Interesting Conclusion

[Browning'sCustomMeat]

An interesting letter in the Australian Shooter Magazine this week.

Quote: "If you consider that there has been an average

of 160,000 troops In the Iraq theater of operations during

the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives

a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per

100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25

per cent more likely to be shot and killed in the US

capital, which has some of the strictest gun control

laws in the US, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The US should pull out of Washington."

 

 

 

 

[SilentButDeadly]

I'm going to disagree, and so might the New England Journal of Medicine:

 

 

 

[NRS]

According to that report, the civilian deaths by "small arms fire" comes out to 42 per 100,000, which is still safer than Washing DC.

 

(Population of 28,221,180 divided by 100,000 equals 282.21 groups of 100,000. 11,877 civilian deaths divided by 282 equals 42/100,000)

[Red Rabbit]

The NEJM data is also over a 5 year period, while the OP data is over 22 months

[SilentButDeadly]

Reread the first statement, 2,112 in 22 months out of 160,000... that is 60 A MONTH, not a year. Thats 9x DC's average.

 

Also, it is a wishful, if not completely invalid, statistic to compare the worst city in America, 68 square miles, to a country the size of California.

 

I find the entire concept disgusting, that a sectarian war can be compared to urban shootings (over half of which are typically suicides). Its even more disturbing that so many people here jump to the defense of this ugly statement, rather than making an attempt to discredit it

 

T

[TAM]

I think the point here is that Washington DC has an extremely high death rate due to gun violence and also has some of the most strict gun laws in the country.

 

Proof that tough gun laws don't equal safer citys.

 

 

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

 

 

Well however the numbers play out, there is one thing we can all agree on...... That is that tough gun laws, here, in the UK or Austraila, or anywhere else, does not keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys.... I know that I feel much safer knowing every house on my block has a gun in it.... I don't ever want to be an unarmed "subject"....

[SilentButDeadly]

I agree with everyone on the gun laws, especially the ones they found unconstitutional in DC.

[Red Rabbit]

According to that report, the civilian deaths by "small arms fire" comes out to 42 per 100,000, which is still safer than Washing DC.

 

(Population of 28,221,180 divided by 100,000 equals 282.21 groups of 100,000. 11,877 civilian deaths divided by 282 equals 42/100,000)

 

Now divide that by 60 months (5 years) to get 0.7 Iraqi civilian deaths/100,000/month.

Compare this 0.7 to the 60 US soldier deaths/100,000/month and 80.6 DC/100,000/month (figures given by OP)

 

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

According to that report, the civilian deaths by "small arms fire" comes out to 42 per 100,000, which is still safer than Washing DC.

 

(Population of 28,221,180 divided by 100,000 equals 282.21 groups of 100,000. 11,877 civilian deaths divided by 282 equals 42/100,000)

 

Now divide that by 60 months (5 years) to get 0.7 Iraqi civilian deaths/100,000/month.

Compare this 0.7 to the 60 US soldier deaths/100,000/month and 80.6 DC/100,000/month (figures given by OP)

 

 

Never argue with a teacher.... they pay attention to details....

[SilentButDeadly]

80.6 DC/100,000/month (figures given by OP)

 

That number is wrong; there are alot of other blogs on this same topic, the DC murder rate is by year not month... However, if you look at Detroit, the worst American city, the annual homicide rate was 421 in 2006!

 

 

[Red Rabbit]

Looking at the blog you linked, and its linked Forbes article with 2006 data,

Detroit was #1 with 47.3 homicides/100,000/yr.

DC was #7 with 29.1/100,000/yr.

Iraq would be 8.4/100,000/yr

 

Guess we could move to Plano, TX as it was last on the list of the cities wth pops of 75k+

 

http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/08/murder-ci...1108murder.html

[Red Rabbit]

One site (about.com) gave the figure that 4318 troops have died in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, as of 6/24/09.

Another site said that in 2005 alone, 1.2 million Americans were murdered on US soil via abortion (about 1 in 5 pregnancies were terminated).

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNew...722176020080117

So, it is far safer to be a soldier in Iraq than to be a fetus in the US.

[NRS]

SBD...Sorry I did not pick up on the 5 year time scale in the article. RR ... thanks for cleaning up my math errors.

 

The real point is that gun control does not solve the problems with gun deaths and the media will distort what ever information they can find to suit their preconceived notions of what the truth should be. As my statistics teacher used to say " Figures don't lie, but lairs can figure". I think there is also a book out by that title.