Comic Strips

The vertical axis is labelled "gun homicides". That's not a very useful statistic.

The only is a stop a good gun with a guy, is a bad gun with a guy! Two guns! Both guys.

where is switzerland? on the chart, this often gets touted as the counterpoint

While the data might be cherry picked, one thing that can't be displayed here is motivation. In Canada, a decent number of people have guns, but you can't carry firearms with you, you have to take highly specific routes while transporting any restricted hand guns. The role of guns is sport shooting and hunting and it's highly regulated for those.

In the USA, guns are intended to be used to kill other civilians. Owning a gun for self-defense purposes is buying with the intention that you may one day use it to kill another human. Not an enemy combatant in war, but a fellow citizen with a gun.

It's only a feeling, but I feel like that might be the biggest distinction between the USA and other (omitted) high-gun-per-capita countries. Guns in the USA aren't for mitary drafting or protection against a national invasion.

There's also the matter of training and licensing. A buddy in the USA was staunchly opposed to gun licensing. When I said that in Canada, it just helps ensure that people know how to maintain their gun and use it safely, he said, "Well the people who don't take the time to learn how to maintain it and use it safely just shouldn't get it in the first place", which I'm sure is a popular enough sentiment, but it's also the argument for licensing. The zero barrier for entry approach is also a problem.

I'd love to see more nuanced stats than this 4-panel comic is presenting.

Finally, proof that homicides cause gun ownership

notice how in the graph on wikipedia, excluding USA, the correlation is really not that strong.

dont get me wrong, i agree with the general sentiment, but bad data weakens even the best of cases.

image

Hold up. The US has over 100 guns per 100 people? 😳 So on average, everyone owns at least one gun? Tell me I'm reading that wrong!

It should be noted that this chart compares gun homicides to gun ownership, which... of course those will correlate

If we plotted kangaroo injuries vs kangaroos per capita, we'd see a similar outlier in Australia

It would be more useful to see gun ownership compared to total homicides, to see if an overabundance of guns correlates with more murders. Even then, though, a correlation between the two might not be casual in that direction. It may instead be that in areas with a high homicide rate, people are more likely to own a firearm for defense.

What you would need to prove is that places with high gun ownership have significantly higher homicide rates, but places with high homicide rates don't have significantly higher rates of gun ownership

Any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated

Arguing that the populace shouldn't have guns, and pointing to the usa as an example, is arguing that our fascist government should have a monopoly on violence. Every successful "gun control" law has been put in place in response to persecuted minorities and activist groups having guns. For a famous example, see the Black Panthers.

Peaceful protests are impotent unless backed by a genuine threat of violence. See how little the recent "No Kings" protests have accomplished vs the death of that one health insurance ceo.

Now, I am in favor of fewer guns, but the order of operations is important. Let's start with disarming the police and abolishing ice. So long as my friends/family/neighbors/whatevers are being abducted by masked thugs in broad daylight, it is my right and my duty to defend with lethal force.