Quote:
Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary
Is this actually real?!
wow... i had no idea how pervasive the attraction to guns are down in the states...
that's nuts seeing something like that...granted, i've never visited a walmart while down in the states...
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First, it's not real, the sign on top was a prank.
Second, I'd guess that rifle ownership in Alberta is probably way higher per capita than in the United States.
Third, other than the mass killings, rifles are very rarely used to kill people. Handguns kill people at 20x the rate and for some reason everyone focuses on rifles:
Deaths by handguns in the US: 5,562
Deaths by any kind of rifle:248
Deaths by knives:1,567
Blunt objects:435
Hand,fists,feet:660
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s...tables/table-4
Edmonton had a rough year in 2014, when 35 people died of homicides in Edmonton. Per capita that would translate to 12,000 in the United states.
Calgary had 26 in 2014, which would translate to 7,280 in the US population.
Both of those numbers are way above the per capita rate that people are murdered with guns in the US, and are probably on par with the murder rate as a whole in the US.
The point? US's gun problem is hand guns. Guns in general need to be eliminated to make any kind of difference. Mass shootings get the headlines, but they are not even registering as a significant risk of death, nor are the weapons of choice used in those crimes.