The Smallest Minority |
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The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. - Ayn Rand Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. - MaxedOutMama I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. Kim du Toit
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. . . and so are you  Wahabism Delenda Est      Hey, FEC!  BITE ME! I'm a Member of the McCain-Feingold INSURRECTION!    "Jeez, Kevin... calling you an asshole would be a huge understatement, wouldn't it?" -Jack Cluth, The People's Republic of Seabrook (Coming from you, Jack, it's an honor.)  email: gunrightsAT comcastDOTnet INVITATION: If you have never shot a firearm, regardless of your position on the right to arms, and if you live near or visit the Tucson, AZ metropolitan area, I invite you to go shooting for a day. I will provide the arms, ammunition, targets, safety equipment, range fees and instruction. All you have to do is show up. 6 Takers To Date DO YOU LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE and want to try shooting? Click HERE  Proud Gun-blogging member of the Pajamahadeen since May, 2003!
Debates: "The Commentary" A OLD discussion on gun control between me and an Irishman living in London Start here. UPDATED! Now with archive! Post #1 by Alex, a Guest A multi-post discussion hosted here at TSM My short exchange with Professor Saul Cornell of the Second Amendment Research Center Best Posts: The "Rights" Discussion: What is a "Right?" What is a "Right"? Revisited, Part I Part II Rights, Morality, Idealism & Pragmatism, Part I Part II Part III Part IV The United Federation of Planets Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection? Part I & Part II 1975 in Washington, D.C. vs. 2004 in Canton, Ohio Go Ahead, Rely on the Government for Your Protection The Other Side Liberal vs. Conservative: Both are Necessary The Mystery of Government The Blog that Ate Poughkeepsie Updated and restated as: Of Laws and Sausages Militias A Mistake a Free People Get to Make Only Once The George Orwell Daycare Center This is NOT What I Wanted to Read TRUST The Lying "News" Media, Pt. II Say WHAT? Bias? What Bias? Agenda? What Agenda? The Church of the MSM and the New Reformation Let's See if I Can "Germinate an Intelligent Thought" Here The ACLU Hasn't Changed its Tune They Never EVER Stop It is Not the Business of Government Five Reasons Why It ISN'T They Keep Making Better Fools Five Month Investigation, 10 Tracer Rounds, Two Felony Convictions That Sumbitch Ain't been BORN! On Guillotines and Gibbets England Slides Further Towards Bondage Pressing the "RESET" Button Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothin' Left To Lose A Terrible Resolve The Courts Will Not Save Us Trilogy: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions "Game Over, Man. Game Over." An Important Question And the denouement: Hudson Was Wrong The Dangerous Victims Trilogy: "(I)t's most important that all potential victims be as dangerous as they can" Violence and the Social Contract Governments, Criminals, and Dangerous Victims In the same vein: Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them The True Believers Trilogy: True Believers March of the Lemmings Reasonable People Also in the same vein: Tough History Coming The Culture Trilogy Culture Hubris Weltanschauung And its follow-on: In Re: Culture Technical Dissertations Why Ballistic Fingerprinting Doesn't (And Won't) Work Spin, Spin, Spin Speaking of Teddy Kennedy... This is the Kind of Thing That REALLY IRRITATES ME Questions from the Audience?
