Are Your Household Firearms a Significant Contributor to Homicides?

Have any of your household firearms been connected to a homicide

  • Yes one of my stolen firearms has been used to commit a Homicide

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes my household firearms have been used to commit a homicide

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No

    Votes: 85 100.0%

  • Total voters
    85
  • Poll closed .

Redworm

Moderator
I would say that a firearm used in legal self defense should not be counted nor a firearm used to commit self defense in the line of duty by a peace officer.
That doesn't really fly. A homicide is the killing of one human being by another. Regardless of the reason or justification if you kill an intruder in your home it's a homicide. This just shows once again how any statistic, whether pro-gun or anti-gun, can be skewed to further whatever conclusion the researcher wants.
 

Eghad

New member
I wouldn't include them because they are justifiable homicides in self defense. The person defending themselves wasn't given a choice. They could shoot and live or not shoot and die. Basic self defense is as much a right as owning a firearm.

A criminal or sane person using a firearm to commit a crime has a choice.

for the basic definition of saying that a homicide is a person who has been killed by another person I agree with that.

For the purposes of pro gun vs. anti gun argument excluding them gives us a better picture of who is committing crimes with firearms. Those should be the focus of any legislation, not folks who use firearms lawfully. For that purpose there should be a category of justifiable homicides. I am not sure but I think in the Uniform Crime reports this information is listed as well. Been a while since I have used any data from them.

As a society the overall homicide rate may gave us an indicator of levels of violence. We know that simply passing laws have very little effect on that violence level unless you target the offenders. In fact violence seems to be on the rise in our society. That may stem from 9/11 with federal law enforcement, especially the FBI, being focused on terrorism.
 

Redworm

Moderator
I'm not disagreeing with your points. Just saying that for the purposes of this study it's obvious they didn't exclude justifiable homicides. Again, it shows how statistics can be skewed in either direction.
 

robc

New member
Guns are just as responsible for homicide as spoons are for Rosie O'Donell's fatness. Ban all the spoons. Save Rosie!
 
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