General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Gun Ownership Neither Increases Nor Decreases the Crime Rate [View all]lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Let's look at the second chart,
The trendline means exactly fucking nothing. See that outlier on the far right? That's us, and if all of our guns made us as safe as our standard of living would tend to suggest, we wouldn't be in the upper third of all countries for number of violent crimes.
If our standard of living were as low as most of the countries represented in this chart, yet retained all those guns it would be complete pandemonium.
Speaking of the relationship between guns and standard of living, it stands to reason that the citizens of the countries with the most guns probably have the disposable income to purchase this consumer good. What you're seeing here could be better plotted as violence vs standard of living - with the US being an outlier... arguably because of all the weapons.