quote:Originally posted by Husker:
Mark, 294 million gun owners? As of the last census the population of the US was about 300 million. Only 6 million people don't own guns? So damn near every man, woman and child in the US owns a gun? I think that number may be off just a tad.
You are making the wrong assumption. (see my previous quote by Mark Twain) The statistic doesn't state that 9 people out of 10 own guns, it says there are 90 guns per 100 people. I own 5 cars so I'm making up for four poor sods who can't afford to screw the environment themselves (without my wretched excess), and in the process I skew the stats to make it look like we all own one car — statistically speaking.
In actuality, the most recent stats on gun ownership by household for the USA and Canada (that I could find) place the percentages at: USA 39% and Canada 29%. The actual deaths by firearms (all causes incl. accidental, suicide and homicide) were: USA 14 per 100,000 people and Canada: 4 per 100,000 people (see my previous comment about freezing our nuts off).