Eh, just remember that "we keep shitty records" bit is in part because we've got folks that are actively and substantially undercutting any attempts to keep records. Damn hard to collect and collate data when parts or the whole of the data collection, collation, and retention, is illegal or utterly resource starved.
Always suggested to me that whatever data exists is not favorable to the NRA-style folks, but who can say?
Except the FBI DOES keep records, and they show under 400 homicides with rifles as the weapon used each year. That's less than half the amount of people who get beaten to death
without a weapon, considerably less than people killed with blunt weapons, and about 20% the amount of people killed with blades.
Also, why do people care about mass shootings so much when dozens of times more people get killed in inner-city violence? Mass shootings are a drop in the bucket, and all the attention (media especially) we give them only encourages more.
Also, in the United States, there are certain things that will never change in our lifetimes, barring extreme circumstances such as civil war, a coup, or some other event that drastically changes the balance of power.
1. Guns will never be banned.
2. Guns will never be confiscated on a national scale.
3. Banning handguns in cities does fuck-all, and may even make crime worse. (Chicago, Washington D.C.)
4. Even if the government did try to confiscate them, vast amounts would be "lost" in "tragic boating accidents" and the like, or, in many states, turned on those trying to confiscate them.
5. With access to a machine shop, firearms can be mass-produced by just about anyone who knows how they work, and knows how to use the equipment. This already happens in Australia and the U.K. as well as various third-world countries.
For those of you who aren't American or may otherwise be unaware, it would also be very, very illegal to ban firearms at the national level, since it is written into the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, primarily as a defense against tyranny. The Amendment can only be changed if
1. Both the House and Senate propose an Amendment, supported by a 2/3 majority, OR a Constitutional Convention is called and 2/3 of the individual states support the proposal. The latter has never passed an Amendment.
2. The proposed amendment will not become law until 3/4 of the states ratify it.
That... will never happen, not without armed revolt in many parts of the country.
There is also a fact that many people (everywhere, not necessarily on this forum), seem to be overlooking. Since the 1990's, homicides across the country have plummeted by 50%, and are the lowest they've been since the 1950's.
Source:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/1tabledatadecoverviewpdf/table_1_crime_in_the_united_states_by_volume_and_rate_per_100000_inhabitants_1993-2012.xlsOther source:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_by_weapon_2008-2012.xlsImage:
And to close, there is absolutely no correlation between the number of firearms owned by civilians and the homicide rate on a state-by-state basis, unless you decide to cherrypick figures that agree with you, or use meaningless terms like "gun deaths", which also include suicides and thus massively throw off statistics.
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