Statistic Myths

Gun statistics are easy to find and they always differ depending on the source. Like all statistics and surveys they can be skewed to conclude what ever a person wants. For example, you take the FBI crime statistics for any given year but view them on the NRA’s website and they will conclude something completely different than the Brady Campaign’s website.
You also have the misnomer that is used such as “gun crimes”. This is my personal favorite and it is used constantly on the Brady Campaign website. Let me paraphrase a quote I read on the site, “If there were fewer guns on the streets there would be less gun crimes!” Sure sounds like it would make sense. Gun crimes in Australia went down after guns were band.
Um…….so Warthog………..are you supporting gun control?
I am just stating the facts. Fewer guns can equal less gun crimes. Especially in a country that is an island like Australia.
Um…….so Warthog……….uh you are supporting gun control.
I am making a point. If we use certain logic and numbers we can come to the conclusion that gun control would lower gun crime. The key word is GUN.
Yes we might lower gun crime if we some how got rid of most guns. But we would never get rid of CRIME. In Australia gun crime went down significantly, but all other non-gun crimes went up significantly, especially crimes against women and the old.
So I would like to play a game. Both sides of the gun debate should post up stats that support their opinion on gun control.
This will be a little of kilter due to the fact that all but one of the known readers of this blog are gun supporters. So feel free to play devils advocate.
I would also urge you to find more than one source for your stats. We want to see how many different groups or websites we can get saying different things.