5% of the worlds people, 55% of the worlds handguns.

I wonder how many of these deaths annually are down to illegally held guns? Or accidental?

You can pry the guns from their cold dead hands, i think thats the mantra from the NRA….. America will never give up there guns…..

In 2011 there were 16,799 homicides in the US, of which 11,493 were firearm offences.
That’s a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 overall (or 3.7 for firearms).

That compares to a rate of 1.5 per 100,000 overall in Ireland.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm
http://www.cso.ie/Quicktables/GetQuickTables.aspx?FileName=cja01c1.asp&TableName=Homicide+Offences&StatisticalProduct=DB_CJ

On the article in the journal a few weeks ago about the man in the US who mistakingly received a gun in the post instead of a TV he ordered, Rather than hand it over to the police, as he rightly did 444 out of 488 thumbs (90%) were in favour of him keeping it. By that stat over 90% agree with the US 2nd amendment. Or would it be the right to illegally keep and bear arms.

How unlucky are you David, just when you show the “latest” figures some know it all only pull more recent figures out of the bag…..

Leave the room, Vinny, this is a conversation for grown-ups…

Well Jonathan in a “conversation for grown ups” you’ve told one person to go back to sleep and another person to leave the room!!!!

At the rate you’re maturing uou’ll soon be able to wear big boy pants! Keep it up

He’s not dead thankfully.

Did he die?

It’s not that it’s getting bad, these spree shootings while dramatic aren’t the biggest problem. On average 85 people die every day from small arms.

no

Oh OK, then they should outlaw assults in Cork that involve 6-7 men.

Yes
Yes they are

Its worse, the NRA has all the politicians bought, not one of them will speak out for gun regulation because money speaks more than common sense over there and if you do good luck trying to get reelected. After the Dark Knight shooting Obama said that they’ll continue to enforce existing laws. I.e. not do a damn thing.

Do you understand the difficulty in changing the United States constitution? The cluster f**k of a process? Since 1937, Ireland has been able to pass 25 amendments. The US has passed 17 since 1791. The Bill of Rights, of which the right to bear arms is a part, is culturally sacrosanct. I’m not saying it should be, just that it plays into the lack of a social momentum to change it. And the sad fact is, the deaths from firearms occur disproportionately in minorities.

There is an unspoken ‘let god sort ‘em out’ lack of compassion when it comes to affecting change for something that may not be in your proverbial backyard. I don’t know what it could possibly take to change this as it appears the ‘unimaginable’ happens with gut-wrenching frequency.

Why do people in Ireland (a failed state) feel so superior to Americans?

How is Ireland a ‘failed state’ ??

Obviously!

The NRA regularly respond to these shootings with: if everyone had a gun only the assailant would die…. Classic logic!

send in McNutty and the lezzer to sort em out.

Shhhhhiiiiitttttt!

Think stringer bell had his crew try and take out Omar.

Yeah, there’s never any violence anywhere else …

… no, wait a moment.

Yeah Damocles there’s loads of shootings in schools and public places all over the world…oh wait…

There are probably more places that have had public shootings than not.

Not once a month.

twice a month?

Back to sleep Damocles…

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Wait till the nutty Republicans are elected in November.