Washington, DC

[Scott Murray]

I wish I could take credit for this, but I saw it posted on another forum:

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If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in Iraq during the last 22 months, that gives a firearms death rate of 60 per 100,000. I know that bombs/IED's have accounted for most of the deaths, but bear with me...

The rate in Washington DC is 80.6 per 100,000.

That means that you are more likely to be shot and killed in our nation's capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington, D.C.

[Paladin]

I've been to a lot of places, and I have to say the District is the one where I felt that I most needed a gun.

[BobCat]

Scott,

Thanks! I need to show this to someone - do you have a link to "primary source" material? I just want to be able to "prove" it with firm data.

Regards,
Andrew
Drooling with anticipation at the reaction of [the person I need to show it to].

[dolanp]

Well the rate in DC now is closer to 45 per 100k. That's a pretty old statistic.

Sorry to say it's just an example of cooking the numbers.

[gigag04]

that could be fixed by finding the actual number of firearm deaths as opposed to IED etc.

The numbers might still work.

Either way the stat has a point.

[Scott Murray]

The thread I copied from used this for substantiation:

"My numbers were for the entire 22 month period (Jan 2003 - Oct 2004)...not per year. During that period, there were 427 homicides in Washington DC according to FBI reports. During the same period, 96 American soldiers were killed in Iraq according to the Wall Street Journal."

I don't have the primary data myself. It looks like the numbers are consistent with dolanp's 45 per 100k, if you consider it's for a 22 month period, and not just one year.

The thread itself is at: http://sigforum.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/3 ... /447103392


Scott