Gun ownership and firearm deaths go together

A new study that was published online in the American Journal of Medicine reports that gun ownership is a bigger factor than mental illness when it comes to firearms deaths. But the data suggest that both play roles.

NPR writes:

In the study, doctors in New York looked at data on gun ownership, crime rate, firearms-related deaths and depression from 27 developed countries, including the United States, Japan, Great Britain and South Africa.

The United States had the highest rate of civilian gun ownership, at almost 90 guns per 100 people. The next two countries on the list were Switzerland and Finland, with about 45 guns per 100 people. Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom had the lowest gun numbers, ranging from less than 1 gun per 100 in Japan to 6 in the U.K.

The countries with more civilian guns also had the highest rates of firearms deaths, with the United States leading the list at 10 deaths per 100,000, based on an international mortality database.

Getting back to the basics

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m sharing more and more content here on blog – thanks in part to Pressgram.

I’m starting to get back to how I was blogging originally – just sharing fun stuff and thoughts on a whim – rather than posting them to Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere.

Seems most social networks have become more and more of an echo chamber – everybody broadcasting with few people really listening – so I might as well own all the content if no one’s really paying attention.

Charles Spurgeon on war

“I wish that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war, believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed, and that, if a nation is driven to fight in its own defence, Christianity stands by to weep and to intervene as soon as possible, and not to join in the cruel shouts which celebrate an enemy’s slaughter.” – Charles Spurgeon

HT