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Xref: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu misc.headlines:41568 talk.politics.guns:53293 Newsgroups: misc.headlines,talk.politics.guns Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!darwin.sura.net!wupost!uunet!murphy!jpradley!magpie!manes From: manes@magpie.linknet.com (Steve Manes) Subject: Re: Gun Control (was Re: We're Mad as Hell at the TV News) Organization: Manes and Associates, NYC Distribution: na Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 19:56:03 GMT Message-ID: Followup-To: misc.headlines,talk.politics.guns X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL9] References: <1993Mar31.211339.29232@synapse.bms.com> hambidge@bms.com wrote: : In article , manes@magpie.linknet.com (Steve Manes) writes: : >: Rate := per capita rate. The UK is more dangerous. : >: Though you may be less likely to be killed by a handgun, the average : >: individual citizen in the UK is twice as likely to be killed : >: by whatever means as the average Swiss. Would you feel any better : >: about being killed by means other than a handgun? I wouldn't. : : >What an absurd argument. Switzerland is one-fifth the size of the : >UK with one-eigth as many people therefore at any given point on : >Swiss soil you are more likely to be crow bait. More importantly, : >you are 4x as likely to be killed by the next stranger approaching : >you on a Swiss street than in the UK. : You are betraying your lack of understanding about RATE versus TOTAL : NUMBER. Rates are expressed, often, as #/100,000 population. : Therefore, if a place had 10 deaths and a population of 100,000, the : rate would be 10/100,000. A place that had 50 deaths and a population : of 1,000,000 would hav a rate of 5/100,000. The former has a higher : rate, the latter a higher total. You are less likely to die in the : latter. Simple enuff? For chrissakes, take out your calculator and work out the numbers. Here... I've preformatted them for you to make it easier: handgun homicides/population ---------------------------- Switzerland : 24 / 6,350,000 UK : 8 / 55,670,000 ... and then tell me again how Switzerland is safer with a more liberal handgun law than the UK is without...by RATE or TOTAL NUMBER. Your choice. -- Stephen Manes manes@magpie.linknet.com Manes and Associates New York, NY, USA =o&>o
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