# Price for gun rights is paid in PA. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005 "2009-04-04T22:55:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/661 "2009-04-15T02:37:04Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > You fail to have read or comprehended anything I said. (or is that just boilerplate you post in response to anything?) It was in response to: > [@Isamu](#): > > And, really, my travel there was only a minor point, the main one being unnecessary deaths and my anti position thereto. The only reason it would be logical or valid to bring up ‘unnecessary deaths’ in a discussion about guns would be if guns _caused_ unnecessary deaths, via crime, misuse, etc that would otherwise not exist. My point is, in order to pose this as a logical reason to restrict gun rights, you first need to prove that it exists. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/662 "2009-04-15T21:36:49Z")
> [@Todderbob](#): > > Oh, no. > > BBC has covered this a couple of dozen times. > > [One](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1440764.stm) of many articles on the subject. Might one of those times be a more recent report? That one’s eight years old now, and reporting on results taken 10 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/663 "2009-04-15T23:04:38Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > Might one of those times be a more recent report? That one’s eight years old now, and reporting on results taken 10 years ago. I’m sure some of them are, however that one specifically illustrated my point, that after a ban on pistols (in this instance), firearm related crimes do not drop. In that instance, they went up significantly. _That_ article illustrated my point. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/664 "2009-04-16T02:31:34Z")
The exchange with **Isamu** is interesting. It made me realize that as a resident of the USA I have never had a gun pointed at me in my home country. I have had one pointed at me in Germany, and several limes in Israel. This was not intentional, just sloppy muzzle awareness on the part of soldiers. To be fair to the IDF kids, when you have a packed fast food joint and half the occupants have \M-16s, they all have to be pointing somewhere…still it would have been better if somewhere had been the ceiling. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/665 "2009-04-17T15:14:53Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > The exchange with **Isamu** is interesting. > > It made me realize that as a resident of the USA I have never had a gun pointed at me in my home country. I have had one pointed at me in Germany, and several limes in Israel. This was not intentional, just sloppy muzzle awareness on the part of soldiers. To be fair to the IDF kids, when you have a packed fast food joint and half the occupants have \M-16s, they all have to be pointing somewhere…still it would have been better if somewhere had been the ceiling. That’s true of most people IME. I’ve had a gun pointed at me about a dozen times, I’d guess, and only two of those stand out as being a threat to my existance by way of mailce. The rest? Carelessness and ignorance on the part of fellow shooters. Which in some way reinforces the accident statistic while at the same time shines a light on the low (actual) level of gun crime as weighed against the overall population. Statistically as well as anecdotally, cheesecake kills more people than guns do. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/666 "2009-04-17T15:36:55Z")
> [@buttonjockey308](#): > > Statistically as well as anecdotally, cheesecake kills more people than guns do. Is that a real statistic? Can you point me to it? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/667 "2009-04-17T15:54:27Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Is that a real statistic? Can you point me to it? Thanks. There are approximately [5,000](http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/f/food_poisoning/deaths.htm) deaths in the US per year related to foodborne pathogens, and an additional [3,000](http://www.personalmd.com/news/choking_1107000.shtml) or so related to choking. Due to a rather shocking dearth of research in the field, I am unable to find reliable statistics for the number of people killed by drive-by cheesecakings, falling into vats of cheesecake mix, and so on. I’ll take a stab at 2,000 to bring our death toll to 10,000. If we assume that all 10,000 food-related deaths were caused by cheesecake, that’s still short of the approximately [30,000](http://webapp.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe) deaths caused by firearms per year. ETA: I can’t believe I just looked all that up. I’m a fucking idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/668 "2009-04-17T16:18:39Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > There are approximately [5,000](http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/f/food_poisoning/deaths.htm) deaths in the US per year related to foodborne pathogens, and an additional [3,000](http://www.personalmd.com/news/choking_1107000.shtml) or so related to choking. Due to a rather shocking dearth of research in the field, I am unable to find reliable statistics for the number of people killed by drive-by cheesecakings, falling into vats of cheesecake mix, and so on. I’ll take a stab at 2,000 to bring our death toll to 10,000. > > If we assume that all 10,000 food-related deaths were caused by cheesecake, that’s still short of the approximately [30,000](http://webapp.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe) deaths caused by firearms per year. > > ETA: I can’t believe I just looked all that up. I’m a fucking idiot. Well I thought he was hinting at obesity and diabetes etc, but still, thanks for the research. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/669 "2009-04-17T16:40:10Z")
Yes, I assumed as much, but I seriously doubt that cheesecake is among the top 10 contributors to obesity and/or diabetes in a country with a McDonalds’, Burger King, KFC and steakhouse on every street. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/670 "2009-04-17T17:04:01Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > There are approximately [5,000](http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/f/food_poisoning/deaths.htm) deaths in the US per year related to foodborne pathogens, and an additional [3,000](http://www.personalmd.com/news/choking_1107000.shtml) or so related to choking. Due to a rather shocking dearth of research in the field, I am unable to find reliable statistics for the number of people killed by drive-by cheesecakings, falling into vats of cheesecake mix, and so on. I’ll take a stab at 2,000 to bring our death toll to 10,000. > > If we assume that all 10,000 food-related deaths were caused by cheesecake, that’s still short of the approximately [30,000](http://webapp.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe) deaths caused by firearms per year. > > ETA: I can’t believe I just looked all that up. I’m a fucking idiot. Nah, you’re just thorough but I meant that cheesecake is just an example of one of those high-fat, high calorie foods that clogs arteries and causes heart disease. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005/671 "2009-04-17T17:06:40Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Yes, I assumed as much, but I seriously doubt that cheesecake is among the top 10 contributors to obesity and/or diabetes in a country with a McDonalds’, Burger King, KFC and steakhouse on every street. Probably not, would it make you feel better to say that Big Macs have killed more people than guns? Because really, we might be able to suss that out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-for-gun-rights-is-paid-in-pa/492005.md?page=33)