[quote=njtosd][quote=svelte]I didn’t include the text that went along with the diagram (they eluded to the map stats being related to each state’s gun restrictions) because I didn’t think there was enough evidence that the two were related.

OCRenter’s diagram shows there indeed may be other reasons for the map stats. They may be all related (ie, low gun ownership may mean the residents are more open to gun restrictions, low gun ownership means less weapons may mean less weapon deaths, tighter restrictions may mean less weapon deaths, or some combination of these) but that would take somebody to study it in depth to determine.

I don’t have that kind of time. :-)[/quote]
Almost 2/3 of US gun related deaths are suicides, and the US suicide rate is pretty average (so these would be unlikely to decline significantly if guns ownership declined to European rates). How about some statistics that exclude suicides?

I don’t love guns – not a gun owner, etc. But I think events like this make people believe guns are the problem. As indicated in my post above, guns used to be widely available and we didn’t see this type of shooting.[/quote]

Guns are not the problem. Lack of regulation that allows someone to buy and own 40+ weapons and endless ammo is the problem.

If cars need to be registered, if dogs need to be registered, then why not guns?