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nyan_sandwich comments on Gun Control: How would we know? - Less Wrong Discussion

11 Post author: rlpowell 20 December 2012 08:14PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 21 December 2012 03:45:04AM 10 points [-]

Someone has been feeding me lies!

Comment author: Jabberslythe 21 December 2012 04:26:16AM 5 points [-]

I believed it as well until recently. I first remember hearing it in "Bowling For Columbine" so maybe Michael Moore is the culprit. American having more guns per capita definably fits better with my my background beliefs of those two countries.

Comment author: satt 23 December 2012 08:07:36AM *  4 points [-]

I first remember hearing it in "Bowling For Columbine"

Or did you?

I Ctrl-Fed through a few versions of the English subtitles available for Bowling for Columbine to try to find a claim that Canada has more guns per capita than the US. I turned up a blank (although subtitles don't capture everything, of course).

The most relevant bits I found were subtitles 1580 to 1583:

In Canada, with a population of just around 30 million - there's about 10 million families - and the best estimate is somewhere in the region of seven-million guns.

That implies about 23 guns per 100 Canadians, which is if anything an underestimate.

Comment author: Jabberslythe 23 December 2012 07:33:11PM 0 points [-]

Whoops, I guess my memory was being confabulatory.

Comment author: [deleted] 21 December 2012 10:37:58AM 0 points [-]

Yeah, I think I got that from there too.