President says ‘epidemic of gun violence is tearing our communities apart’ after mass shootings in Philadelphia, Fort Worth, Baltimore and Chicago

    • ch00f@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Look at what happened when England reduced CO access by switching from coal gas to natural gas.

      Over time, as the carbon monoxide in gas decreased, suicides also decreased (Kreitman 1976). Suicides by carbon monoxide decreased dramatically, while suicides by other methods increased a small amount, resulting in a net decrease in overall suicides, particularly among females.

      https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/saves-lives/

      Suicide is often a matter of convenience. If it’s harder to kill yourself, many people are less likely to do it. I suspect reducing access to guns would reduce suicides just like it did with coal gas.

    • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      This article is about assault weapon bans, which are not exactly the go-to for suicide.

    • Dissasterix @lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is the sad reality. Gun violence is generally committed by sick people. Similarly, I saw this chart a few years back on Australian gun/knife violence. The plots are mirrored. Violence is sort of static.

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That plot is in percentage. Of course violence is static. Because 100% of homicides are violent. Let’s see total number of homicides per year.

        Edit: To clarify, if gun and non-knife homicides dropped to zero, and knife homicides dropped to one, that plot would show knife homicides skyrocket to 100%. The plot isn’t demonstrating the trend you think it is.

        • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The loser of a knife fight dies in the street, the winner dies in the hospital.

          I don’t recall the origin of that or whether that’s the exact wording but the general idea at least has stuck with me.

          • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you run away from a guy with a knife, you have to outrun the knife-wielder. If you run away from a guy with a gun, you have to outrun the bullet.

          • Tavarin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That doesn’t mean what you think it means. You are not twice as likely to die form a stab wound, if you are treated quickly fort a stab wound you are much more likely to survive compared to a gunshot wound. You need to look at the incidence of death percentages:

            “(Gunshot wound: early, 2.0% vs. late, 4.9%; Stab wound: early, 0.2% vs. late, 1.1%)”

            So a stab wound if treated early has a 0.2% chance of death compared to a gunshot wound which has a 2% chance of death, meaning gunshots are 10 times as deadly. Under late treatment its 1% chance of death for stab wounds, and 4% for gunshots, so gunshots are 4 times as deadly.

            Even late treated stab wounds are half as deadly as early treated gunshots. Gunshots are far more deadly than stabbings.