Posted: 10/18/2002 1:06:42 AM EDT
Indeed statistics do not do away with actual and preventable death. However, when you argue statistics in your favor, be prepared to have statistics used against you. In 2000, 900 children between birth and 4 years of age were killed in automobile related accidents, and 1,500 children between 5 and 14 were killed in automobile related accidents. 20 children birth to 4 years were killed in firearms accidents, and 60 children 5-14 were killed in firearms accidents. Only the category of "Poisoning by gas/vapor" is lower than firearms injury deaths. A total of 2,700 children in the 0-4 category and another 2,700 in the 5-14 category were lost to unintentional injury death in 2000. This data is from the 2001 Injury Facts, released by the National Safety Council. I could go on, but I have made my point. I argue reality best. One might propose education to address the problem of kids getting into guns and accidentally killing themselves, except that the Million Mom March, the Brady Campaign, and nearly every other gun control group has stated that education DOESN'T work! The gun control groups do not want to educate about the dangers of guns. They want to regulate, restrict and ban. Education does work, but not when you educate children properly, and then mislead and misinform them on purpose. the MMM did this, when they taught a group of children proper gun safety, but then sent them into a room full of toys in boxes and compartments, but not before telling the children that there were ONLY toys in the room. Children listen to adults, because they know everything right? When adults lie to children, the children will take it as truth and act accordingly. The children found the real gun that had been planted in the room, and played with it unsafely. That is the only evidence that the control groups have that "education doesn't work". Does education aimed at children work, or is all that money spent sending children through public school wasted? Either education works, or it doesn't. Over two million defensive gun uses per year have been extrapolated from a combination of known statistics, random phone polls, and other data gathering methods (which are escaping me at the moment). Put on a personal level, this is every time a gay man shows a gun to would be attackers, who them decide to leave; everytime a woman pulls a handgun on a serial rapist who is already in the process of attacking her; everytime somebody shoots a criminal in self defense. View Quote at [url]http://www.debating.org/uclu-debating/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=11&topic=23&start=10[/url] Good post anyway [:D]
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