Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Bang bang, I hit the ground

Dizzy Thinks that with our own equivalent of the second amendment we would all be safer from muggings and aggravated burglary.

It is an interesting postulation and I imagine one that excites demographers and crime statisticians, especially if you widen the question and compare rates of such offenses across a whole board of different legal frameworks for gun ownership.

However I would like to suggest there may be a fly in the ointment, especially looking at Dizzy's original comparison between us and the United States of America, while gun ownership in this country may well make me feel safer from muggings, it sure as hell will make me worry much more about getting my fucking head blown off!

Unfortunately it seams that the last time the UN statistics had explicit information about gun homicide for comparison was 1999, but I have included the last comparative figures on gross homicide rate as well, these show that while we have seen a slight increase America has had a reduction in the overall rate.

The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000) - Via Wikipedia

  Non-firearm homicide rate per 100,000 pop. Firearm homicide rate per 100,000 pop. % homicides with firearms Overall homicide rate per 100,000 pop.
England & Wales 1.33 0.12 8 1.57
United States of America 4.55 2.97 39 7.52

Tenth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems,covering the period 2005 - 2006 - UNODC

Country Counts Rates per 100,000
2005 2006 2005 2006
England & Wales 766 755 1.43 1.41
United States of America 16,740 17,034 5.58 5.62

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