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Canada and Finland both have a lot of civilian firearms per capita but not a lot of gun violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_gun

Canada and Finland both have a lot of civilian firearms per capita but not a lot of gun violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g...

Braxton1980 1y ago
It could be a combination of guns and something else. While I hate this type of argument, what else explains the high rate of gun violence in the US?
- eldaisfish 1y ago
  easy access to guns plus a culture glorifying access to guns.
- pb7 1y ago
  [flagged]
codemac 1y ago
... a lot isn't even close though. The US is at 120.5 guns per 100 civilians, and Canada is at 34.5 I think being ~4x the ratio of guns per capita, (and 30x the total!) has to do something, right?
mvdtnz 1y ago
So we can conclude that proliferation of guns are a necessary but not sufficient condition for excessive gun violence. Remove the necessary condition, remove the violence.
carlosjobim 1y ago
According to that Wikipedia link there are 1 million registered firearms in the USA and 400 million unregistered firearms. Could somebody explain these numbers, since they seem very odd?
- Jtsummers 1y ago
  Most weapons in the US don't require registration.
- RemainsOfTheDay 1y ago
  [dead]
- edaemon 1y ago
  I'm not sure how Wikipedia is distinguishing them but for the most part firearms do not have to be registered in the United States. Some states require firearms to be registered but most do not. Unregistered firearms can nonetheless be counted because they are inventoried and sold legally (firearms dealers must be licensed and regulated), even though the end purchaser is not registered anywhere. Federally, only specific categories like fully-automatic machine guns and short-barreled rifles have to be registered.
- vel0city 1y ago
  Certain kinds of firearms are required to be registered, like machine guns, short barrel rifles, and short barrel shotguns. Tons of guns are not those limited categories, so they are not required to be registered. Its entirely possible to sell a gun in the US without any kind of paperwork depending on the type of firearm sold, the buyer of the firearm, and the seller of the firearm. I'm in Texas, so I'll use that as an example. Lets say I want to sell a regular shotgun I currently own to a friend. IANAL, this is not legal advice, but my understanding from reading the applicable laws would be all I have to do is verify they are over the age of 18 and that I think they are probably legally able to own a gun (I have no prior knowledge of any legal restrictions against them owning the gun). We can meet up, check he's probably over 18 and can probably legally own a gun and is a Texas resident, he can hand me cash or whatever for trade, I can give him the gun, and we go our separate ways. I do not need to do a background check. I do not need to file any registration. Nobody would know this guy now owns this gun. I do not need to keep any record of this sale at all. This shotgun has been an unregistered gun for its entire exstence. This wouldn't necessarily be true if I trade some certain amount of guns as then I would probably need a federal firearms license and thus have some additional restrictions on facilitiating a sale. This also isn't necessarily true in other states which have additional restrictions on gun sales. But if I haven't done any gun sales in a long while, such restrictions wouldn't apply (according to my current understanding of the law, IANAL, not legal advice).

Braxton1980 1y ago

It could be a combination of guns and something else. While I hate this type of argument, what else explains the high rate of gun violence in the US?

eldaisfish 1y ago
easy access to guns plus a culture glorifying access to guns.
pb7 1y ago
[flagged]

codemac 1y ago

... a lot isn't even close though. The US is at 120.5 guns per 100 civilians, and Canada is at 34.5 I think being ~4x the ratio of guns per capita, (and 30x the total!) has to do something, right?

mvdtnz 1y ago

So we can conclude that proliferation of guns are a necessary but not sufficient condition for excessive gun violence. Remove the necessary condition, remove the violence.

carlosjobim 1y ago

According to that Wikipedia link there are 1 million registered firearms in the USA and 400 million unregistered firearms. Could somebody explain these numbers, since they seem very odd?

Jtsummers 1y ago
Most weapons in the US don't require registration.
RemainsOfTheDay 1y ago
[dead]
edaemon 1y ago
I'm not sure how Wikipedia is distinguishing them but for the most part firearms do not have to be registered in the United States. Some states require firearms to be registered but most do not. Unregistered firearms can nonetheless be counted because they are inventoried and sold legally (firearms dealers must be licensed and regulated), even though the end purchaser is not registered anywhere. Federally, only specific categories like fully-automatic machine guns and short-barreled rifles have to be registered.
vel0city 1y ago
Certain kinds of firearms are required to be registered, like machine guns, short barrel rifles, and short barrel shotguns. Tons of guns are not those limited categories, so they are not required to be registered. Its entirely possible to sell a gun in the US without any kind of paperwork depending on the type of firearm sold, the buyer of the firearm, and the seller of the firearm. I'm in Texas, so I'll use that as an example. Lets say I want to sell a regular shotgun I currently own to a friend. IANAL, this is not legal advice, but my understanding from reading the applicable laws would be all I have to do is verify they are over the age of 18 and that I think they are probably legally able to own a gun (I have no prior knowledge of any legal restrictions against them owning the gun). We can meet up, check he's probably over 18 and can probably legally own a gun and is a Texas resident, he can hand me cash or whatever for trade, I can give him the gun, and we go our separate ways. I do not need to do a background check. I do not need to file any registration. Nobody would know this guy now owns this gun. I do not need to keep any record of this sale at all. This shotgun has been an unregistered gun for its entire exstence. This wouldn't necessarily be true if I trade some certain amount of guns as then I would probably need a federal firearms license and thus have some additional restrictions on facilitiating a sale. This also isn't necessarily true in other states which have additional restrictions on gun sales. But if I haven't done any gun sales in a long while, such restrictions wouldn't apply (according to my current understanding of the law, IANAL, not legal advice).