stats.....lies....and the truth
As always, stats can be presented in ways to apparently support any given point. Especially when the stat is a statistically insignificant subset of the whole.
For instance, the "22 to 1" stat is meaningless, even if it were true, because not every legal (or illegal) use of a firearm result in shots being fired. It could be 100, or 1000 to 1, and still not mean anything as far as the larger argument is concerned : illegal -vs- legal
uses of firearms.
Now, when you add up all of the legal
uses of firearms for any given year, I'd bet you'd be talking in the hundreds of millions, just in the US. And by uses, I don't simply mean defensive uses, but any uses. I use my gun all the time, but it's never hurt anything but paper and backstops. (Well, and the webbing of my hand from hammer bite...)
Drunk drivers use to kill a lot more people than they do today. The reduction is not due to making alcohol illegal, but in the education about the consequences of drinking and driving, the creatation of laws holding people responsible for the actions of drinking and driving, and the enforcement of those laws.
Yeh, we tried to outlaw alcohol once, but that didn't work. In fact, most would agree that it only made matters worse.
I had some other examples, but I'm getting tired and can't remember them.
Oh well...
Carry On!