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SPOILER ALERT: U.S. Most heavily armed nation in the world


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http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828

 

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA | Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:57pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.

India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.

On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.

"Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading," Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause said.

"Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income," he told a Geneva news conference.

The report, which relied on government data, surveys and media reports to estimate the size of world arsenals, estimated there were 650 million civilian firearms worldwide, and 225 million held by law enforcement and military forces.

Five years ago, the Small Arms Survey had estimated there were a total of just 640 million firearms globally.

"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," Krause said, attributing the increase largely to better research and more data on weapon distribution networks.

Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities.

 

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I'm doing my part with my 7.62x39 Saiga and Mosin-Nagant. Lets keep America in the lead folks!

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That's great and all, but I feel like this will give us an excuse to rest on our laurels. If 90 guns for every 100 residents makes us number one, where's our motivation for making it 91 guns or more for every 100 citizens?

 

"The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading."

 

Not really. Illegitimate, abusive governments need monopolies on the legitimate use of force. Whether in Nigeria or New Orleans, a populace that can fend for itself is a threat to a government that needs it to be terrified.

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There is one major statistic that is wrong. There are much more privately held small arms in some of the counties mentioned that were originally military weapons and not figured into these totals. Most of the weapons Nigeria for example were illegally imported and not in the counts because the figures they are using are from manufacturing and import documentation. The facts are corrupt just like the minds of the liberal bean counters that wrote the article.

 

And from this quote "Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income," It sounds like the OWS group is in the press also to try to spread their socialist wealth by adding guns to the list of reasons capitalism is bad.

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DrThunder, you're right,

 

"The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading."

They are not misleading if in the proper context. Lack of civilian firearms ownership equals an increase in violence. Hmm, go figure.

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Yeah, I was thinking I need to buy some more guns to help our average. Think that will fly with the wife?

 

Possibly. I do it by convincing her we need different calibers for different scenarios. Shotgun and 40 cal for home defense, 9mm for concealed carry, 308 for autos/cover penetration, 223 for general purpose.....

 

It also helps to buy her a weapon on occasion.

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With regard to us being the most heavily armed nation, I thought that was pretty much common knowledge already. And over just the past few years I'm sure the numbers have gone way up. Obama is the best gun salesman to come along since Oliver Winchester and he is responsible for at least doubling my own personal arsenal.

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Whether in Nigeria or New Orleans, ....

 

i work in nigeria frequently. my last trip was 2 weeks ago. logged into the hotels internet access and tried to keep up with saiga12. got flagged by a filter that denied access stating "personal weapon ownership" as the cause. then i tried to hit my favorite porn site....damn filtered again!

Edited by smartbomb
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Whether in Nigeria or New Orleans, ....

 

i work in nigeria frequently. my last trip was 2 weeks ago. logged into the hotels internet access and tried to keep up with saiga12. got flagged by a filter that denied access stating "personal weapon ownership" as the cause. then i tried to hit my favorite porn site....damn filtered again!

Just email the filter administrator that you are the son of a wealthy, American prince, and your father has just been deposed. If the admin lowers the filter, you will transfer $13,500,000 to his bank account as soon as he sends you his routing info and makes a small, good faith deposit of $10,000.

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Whether in Nigeria or New Orleans, ....

 

i work in nigeria frequently. my last trip was 2 weeks ago. logged into the hotels internet access and tried to keep up with saiga12. got flagged by a filter that denied access stating "personal weapon ownership" as the cause. then i tried to hit my favorite porn site....damn filtered again!

Just email the filter administrator that you are the son of a wealthy, American prince, and your father has just been deposed. If the admin lowers the filter, you will transfer $13,500,000 to his bank account as soon as he sends you his routing info and makes a small, good faith deposit of $10,000.

 

ah hahahahahaha...i did look for the princess to claim my $13.5 million

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With regard to us being the most heavily armed nation, I thought that was pretty much common knowledge already. And over just the past few years I'm sure the numbers have gone way up. Obama is the best gun salesman to come along since Oliver Winchester and he is responsible for at least doubling my own personal arsenal.

 

This is another anti gun scare tactic for the anti gun Nazis to try to disarm us, The Obamanable Muslim is the most hostile to gun owners and is trying to pass the UN Small Arms Treaty which will disarm us. I pray that he's out of the White House and we get anti Progressive legislators who will correct the Constitution and eliminate the international agreements superseding the Constitution.

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A few months ago I was speaking with a uncle that I have a great deal of respect for, always thought he was a semi-genius. I told him one of these days we have to hit the shooting range and have some fun. He didn't say yes or no, just starts telling me how he doesn't like guns and wishes guns didn't exist since they cause so many problems. Funny thing is after that he tells me of how he used to shoot .22 rifles in the boy scouts when he was a kid and said he was pretty good at it.

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Baha, love it.

I think the government handing out a firearm to any person who doesn't already own one would go far to deter crime. Not that it will happen, but I think that a potential crime-committer would be a lot less likely to commit that crime if he KNEW that the potential victim owned a firearm.

I have yet for someone who opposes firearm ownership to offer an argument other than 'guns kill people' as they're reasoning. Most would rather make laws saying guns are illegal. Because "someone who ignores a law against theft, rape, and murder will follow a law that says they can't own a gun." Logically speaking.

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I think that ratio skews and words around is most people who own gun(s) own more than one LOL. so there are not necessarily 90 armed citizens for every 100 citizens and I'm sure they were careful to word that correctly so stupid people misread it and assume bad things. it sounds like it's spreading negativity to me.

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