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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down -- Mother Jones
http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/pro-gun-myths-fact-checkMyth #2: Guns don't kill peoplepeople kill people.
Fact-check: People with more guns tend to kill more peoplewith guns. The states with the highest gun ownership rates have a gun murder rate 114% higher than those with the lowest gun ownership rates. Also, gun death rates tend to be higher in states with higher rates of gun ownership.
Sources: Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control
,,,
Myth #5: Keeping a gun at home makes you safer.
Fact-check: Owning a gun has been linked to higher risk of homicide, suicide, and accidental death by gun.
For every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around a home.
43% of homes with guns and kids have at least one unlocked firearm.
In one experiment, one third of 8-to-12-year-old boys who found a handgun pulled the trigger.
...
Myth #9: More and more Americans are becoming gun owners.
Fact-check: More guns are being sold, but they're owned by a shrinking portion of the population.
About 50% of Americans said they had a gun in their homes in 1973. Today, about 45% say they do. Overall, 35% of Americans personally own a gun.
Around 80% of gun owners are men. On average they own 7.9 guns each.
Myth #10: We don't need more gun lawswe just need to enforce the ones we have.
Fact-check: Weak laws and loopholes backed by the gun lobby make it easier to get guns illegally.
Around 40% of all legal gun sales involve private sellers and don't require background checks. 40% of prison inmates who used guns in their crimes got them this way.
An investigation found 62% of online gun sellers were willing to sell to buyers who said they couldn't pass a background check.
20% of licensed California gun dealers agreed to sell handguns to researchers posing as illegal "straw" buyers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has not had a permanent director for 6 years, due to an NRA-backed requirement that the Senate approve nominees.
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10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down -- Mother Jones (Original Post)
Scuba
Jan 2013
OP
chervilant
(8,267 posts)1. I wonder
if/when the gun aficionados will flood your OP with derisive rebuttals.
FSogol
(45,488 posts)3. K & R. n/t
Erose999
(5,624 posts)4. The biggest one is "Hitler took the guns," where the opposite is actually true. He loosened existing
gun controls that were put in place by the Weimar Republic as a condition of the Treaty of Versailles.