Thursday, July 20, 2006

For the "Children"

A newly issued report on the impact of gun violence on children shows that 131 children were killed by firearms in New York state in 2003, bringing the state up to the fourth ranking in gun-related deaths behind California, Texas and Illinois.

In New York City, 62 children under age 20 died by gunfire...
Hey, the Childrens Defense Fund said it, I believe it, that settles it. Why, the very thought that someone would deliberately confuse adolescent male thugs with Sally, Dick and Jane is...is...hey, that's not a bad idea...

Hell of a job "reporting," John Toscano. I've always admired the way you "authorized journalists" manage to keep bias and editorial content out of straight news.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

One might as well ask how many "children" under age 65 were killed.

Anonymous said...

So typical. Usually the cut-off is 19 for "children". Hey, whatever it takes to inflate the numbers so they can use the word "thousands".

Anonymous said...

I just re-read the article. Part of the legislation introduced includes "a ban on gun coloration kits used to disguise real guns so they look like toy guns."

WTF??? I familiar with parkerizing and having your hunting firearms professionally camo'd, but I've never heard of a "gun coloration kit" to transform the appearance of your firearm into a toy firearm. These people are looney.

Anonymous said...

I also like how three of those four states were the ones with some of the strictest gun laws in the country. But this elite reporter can't even muster a line about how such findings "call into question the effectiveness of many state laws."

Consistency is for peanut butter. We've got a message to get out there!

Anonymous said...

Just did a CDC WISQARS report on ages 0-14, firearms related fatalities for 2003. For all of New York STATE: 12 fatalties, 0-14 years of age.

What a hoser. I'll throw this at Johnny, from home and see if I can get a response.

Kevin said...

I did a WISQARS check on the age range of <1-18. The total was 96 deaths by firearm, all intentions, not 131. If you go from 1-19 you get 133.

However, it was my understanding that at age 18 you were considered an "adult." Changing the range to <1-17 you get 65. Of that 65, 47 were homicides, 16 were suicides, one (1) was unintentional and one was legal intervention.

But what do people think of when they heare "children killed by guns"?

They think this.

After all, as author Jean Hanff Koreletz wrote in Salon.com, "And what about the more than 4,000 children who die in gun-related accidents each year? That's 11 kids a day. And we're not talking about crimes, or intentional shootings. We're talking -- or not talking enough -- about accidents."

Right? Never mind that it's pure bullshit.

Anonymous said...

Wow, those are some earth shaking statistics there. The four most populous states in the country have the most gun deaths.

Anonymous said...

Were any of the "children under 20" in the armed forces? Did any of the 131 victims have a conviction for drug or violence related crimes? -- isn't is somewhere in the 70-75% range for victims of gun violence to have a felony background (thereby introducing possible criminal activity into the mix)?