.

If our suicide rate wasn't climbing, ours would have plummeted in the same span as well.  

Are accidents not responsible for any? I think you have a hole in your stats there. Although I wouldn't be surprised if suicide was the most common category of gun-related death in the US; access to guns would provide a quicker, less painful alternative to non-prescription drug overdoses, hanging, slit wrists or falling (the European favourites). But I get your point, suicide is not combatted effectively by gun controls, neither are murder rates. Both of those are better managed with approaches like managing poverty, wage inequality, education, unemployment and other 'social health' factors. As for the war on drugs, you'll get no argument from me there; it's a concept failure, responsible for much harm and almost no good.

Accidents account for a statistically negligible amount.  Granted, most people who are shot, survive..so that's helping the stats. If everyone who accidentally shot themselves died, they would most likely account for a larger statistical nothing.

Indeed, the same is true here in the UK. I happen to live in Norfolk which, due to a largely rural community, has one of the highest rates of gun ownership, higher even than estimates of illegal gun ownership in some of the worst inner-city, crime-ridden parts of the country (although it's worth noting that those rates are still really low compared to the US). But no matter the majority impacts,  wherever there's gun ownership,  there are rates of gun-related deaths. The most effective way to combat those is with well-thought-out controls.

Agreed, we have many in place - we fail to leverage them.  We could do better, ofc.  

I'd suggest that's not strictly true. In  the UK, controls have reduced the number of illegal guns by making them scarce thus expensive. Most criminals can't afford guns. If guns were to become similarly scarce in the US, I'd be surprised if that simple law of economics would fail. Additionally, a crucial part of the UK controls is that most police don't carry guns so there's no 'arms race' pressure between criminals and authorities.

Unless the US decides to abandon it's prohibitionist stance of drugs the profits will always be worth securing a firearm, if we ban firearms, they become an even better investment, a black market money maker that can secure greater chunks of the black market. We saw the same the last time we went this route. Pistols are the problem now, last time it was submachine guns, BARs, and pipe bombs....

Indeed. But I'm not suggesting 'incompetence', I'm simply stating the basic fact that higher rates of gun ownership = higher rates of gun-related death. In terms of the 'culture of gun ownership', I'd suggest that if the US had a century-long break from gun ownership, like the UK, it would pretty much vanish.

Why would we want it to vanish?  I have to stop you here, higher rates of gun ownership -do not- equal higher rates of gun related death, in the US..precisely the opposite.  Again, most guns and gun owners in the US are in areas with -lower- rates of gun death.  As in more than 9 out of 10.  It is a fantastically small minority of the public -and- guns that is being grossly over-represented in our overall stats. I cannot stress this enough, our gun problem is a cops and robbers problem, not an ownership problem.