There are 30,000 people who die every year from firearms in the USA.
20,000 of those are suicides. However, it's important to note that there are countries without guns who have a higher rate of suicide than the USA. For example, Japan has a higher suicide rate -- they just don't use guns. So banning guns is not going to change that 20,000 IMO.
That leaves 10,000 gun homicides every year, which includes all cases of self-defense, police shootings, etc. Many of those are justifiable homicides. Thus there are only a few thousand out of those which are actual murders. And half of all of those occur in only 1 or 2% of the counties in the USA (Democrat-run counties I might add, which have strong gun control laws). I should also mention that most of those murders are committed by felons, and it is already illegal for felons to possess firearms. Those guns are obtained illegally. Interestingly, even in the 1 or 2% of counties with the most murders, even then, the vast majority of those murders only occur in a few hot spots inside those counties.
FINALLY, let's compare this to DEFENSIVE GUN USAGE. Most of the time a gun is used, it is not for murdering people, it is for self-defense. And thus, most of the time a gun is used, it is never fired. In most cases of self-defense, you pull out your gun, and the other guy runs away.
This means that while homicides give us a body count -- we can count those bodies -- but with defensive gun use, there is almost never a body, since the gun was never fired. This means that we can only estimate the number of times a gun is used in self-defense every year in this country.
The low-end estimate is 50,000-80,000 times per year. And the high-end estimate is 4 to 5 million times per year.
So clearly guns are NOT meant to "assault" people, since the vast majority of the time the guns are used, the gun is never fired. Rather, guns are meant for DEFENSE. This is the same reason cops carry guns. (It turns out, cops don't have the right to just shoot people randomly, but rather they can only shoot in self-defense, the same as you or me). So cops also do not carry guns in order to assault people, but rather, for self-defense.
Considering the 2000 or so actual gun murders that happen every year in this country, mostly in a few hot spots of 1% of the counties in the country, and comparing that to 50,000 to 5 million times that a gun is used in self-defense, it seems pretty clear what the actual purpose of a gun is.
You can mis-use hammers or knives too, and people do use those tools to kill people, but that doesn't mean that killing is their primary purpose.
Some numbers that may help:
There are 30,000 people who die every year from firearms in the USA.
20,000 of those are suicides. However, it's important to note that there are countries without guns who have a higher rate of suicide than the USA. For example, Japan has a higher suicide rate -- they just don't use guns. So banning guns is not going to change that 20,000 IMO.
That leaves 10,000 gun homicides every year, which includes all cases of self-defense, police shootings, etc. Many of those are justifiable homicides. Thus there are only a few thousand out of those which are actual murders. And half of all of those occur in only 1 or 2% of the counties in the USA (Democrat-run counties I might add, which have strong gun control laws). I should also mention that most of those murders are committed by felons, and it is already illegal for felons to possess firearms. Those guns are obtained illegally. Interestingly, even in the 1 or 2% of counties with the most murders, even then, the vast majority of those murders only occur in a few hot spots inside those counties.
FINALLY, let's compare this to DEFENSIVE GUN USAGE. Most of the time a gun is used, it is not for murdering people, it is for self-defense. And thus, most of the time a gun is used, it is never fired. In most cases of self-defense, you pull out your gun, and the other guy runs away.
This means that while homicides give us a body count -- we can count those bodies -- but with defensive gun use, there is almost never a body, since the gun was never fired. This means that we can only estimate the number of times a gun is used in self-defense every year in this country.
The low-end estimate is 50,000-80,000 times per year. And the high-end estimate is 4 to 5 million times per year.
So clearly guns are NOT meant to "assault" people, since the vast majority of the time the guns are used, the gun is never fired. Rather, guns are meant for DEFENSE. This is the same reason cops carry guns. (It turns out, cops don't have the right to just shoot people randomly, but rather they can only shoot in self-defense, the same as you or me). So cops also do not carry guns in order to assault people, but rather, for self-defense.
Considering the 2000 or so actual gun murders that happen every year in this country, mostly in a few hot spots of 1% of the counties in the country, and comparing that to 50,000 to 5 million times that a gun is used in self-defense, it seems pretty clear what the actual purpose of a gun is.
You can mis-use hammers or knives too, and people do use those tools to kill people, but that doesn't mean that killing is their primary purpose.
THis is great stuff anon