Skepticize Statistics

Last week Dr. Santanu Borah, a Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing spoke to our class on Human Values in Globalization and New Global Order. Values are emotional and differ among different people. We have different opinions because of our past experiences or our upbringing. For us to further understand what values were and learn about our personal values, Dr. Borah brought up many popular political topics for us to discuss such as military spending, death penalty, abortion, gay rights, and gun control. Politics are good indicators of a person's values, but they do have a tendency to bring out the beast in some people. Dr. Borah gave us charts and data on a few issues to get us riled up. And before I go any further I would like to express my opinion on data: It lies!! Okay, so not really. It's actually really accurate, especially if it's from Wiki. But if a reader is not careful, they tend to speculate things that are not given on a chart. Many times the connotation a chart can give is different than what the data is actually saying. When given data, especially on political issues, it is important to be skeptical on the source and critical when analyzing the data.

In this post I will be discussing Gun Control: The chart below is the first thing Dr. Borah showed us on this topic.



So what do you think?




<--- OMG!! We're all going to die! Why is the US so corrupt and evil?! AhHHHHHhhhhHhhhhhhHhhhh!!!!!!


<--- How are Canadians on this list?! Perhaps they're not as Pacifist as you thought. :O




Yes. That's what the first look can make you think, perhaps a little less dramatic, but you get my point. But this chart is showing Gun deaths- not total deaths. The US has more Gun Deaths because we can use guns and criminals do not have to get creative with their weapon of choice. US criminals choose to murder quickly and less painfully. So I did a little research to see which countries have the most murders and if it correlates with Gun Control.
This is what I came up with.














The US did not make it on to this chart, but according to GunPolicy.org and their 85 cited sources, the US's total homicides is calculated at about 4.96 homicides/100,000 people. While our gun homicides are high in comparison to other countries, our total homicides are less than at least all of the countries in the above chart. And you don't have to worry about Canada anymore- they're just as Pacifistic(maybe a word?) as ever! Canada is at about 1.81 deaths/100,000 people, which looks like pretty good odds to me.

Now looking at some of the countries with the highest number of homicides and their Gun Control Laws I came across some interesting information.

Most of the countries on the above chart have strict Gun Control Laws. In South Africa, owning a gun is conditional on a competency test and several other, albeit ill defined factors, including background checking of the applicant, inspection of an owner's premises, and licensing of the weapon by the police. Minimum waiting period for a permit frequently exceeds 2 years from date of application. Mexico is also strict with Gun Control. Entering Mexico with a firearm, or even a single round of ammunition, carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, even if the firearm or ammunition is taken into the country unintentionally. And just a fun fact for you: Recent FBI reports indicate that crime rate in the US has gone down for the fourth year in a row while gun ownership has significantly increased.

So here's my opinion on Gun Control:
Those who kill are criminals. Criminals break the law. If there is no gun control, criminals will break the law and kill people. If there is gun control, criminals will break the law and kill people. Guns don't kill people- people kill people. So gun control isn't about guns- it's about control. American people need to keep their rights and not give the government anymore control on their lives. And a political movement based on angering gun owners probably isn't a good idea anyways.