July Tournament

I present my rebuttal to them. Gun Storage Pro talks about gun storage and how it may be linked to higher deaths, with no clear correlation. An unlocked gun in the drawer five feet from the ground is in no danger of being found by a toddler. Nor can Pro say definitively that these tragic consequences are even from improperly stored firearms. In a house where all individuals respect guns, there is no need to lock them. Similarly, in a house where the gun in locked in the safe, it is by no means impossible for a teen to acquire said gun. Proper storage does not automatically lead to safer houses, and his saying it leads to higher death counts is 1) a bare assertion with no proof, 2) implied concession that the current death tolls by guns are at the maximum, and 3) is an issue that can be remedied by legislation and does not require an outright ban. After all, automobiles are often misused with people texting and driving, and there is no talk about banning either cell phones or cars, merely greater enforcement of common sense legislation, whether it be distracted driving or gun storage laws. Suicide Guns are effective in their lethality, there is no denying this, but to blame the gun for suicide rates is ridiculous. As Pro mentioned, suicide attempts are made every day, using a variety of methods. Pro's main argument boils down to the success rate, but cannot state with any certainty that without a gun, people would stop trying to, or succeed in, killing themselves. Pro attempts to combine gun ownership, easy storage, and suicide as a correlation; however, UK is a country most applauded for its gun control policies, as evidenced in its 6.6 guns-per-100-residents rate, compared to USA's 88.6. In 2013, the suicide rate in the UK was 11.9 per 100,000, compared to 12.6 per 100,000. Clearly, the issue of suicide is not due to gun ownership, nor improper storage, and even if the latter, a complete ban is not in order. . https://www.afsp.org... . http://www.ons.gov.uk... . https://en.wikipedia.org... Gun Accidents Quote from Pro: "In 2007, the United States suffered some 15,000-19,000 accidental shootings…American children under age 15 were nine times more likely to die of a gun accident than children in other advanced wealthy countries… About 200 Americans go to emergency rooms every day with gunshot wounds…” (. http://www.thedailybeast.com......) This is fuzzy math. 19,000 accidental shootings is about 52 per day. So, the figure 200 per day is due to ALL gun shots, accidental or otherwise. 50% more children are poisoned each day than total Americans are shot, and some of those shot are by police, criminal activity, or even in defense of others. . http://www.cdc.gov... In fact, ER visits in America from falling off ladders total 164,000, and result in 300 deaths. Ladders are half as deadly, but approximately 8x more injury inducing than accidental gun fire - should Ladders and poison be illegal, too? . http://www.nachi.org... Homicide: Using Pro's source: . http://www.infoplease.com... Did anyone notice that with gun ownership going steadily up, the rate of murder by gun has stayed fairly constant since 1995 - ranging from 66.7% to 69.4%, all while the total number of murders, and total number of gun murders, drop from over 13,790 to less than 8,800? Pro needs to explain how there are more guns in homes, and yet, less murders, since his entire argument links the two together. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not going to sit here and pretend guns don't present a problem in society, nor am I going to pretend they are not a dangerous tool; but they are just that - a tool. Pro has failed to establish a link that shows more guns equal more violence. With less guns, the UK is just as suicidal as the USA. With more guns, there are less murders in the USA. There are more dangerous tools out there that do more harm than guns, such as ladders, household cleaners, and automobiles. Bottom line: Pro has failed to show that guns need to be banned.