Guns kill less people every year than the number of unique spider species known to man!

[DanTex]

Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms.[1] Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every habitat with the exception of air and sea colonization. As of 2008, approximately 40,000 spider species, and 109 families have been recorded by taxonomists;[2] however, there has been confusion within the scientific community as to how all these families should be classified, as evidenced by the over 20 different classifications that have been proposed since 1900.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider

Guns kill about 30,000 Americans every year. But there are 40,000 different species of spider! That means you can assign a spider species to each gun violence victim and you'd still have 10,000 left over!!!!

Therefore, gun violence is no big deal!

[Skinner]

1. Somebody is going to misunderstand this post.

And in the re-telling it is going to become "guns kill fewer people than spiders do."

[DanTex]

4. You're right.

Changed the title, hope that helps. For the record, this OP is a parody of another recent OP in the guns forum:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/117236534

[ashling]

7. don't tread on me

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"I'm going to get me a spidee" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ain't no dadblamed spider gettin' past me, no siree!

[fascisthunter]

2. a spider is part of nature itself... guns are man-made

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

18. A gun is as much a part of nature as a spider's web

both are manufactured.

both are weapons.

On another note, there are more people killed by swimming pools each year than there are subspecies of elephant. Maybe there's a statistical correlation in there somewhere.

[fascisthunter]

21. um no...

....it's sad how much sophistry is placed into defending guns. Trash is then part of nature, so lets litter more...

[Politicalboi]

3. I would gladly take my chances

With spiders than guns. I found one walking on my bed the other morning. Did I kill it? No I did not. I put him in cellophane wrapper from my cigarettes, he crawled in, and I took him outside. Spiders are good too. I also have one under our sink cabinet in the bathroom. He harms no one, so I don't harm him. Spiders catch unwanted bugs too.

[mike_c]

5. LOL-- do you realize you've chosen THE most speciose group of animals in existence...

...for comparison, i.e. terrestrial arthropods? That's like saying "guns kill fewer people than there are grains of sand at the beach!"

How's this for comparison instead? If gun violence kills 30,000 Americans annually, that's SIX TIMES MORE than all the species of mammals in the world (about 5000, give or take). It's nearly FIVE TIMES the number of amphibian species worldwide (about 6500). It's three times as many as all the bird species on Earth (just under 10,000). It's about the same as all the fish species on Earth, the vertebrate group that has been diversifying the longest-- so gun violence kills as many Americans EVERY YEAR as the number of extant fish species it has taken 500 million years to evolve, LOL.

on edit-- math....

[provis99]

8. how about: guns kill more people than crack?

[hack89]

11. But do they? nt

[2on2u]

10. There are more guns on earth (and other planets I'm sure)

than there are stars in the sky. This is one of those... please don't take it seriously.

[hack89]

6. How many people die from spider bites?

a lot less than Japanese baths I would bet.

Wicked, but funny, fail.

[Johnny Rico]

9. It's hard to say for sure; probably something in the ballpark half a dozen a year worldwide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_bite

[ileus]

17. I've been bitten by more spiders than killed by guns.

[Callisto32]

12. Fewer.

Fewer people.

[rl6214]

13. Why do you want to kill spiders, they are just harmless arthropods.

[iverglas]

14. ahem

Fewer people.


Edit. Damn. Beaten to the punch.

Like little fishhooks in my eyes, these things are.

[Hoyt]

15. Sounds better than the junk the gun culture uses to rationalize their polluting society with guns.

[ileus]

16. Why don't people stop those guns from killing people? I keep mine locked up

except the one I carry and I keep it under control not running free and engaging in rudeness.

[lastlib]

19. You should have stopped after the second word.

Guns Kill. Period. End of Discussion.

[hack89]

20. So do many other things. Some of them kill more people than guns.

I bet you routinely use or come into contact with many of them on a daily basis.