Well DUH!

U.S. Most Heavily Armed Country
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:27 PM

The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.

India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.

On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.

"Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading," Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause said.

"Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income," he told a Geneva news conference.

The report, which relied on government data, surveys and media reports to estimate the size of world arsenals, estimated there were 650 million civilian firearms worldwide, and 225 million held by law enforcement and military forces.

Five years ago, the Small Arms Survey had estimated there were a total of just 640 million firearms globally.

"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," Krause said, attributing the increase largely to better research and more data on weapon distribution networks.

Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities

Yet another reason to carry a Gun!

(If someone or something did this to one of my children, it would be dead. Period. -Yuri)

DNA Taken from Pitbull that Raped 2-Year-Old

Lockport, NY -- Police say DNA has been taken from the pitbull that attacked a toddler by allegedly sodomizing it last weekend. It was a disturbing and violent attack. The two year old child is in Women and Children's Hospital. Neighbors heard a mother screaming that her child was being raped.

Lockport police say taking DNA from the dog is part of the investigation.

Lockport Police received a 911 call from a frantic City of Lockport mother last Sunday afternoon.

The mother told Lockport Police that she left her two year old unattended for a short time and after hearing the baby scream, she ran to see what was wrong.

When she got in the room, she told Lockport Police the dog, named "Bear" had sodomized the toddler. The mother screamed, scaring the dog out of the house, but the dog was still attached to the baby.

One neighbor told 2 On Your Side, she heard the mother screaming "the dog is raping my baby." Neighbors ran to help, but only one man was able to get the dog and child apart.

Anastacio Castillo says "I tried to get the dog away from the baby, the dog was already inside the baby." When the baby was finally free, he was visibly sick. Castillo says the boy was vomiting and bleeding.

The baby was rushed to Women and Children's Hospital where the toddler underwent reconstructive surgery.

The dog is being held at the Niagara County SPCA for evalution. An animal behavior specialist is scheduled to evaluate the pitbull on Friday.

Since the attack, over 20 people have called the SPCA asking to adopt the pitbull. Hear those calls by clicking Video.

The Niagara County District Attorney's office is assisting Lockport Police with the investigation.

Miranda Workman, behavior specialist at Purrfect Paws in Amherst says, "Most likely this is not a learned behavior. Dogs in tact, not spayed or neutered have a higher hormonal drive."

She urges parents to never, ever leave their children alone with a dog.

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July 12, 2007: Pit Bull Rapes Two-Year-Old

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July 23, 2007: Police Want Help With Pitbull Rape Investigation

Thanks to SondraK!