CapnMac
Member
"Ownership" statistics are going to be flawed in Switzerland and Israel for the large number of "issued" weapons available. Shooting enthusiasts wanting to be skilled in non-issued weapons will represent some portion of the privately-owned weapons.
Comparing European nations to the US also has inherent flaws. Germany has about the same land area as Montana, and roughly twice the population of California.
(Germany--pop 81m, area 357K km²; MT--pop 998K, 380K km²; CA-pop 38m, 163K km²)
We in the US still do not have a very good handle on how Delaware differs from the Dakotas, or that Ohio and Oklahoma are also very different places--yet governed, nationally, as if they were the same. Shoot, Crockett County in Texas has a similar area to Delaware (2808mi² and 2490mi² respectively) yet both are very different places (population 4K versus 907K). [Trivia: The County Seat, Ozona, is the only incorporated city in Crockett County, and has 3/4 of the county's population residing therein.]
Which then gets us back to the other logical fallacy these studies oft commit--that the presence of a firearm is causal to firearms crimes. This can be a "blind spot" for many researchers, and creates the fallacy of arguing from the specific to the general. If this were good methodology, Detroit would be the speeding capital of the US, for the presence of so many automobiles.
Comparing European nations to the US also has inherent flaws. Germany has about the same land area as Montana, and roughly twice the population of California.
(Germany--pop 81m, area 357K km²; MT--pop 998K, 380K km²; CA-pop 38m, 163K km²)
We in the US still do not have a very good handle on how Delaware differs from the Dakotas, or that Ohio and Oklahoma are also very different places--yet governed, nationally, as if they were the same. Shoot, Crockett County in Texas has a similar area to Delaware (2808mi² and 2490mi² respectively) yet both are very different places (population 4K versus 907K). [Trivia: The County Seat, Ozona, is the only incorporated city in Crockett County, and has 3/4 of the county's population residing therein.]
Which then gets us back to the other logical fallacy these studies oft commit--that the presence of a firearm is causal to firearms crimes. This can be a "blind spot" for many researchers, and creates the fallacy of arguing from the specific to the general. If this were good methodology, Detroit would be the speeding capital of the US, for the presence of so many automobiles.