From: PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu (David Veal)
Subject: Re: Gun Control (was Re: We're Mad as Hell at the TV News)
Article-I.D.: martha.1993Apr6.161640.18833
Organization: University of Tennessee Division of Continuing Education
Lines: 46

In article <C4tM1H.ECF@magpie.linknet.com> manes@magpie.linknet.com (Steve Manes) writes:
>hambidge@bms.com wrote:
>: In article <C4psoG.C6@magpie.linknet.com>, 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.

       If you want to talk "less likely to get killed with a handgun"
you'd have a point.  "Safer" includes other things than simply handguns,
and you can't conclude "safer" by ignoring them.

       Now if somebody's got the total homicide rates...

------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Veal Univ. of Tenn. Div. of Cont. Education Info. Services Group
PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu  (Mail to VEAL@utkvm1.utk.edu will bounce.)
"Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed." - Lazarus Long
