Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.6.2.17 $; site uiucdcs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!renner From: renner@uiucdcs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Handguns & IRA Terrorists: Some Data Message-ID: <29200190@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Sat, 19-Jan-85 16:12:00 EST Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.29200190 Posted: Sat Jan 19 16:12:00 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jan-85 05:40:56 EST Lines: 26 Nf-ID: #N:uiucdcs:29200190:000:1050 Nf-From: uiucdcs!renner Jan 19 15:12:00 1985 > Do you realize that you have a greater chance of being killed by a handgun > in the United States than you do of being killed by terrorism in Northern > Ireland? I hadn't realized it because it isn't true. It took a while to get enough data to work out the relevant death rates, but here they are: -------------------- | Civilian death rate from terrorist-related violence in Northern Ireland: | assuming all deaths occurred in Belfast: 46.1 per 100,000 | assuming even distribution throughout N. Ireland: 10.7 per 100,000 | | Death rate in the United States: | from all handguns, 1984: 4.7 per 100,000 | from murders (no suicides, accidents), 1982: 3.7 per 100,000 -------------------- The chance of being killed with a handgun in the US is between 2 and 10 times less than the chance of being killed by terrorist-related violence in Northern Ireland. Sources: Flackes, W.D. _Northern Ireland: A Political Directory, 1968-79_. U.S. Statistical Abstract, 1984. Scott Renner {pur-ee,ihnp4}!uiucdcs!renner