School newspaper article, looking for response ideas...

[Sportcat]

The online version and hard copy of the newspaper come out on Friday. Hopefully we'll be able to provide a hyper link to the letter.

 

[JohnK]

This is a good point... is our population really that much greater than theirs? This would shrink the apparent per capita disparity somewhat.

According to some census figures I found the US population is about 38x as large as Germanys. 285 million for the US and 7.5 million for Germany. We still have a higher rate than they do, but we have a higher rate for most violent crime, not just firearm deaths.

 

[semf]

ttbadboy
do a search on the battle of Athens Tenn. That should help make the other point for citizen firearm ownership.

 

[AZ Jeff]

John K. wrote:

According to some census figures I found the US population is about 38x as large as Germanys. 285 million for the US and 7.5 million for Germany. We still have a higher rate than they do, but we have a higher rate for most violent crime, not just firearm deaths.

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While I don't disagree that our higher murder rate is caused by (among MANY factors) a higher overall population than that of Germany, you have the basic population wrong.

Germany, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, had a population of about EIGHTY-TWO (82) million in 1998, NOT 7.5 million.

That makes the U.S. about 3.5 times as populated as Germany, NOT 38 times.

Let's make sure we have our facts straight here!!

 

[mdsteele]

I second and third the notion that Justins post ought to be sent to him.

 

[JohnK]

While I don't disagree that our higher murder rate is caused by (among MANY factors) a higher overall population than that of Germany, you have the basic population wrong.

Germany, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, had a population of about EIGHTY-TWO (82) million in 1998, NOT 7.5 million.

That makes the U.S. about 3.5 times as populated as Germany, NOT 38 times.

Let's make sure we have our facts straight here!!

Correct, that 7.5m figure was from the German Federal Statistics Bureau and whoever translated the page didn't do a very good job of it. That 7.5m is the number of foreigners living in Germany, roughly 9.1%.

Which only changes the order of magnitude, not the fact that quoting numbers directly is misleading.

 

[ny32182]

The reply is going in today. Probably too late to be published tomorrow, but maybe they will put it out next week.

I'd like to replace the entire court quote with a sentence about how gun control has assisted in the killing of millions during the 20th century.

Does anyone remember the link to the page about that? Can't think of it off the top of my head. Thanks.