Talk:Gun violence

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This article was nominated for deletion on 2007-03-02. The result of the discussion was Keep.

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Contents 1 Gun Violence 2 Significant figures 3 NPOV Dispute 4 Incomplete list?

[edit] Gun Violence

The term "gun violence" does not make sense in English.

"Gun violence" = "violence committed with guns." I don't see what's so nonsensical about it. Krimpet 14:53, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Homicide stats involving firearms include lawful gun-related self-defense deaths, at least in the US. Homicide only means the deaths are due to firearms in these stats, not that the total numbers of deaths are due to gun violence. To claim otherwise is misleading. Yaf 13:28, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I think death by a gun is violent enough to be considered violent, justifiable or not 96.18.35.35 (talk) 19:34, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Significant figures

The authors of this table should review the concept of significant figures, especially the section on superfluous precision. Reporting values such as 114.5083 for a given country implies an absurd degree of accuracy, which could only be obtained if there were millions of murders per year that were exactly counted. Reporting 114 (or maybe 114.5) is enough. --Itub 08:21, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV Dispute

I feel that this article violates Wikipedia's NPOV policy. It appears to me that this article is written with a pro-gun control point of view. For example, it uses the verbiage "loose gun laws" in the United States. The United States at the Federal level, as well as all 50 states, have many, many laws that outlaw the illegal use of firearms, including but not limited to murder, (armed) robbery, assault, etc.

Furthermore, many of the articles cited are from known pro-gun control authors. Philip J. Cook, for instance, has written books and papers and is a gun control proponent (http://www.nraila.org/Issues/articles/read.aspx?ID=125 and http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/factsheets/?page=econ). The article cites the Mighigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, which is a gun control support group with links the Brady Campaign and Violence Policy Center (http://www.mppgv.org/Web_links_content.htm) but no links to the National Rifle Association, an organization on the pro-gun side of the equation.

While it is perfectly valid to include citations from both the Brady Campaign and the NRA, I feel that the article's neutrality should be evaluated so that neither a pro-gun control nor pro-gun point of view are presented. Gun violence is a real thing, and proponents on both sides will present arguments in favor of their cause, but Wikipedia's articles aren't the place for that. Msawyer91 (talk) 04:03, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. This article is biased in the opening intro. I'm going to clean it a bit right now. Krushia (talk) 05:57, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, just removed the entire USA sentence - it could not be salvaged. The rest of the country-specific references in the opening header should probably go too as the table says it all. If anyone else agrees, just go at it. Krushia (talk) 06:03, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Incomplete list?

Why is it that only European and other white countries are listed? Is this not a form a discrimination? I thought ALL countries should be included in this... LOTRrules (talk) 02:18, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

There are a few problems with this table. Firstly, not all of the figures given match those in the linked UNODC document, and I'd echo the complaint about the number of decimal places. (Surely this must be original research? The UNODC quotes figures to 2 decimal places.) Secondly, I don't think the UNODC survey itself is entirely clear without an attached explanation of their figures and definitions. For example, the stats for South Africa include homicides and attempted homicides and a "firearms homicide" statistic which presumably includes attempted homicides. So you can't really compare this to (for example) the US, where only "completed homicide" figures are given. Plevyman (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 09:00, 25 January 2008 (UTC)