« "A Lordship and Titles. Gold. That I Should Become Judas?" | Main | It's Been Two Years and We've Been Wondering the Same Thing »

August 30, 2007

You Can Almost Hear Him Choking On These Words

Our Swilling Bud JeffS sent us this article the other day; I'm sure you've seen it by now

GENEVA — There are nine guns for every 10 people in the United States, with about 270 million firearms in circulation, according to a report released Tuesday.

Worldwide, civilians now have access to 650 million small arms — from handguns to semiautomatic rifles — an arsenal that far outstrips what is held by police and militaries, according to the annual Small Arms Survey. It estimates that civilians account for about three-fourths of the 875 million such weapons in circulation.

"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," the director of the Geneva-based group, Keith Krause, told reporters.

But it is the United States that has the heaviest concentration of firearms.

It contains the usual 'civilians with guns are bad' sort of blather and statistics, but some of them force Director Krause to say this:

The figures dispel the idea that gun ownership and high levels of violence necessarily go hand in hand, he said.

"There's no clear relationship between more guns and higher levels of violence," Krause said, pointing to low ownership and high crime rates in Latin America.

But of course little inconvenient details like "no clear relationship between more guns and higher levels of violence" don't matter to those who wish to completely disarm us for our own supposed good. Criminals will always have weapons, no matter how many laws are passed to 'prevent' it. In the US all the gun control lobby has succeeded in doing is hinder citizens' ability to defend themselves.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at August 30, 2007 07:09 AM

Comments

Actually, I'm shocked that comment is in there at all.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at August 30, 2007 09:43 AM

. . . "an arsenal that far outstrips what is held by police and militaries. . . "

What great news, but I think the truth is even better. I don't think they've counted weapons throughout the world accurately at all. I'm sure that much more are out there.

Posted by: Mike Rentner at August 30, 2007 11:36 AM

Yes, that choking sound is nearly audible, isn't it? How sweet!

Mike: I suspect that their estimate is under by a factor of at least 3.

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at August 30, 2007 02:55 PM

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto


And that's the way it will remain gun control fascists be damned.

Posted by: Gunslinger at August 30, 2007 05:18 PM