>>Hi Jos,
>>
>>>Death by gun is obviously a gun related death (tautology) but the reason there was a crime committed, regardless of the weapon used, has another cause. You say the cause is gun availability. I say the crime has socio-economic causes.
>>
>>I agree with you, but also think that gun availability escalates the crime, so, for example, a robbery is now an homicide/death depending on the outcome <g>
>
>You are correct. The availability of a gun can indeed escalate the crime to a more serious one (but does not cause the crime to occur). Without weapon A the criminal would need to use weapon B, which may indeed be less effective.

In fact, though I don't have a cite, ISTR reading that there are a fair number of assaults and murders which result because there's a dispute and someone has a gun available. That is, you have either a non-crime (people yelling at each other) or a minor crime (people having a fight) that becomes a major crime because there's a gun at hand.

Now would these folks have grabbed another available weapon? I imagine the answer is "sometimes, but not always." Guns just make it too easy to hurt others.

Tamar