30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence. How do we prevent this carnage? First, view illegal guns as pollution. Then, go to the source. [More]IT BUR-R-R-RNS!!!
And some think we use hyperbole.
I guess the "public health model" didn't get enough traction, so now we're trying the environmentalism analogy tack? And, of course, there's absolutely no acknowledgment of the protective benefits of guns in private hands. Nobody thought these folks were interested in objective scientific inquiry, I hope.
One name sticks out from this as, I dunno, ironic...Daniel Webster would do well to recall the words of a man who bore that name with honor.
Hey, if guns are pollutants, will rich liberals who still have theirs get to ease their consciences by paying some sort of offset indulgence...?
[Via Russell S]
4 comments:
"Gun" violence is a lie. The problem is violence, which comes from the human brain. "Brain violence" would be a more honest term. And I guess since the victim disarmers are disarmed, they want the rest of us to be, as well.
Gun Violence is undefined, so it's also whatever the speaker wants it to be, as long as a gun is somehow involved.
This piece is one big smorgasbord of statistics without qualification. I just don't have the patience right now to pick through all of it. Instead I will pick the passages I feel are the most misleading.
"Mayor Barrett, Perry and other officials were convinced that if they could get Badger to change the way it did business, more Milwaukeeans would be alive at the end of 2006. After all, back in 1999, when Badger agreed to stop selling Saturday night specials, the number of these new, low-quality handguns on Milwaukee's streets dropped by a staggering 71 percent."
So? The murder rate dropped by less than one point the following year, and then went back up the next. Milwaukee was generally following the national trends, where the violent crime rates dropped starting in 1991, and hit a record low in 2004.
Chart - Source: Uniform Crime Reports 1999-2007
"There was another disturbing trend in 2005. Homicide rates in many American cities were up again after a relatively calm 2004. Milwaukee was among those with a deadly increase..."
This is the Fall 2008 Edition? How about the decrease the following year? That data has only been out for two years now. I put together a set of data in thirty minutes.
Don't mind me, I'm just going to fill out the missing information in these...
"Facts
* 42 million Number of U.S. households with at least one gun
* 283 million Number of guns in the U.S."
Yet the alleged criminal influence of firearms caused only 0.006 percent of them to be involved in a murder. (It's actually lower, because some weapons are used in multiple crimes.)
"* 40 Decrease in number of homicides per year, 1990-1999, after a 1990 law in Maryland banned the sale of cheap 'Saturday night special' handguns"
That drop was part of a nation-wide trend. It was previously credited to the "Assault Weapons Ban" of 1994, until it was pointed out that the drop started in 1991.
"* 84 Average number of daily gun-related deaths in the U.S."
Yeah, that works out pretty close to the typical 30,000 yearly deaths from suicide and murder--or about one-hundredth of one percent of the population.
"* 55.4 Percent of U.S. gun deaths that are suicides"
If a "gun death" is where death resulted from misuse of a firearm, then about 60 percent is right. This has not changed appreciably with background checks or mandatory storage laws.
"* 71,000 Number of Americans wounded by gun violence in 2006"
I can't verify this without knowing what is "gun violence". It doesn't help that I didn't spot the source for this statistic. My sources are FBI UCR 1999-2007 and CDC Mortality data 2003-2004.
"* 500 Percent increase in chance of the partner's death if a domestic abuser owns a gun"
Even with a law in place where a convicted "domestic abuser" is barred from purchasing a firearm? Be still my heart! It is almost as if making rules, counting guns, and harassing non-criminal Citizens isn't helping.
Also: Who is the "Bloomberg" in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health?
I'll keep my guns, and get me some "gun-offsets" so I can live in delectable hipocrasy, like St. Al Gore in his massive mansion!
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