The United States is the most heavily armed nation in the world, with 90 guns per 100 people. Yemen is in second place, but only has 60 guns per 100 people

the post title is drawn from a study by the graduate institute of international studies small arms survey as quoted by cenk uygur in a story on his young turks show about guns in the u.s...

from raw story...

Friday night on Current TV’s “The Young Turks,” host Cenk Uygur charged that there’s one party in the Trayvon Martin slaying that is truly, undeniably guilty, but it isn’t a person.

[...]

Citing the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies’s Small Arms Survey, Uyger pointed out that the United States is the most heavily armed nation in the world, with 90 guns per 100 people.  Yemen is in second place, but only has 60 guns per 100 people.  David Hemenway, director of the Harvard University Injury Control Research Center, authored a paper in 2011 called “Risks and Benefits of Guns in the Home,” which stated that children in the U.S. are 11 times more likely to die in a gun-related accident than children in other developed nations.  The Centers for Disease Control’s statistics for gun fatalities in 2009 include 11,493 homicides, 18,735 suicides and 554 accidental deaths, a combined 31,347 gun deaths for the year.

i have never owned a gun, never wanted to own a gun, never will own a gun... hunters...? not a problem... weapons...? obscene...

what uygur doesn't mention is the united states role in the world's arms trade...

The unit in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of US dollars at 1990s prices. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid. Ordered by descending 2000–2010 values. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

2006–10 Rank	Supplier						2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
1	United States						7453	8003	6288	6658	8641
2	Russia						5095	5426	5953	5575	6039
3	Germany						2567	3194	2500	2432	2340
4	France						1643	2432	1994	1865	1834
5	United Kingdom						855	1018	982	1022	1054
6	China						597	430	586	1000	1423
7	Netherlands						1187	1326	530	545	503
8	Sweden						432	366	454	383	806
9	Italy						502	684	417	514	627
10	Israel						299	438	281	807	472
11	Ukraine						553	728	330	320	201
12	Spain						843	590	610	998	513
13	Switzerland						285	301	482	255	137
14	Bulgaria						5[13]	9[13]	286[14]	198[15]	354[16]
15	Canada						226	334	227	169	258
16	South Korea						94	220	80	163	95

arms manufacturing and sales is a huge business globally and no country is heavier into arms manufacturing than the united states...

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There is just no end to incompetence

From WaPo

The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

The bungling incompetence of this Administration and their moronic minions just boggles the mind. There's nothing like arming the insurgency to keep this war going strong. I would venture to say that they probably can't physically account for over half of the weapons that are accounted for in the property books either.

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Ted Nugent doesn't know anybody who doesn't have two black rifles in his truck.

when i read things like this, i realize just how far removed i am from what is, without a doubt, a significant mainstream mindset, a mindset that i can not only not relate to at all, but also one that makes me feel very, very sad...

Last February, Jim Zumbo, a burly, 66-year-old outdoors writer, got a phone call at his home near Cody, Wyo., from the rock star — and outspoken Second Amendment champion — Ted Nugent. “You messed up, man,” Mr. Zumbo says Mr. Nugent told him. “Big time.”

Two days earlier, Mr. Zumbo, a leading hunting journalist, outraged Mr. Nugent and many other gun owners when he suggested in a blog post that increasingly popular semiautomatic guns known as “black rifles” be banned from hunting. Mr. Zumbo, stunned that hunters were using the rifles for sport, also suggested giving the guns, prized for their matte black metal finishes, molded plastic parts and combat-ready looks, a new name: “terrorist rifles.”

Gun enthusiasts’ backlash against Mr. Zumbo was swift. He parted company with his employer, Outdoor Life magazine. Mr. Zumbo says on his Web site that he was “terminated”; the magazine says that it and Mr. Zumbo agreed that he would resign.

But a week after hearing from Mr. Nugent, who has a devoted following among gun owners, Mr. Zumbo visited him in Waco, Tex., to make amends. For his part, Mr. Nugent was prepared to give Mr. Zumbo a lesson on the utility and ubiquity of black rifles.

“These guns are everywhere,” Mr. Nugent explained excitedly in a recent phone interview. “I personally don’t know anybody who doesn’t have two in his truck.”

oh, but wait, there's more...

• [B]lack rifles are now the guns of choice for many hunters, target shooters and would-be home defenders.

• Owners praise their accuracy, ease of use and versatility, as well as their potential to be customized with an array of gadgets.

• While the gun industry’s overall sales have plateaued and its profits have faded over the last decade, black rifles are selling briskly.

• [F]or every dollar spent on black rifles, gun buyers spend at least another customizing the guns from an arsenal of accessories.

“What you have are guns essentially designed for close combat,” says Dennis Hennigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, who notes that a Beretta black rifle was among the weapons obtained by men suspected of plotting a terrorist attack on Fort Dix, N.J. “If your mission is to kill a lot of people very quickly, they’re very well suited for that task.”

i don't have any quarrels with the 2d amendment, but i find the state of mind that's driving the purchase of assault-type, semiautomatic weapons and "tricking them out" much as you would a car or a motorcycle to be profoundly disturbing...

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