Originally Posted by Libertine

I'd say "most likely to cause death" would be a good indication of how dangerous something is, wouldn't you?



We already have some data, actually: the San Francisco General Hospital totals for both gunshot and stabbing admissions over the years 2003-2007. (I won't post the image again, you'll have to scroll up)

Interestingly, the numbers for both are fairly similar. If, as you would bet, confrontations involving knives were 50 times as likely to result in bodily injury as confrontations involving guns, that would suggest that in that particular area, confrontations involving guns were about 50 times as common as confrontations involving knives.

That hardly seems likely, now does it? Especially considering how knives are generally more readily available in situations such as domestic disputes.

But, for the heck of it:



http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/fireviol.txt