[extropy-chat] Gun and crime stats for the USA

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Gary Miller <aiguy at comcast.net> wrote:
> Don't we have to add the number of deaths from accidental gun deaths
> to the
> number murdered to get a true picture of loss of life?
> 
> Quoting http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel013101.shtml
> 
> Putting aside the suicides, the Kellermann/Reay figures show 2.39
> accidental
> or criminal deaths by firearm (in the home) for every justifiable
> fatal
> shooting. Now, 2 to 1 is a lot less dramatic than 43 to 1 earlier
> reported
> in a flawed  earlier analysis, but we still have more unjustifiable
> gun deaths than justifiable gun deaths in the home.

Kellerman's figures have been thoroughly destroyed as anything
meaningful. In fact, his study is taught in statistics classes as an
example of how to lie with fraudulent stats.

The facts are that the Keck surveys established that lawful defensive
gun use occurs over 2 million times a year in the US, with around 9,000
homicides. Most defensive gun uses never result in the firing of a
shot. People like Kellerman refuse to count such uses.

> 
> Worse yet many of those killed are the very children the parents seek
> to protect.

On the contrary, another area Kellerman lies is in counting ALL child
deaths at the hands of parents as being gun related if there is a gun
in the home. Most child deaths at the hands of parents occur with the
hands (choking, beating, kicking, starving, drowning, etc).

Another area is one you are confusing here. When the FBI reports a
murder victim as being 'related or acquainted' with their killer, this
does NOT just include parents, relatives, friends and neighbors. THis
includes the drug dealer on the corner and the cranck addict in the
alley. Being 'acquainted' with the perpetrator means "was the victim
aware of the perpetrators identity and/or presence in the neighborhood
prior to the crime?" and does not just include people you wouldn't mind
having over for tea.

> 
> Hand gun locks and smart guns could eliminate this disparity once the
> public was legally required to meet this requirement.  But the cost
> of smart guns could be cost prohibitive and hand gun locks laws
> could only be enforced after the fact or on an inspection basis
> the way we do with automobiles.

Actually studies have shown no increase in safety with gun locks
outside of an increase in safety for abusive parents, who might
otherwise be killed at the hands of their victim children if they could
get their hands on their parents firearms. Gun locks are very easy to
overcome in several minutes with a small pair of bolt cutters or a
bobby pin or paper clip. I have even seen some that would pop open if
you banged them on your desk at the right angle while pulling on the
hasp. Contrarily, gun locks hamper a homeowners ability to use the gun
in the event of an actual home invasion of any sort, and are recorded
as responsible for a number of deaths as a result.

> 
> Juries would be extremely reluctant to prosecute parents for
> manslaughter
> who left an unlocked gun where a child could gain access but the
> publicity
> from such trials could further server to educate other gun owners.

The OB/GYN who delivered myself and my siblings, who was also my
grandfathers best friend, was killed on holiday evening, along with his
wife and son by a biker gang invading their home in Massachusetts in
the late 1970's. Massachusetts law did not allow even the training of
handgun use to children under 16, and his 14 year old son was the only
one in reach of a hand gun at the time, a boy who had been an avid
shooter since age 9. He tried to use his fathers 1911 pistol, but it
jammed and he was overpowered before he could clear the stack. Do NOT
try to tell me that preventing children from accessing firearms is any
sort of answer to anything.

> 
> I have read that the decrease in murder rates is in a large part due
> to the decreased fatalities caused by improvement of medical trauma. 
> Additional factors include improved police work in getting repeat
> violent offenders off
> the street sooner and laws like three strikes and your out which put
> repeat violent offenders away for good.

It is documented that states that pass right-to-carry laws experience a
minimum of a 12% greater decrease in violent crime than states without
such laws. (Dr John Lott, "More Guns, Less Crime"; University of
Chicago Press) Furthermore, Lott shows that spree killings are reduced
by 80% over non-right-to-carry states.

Violent offenders are not being put away for good, either. Violent
criminals are being released early, without warning victims and
witnesses, in order to make room for drug offenders.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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