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More guns equal more murders - study

From correspondents in Washington

January 12, 2007 02:18pm
Article from: Reuters


AMERICAN states where more people own guns have higher murder rates,
including murders of children, researchers at the Harvard School of
Public Health have reported.

The study, certain to provoke arguments in a country where gun
ownership is an important political issue, found that about one in
three US households owneda gun.

"Our findings suggest that in the United States, household firearms
may be an important source of guns used to kill children, women and
men, both on the street and in their homes," said Matthew Miller,
assistant professor of health policy and injury prevention, who led
the study.

His team used data from a US Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention survey of 200,000 people in all 50 states.

After dividing the states into four groups based on how many
households had guns, the researchers found the states in the highest
quartile of firearm ownership had overall homicide rates 60 per cent
higher than states in the lowest quartile.

In states with the most guns, firearm homicide rates were 114 percent
higher, the researchers reported in the February issue of Social
Science and Medicine.

More than 200 million guns are privately owned in the US, according to
the Justice Department.

In September, the FBI released 2005 figures showing violent crime had
risen 2.3 per cent nationally - the first increase in four years.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...6-1702,00.html



So what? The whole history of the world is a bloody story of man killing
man. It is our us, our destiny, our reason for being. You take life too
seriously, Dude.

--
jlrogers±³©