BLOGROLL:
PROTESTWARRIOR Some people who are taking the fight to the Left. And some GREAT T-shirts, too. DAILY READS I need a longer day! Day by Day InstaPundit Lileks' The Bleat Mostly Cajun View from the Porch Of Arms and the Law TFS Magnum Ravenwood's Universe Irons in the Fire Say Uncle The Adventures of Roberta X TRUE EXCELLENCE American Digest The Belmont Club Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper The Volokh Conspiracy Michael Yon Varifrank Eject!Eject!Eject! Eternity Road Oleg Volk ON INDEFINITE HIATUS USS Clueless The Safety Valve Ipse Dixit The Lopsided Poopdeck Acidman (RIP) Skywritings Publicola D.C. Thorton Kim du Toit Personal Effects Smoke on the Water OTHER GUN/RIGHTS BLOGS Airborne Combat Engineer AlphaPatriot Alphecca American Dinosaur A Day in the Life of an Ambulance Driver The Anarchangel Mrs. Anarchangel The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler Argghhh! The Bitch Girls Boots and Sabers The Breda Fallacy Gun Nuts Media Carnaby Fudge Clayton Cramer Cogito Ergo Geek Countertop Chronicles Cowboy Blob Critical Mastiff Cryptic Subterranean Found: One Troll FreedomSight From the Heartland Fun Turns to Tragedy!!! The Geek with a .45 Gunwatch Heartless Libertarian Hecate's Crossroad Hell in a Handbasket Individ Justin Buist's Blog The LawDog Files Lead and Gold Les Jones Live from the (upper) Texas Gulf Coast Mad Ogre The Michael Bane Blog Moral Flexibility Mr. Completely Murdoc Online The Munchkin Wrangler Ninth Stage No Looking Backwards No Quarters Oscar Poppa Outrageous Malfunction Pass the ammo Posse Incitatus Random Nuclear Strikes Reasonablenut Resistance is Futile! Sandcastles and Cubicles SlagleRock's Slaughterhouse Snowflakes in Hell Surly Curmudgeon Texican Tattler The Ten Ring South Park Pundit Triggerfinger The View From North Central Idaho Vox The War on Guns Weck Up To Thees! Wince and Nod Xavier Thoughts .45 Caliber Justice BLOGGERS I'VE MET A Keyboard and a .45  
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Thursday, January 26, 2006 Questions from the Audience?. In a comment to my second "Chocolate Rivers" post, commenter "homeboy" asked a number of good questions. Can't learn if you don't ask. However, instead of leaving the questions as an exercise for the student, I figured I'd go ahead and see if I could satisfy him. 1. With improvements in medical technology and access (cell phones), are comparisons with past homicide numbers meaningful? Well, I guess we'd need to look at homicide rates and try to compare to wounding data. The wounding data is kind of hard to come by. Or, perhaps, homicide to attempted homicide, though that normally doesn't break out by weapon. First, as far as homicide rates are concerned, there's this chart for rates from 1900 through 2000:
However, there's this fascinating graph:
Pocket rockets are a prime example of how the firearms industry has exploited increased lethality—greater killing power—over the last several decades to boost sales in its saturated markets.But note something - the VPC states in that year 2000 report: The industry has heavily promoted pocket rockets in connection with a wave of new or revised state laws that permit licensed persons to carry concealed firearms.When did these "new or revised state laws" start? In 1987 with the passage of Florida's "shall issue" law. In 1990 there were only 15 "shall-issue" states. In 1995 there were 27. In 2000 there were 30. After 1993, what does the homicide rate do? It declines. From 10.0 in 1990, to 8.7 in 1995 to 6.1 in 2000, to 5.5 in 2004, all while literally millions of these guns with supposedly "increased lethality - greater killing power" have entered the market. If the hypothesis is that "improvements in medical technology" are responsible for a decrease in homicide rates - the implication being that more people are getting shot, but surviving the experience - then that theory is shot to hell (pun intended) by this data. Fewer people are getting shot. Fewer people are getting shot at. And there are more guns in private hands each and every year. You'll note that the chart in the VPC report:
2. It seems more honest to compare attempted murder rates since the survival rate is much higher now; is there statistical data available, or can it be estimated? Well, perhaps the survival rate is "much higher now," but compared to when? The survival rate in 1950, or the survival rate in 1993? Or is the "increased lethality" of modern guns offsetting the advances in medical technology? I don't know, but it appears that, at least since the mid-90's, the actual incidences of gun violence have been declining - even though there are more and more guns in circulation, and - if you want to believe the VPC - those guns have "greater killing power." The fact of the matter is, violent crime is down - tremendously. Look at this chart:
More guns have not meant more violent, more deadly crime. But that doesn't stop the gun-grabbers from preaching the gospel of "more guns = more gun violence" every chance they get. 3. Is the data available to remove the suicide and domestic violence effects from the statistics used to claim that handguns in a home lead to higher homicide rates, and if so, what is the result? Not that I've seen. Not that the National Academies of Science has seen either, according to their recent report. That data just doesn't exist. Just for the record, I don't believe that "handguns in the home" do lead to higher homicide rates. 4. Since we incarcerate at much higher rates than even 20 years ago, what effect is this having on who is committing the bulk of homicides? Apparently not much. According to this graph:
5. If we're incarcerating so many people, but we're still having a problem with homicide, what is it we're not doing right? Is there a high recindivism rate, or are new criminals arising to fill the some niche, or are we just incarcerating the wrong people? Well, that's if you consider a homicide rate of 5.5 per hundred-thousand "a problem." We're a violent society. The rate we have now is pretty damned low, historically. It's down tremendously from a decade ago, but you couldn't tell that by the rhetoric coming out of the gun- 6. If it's a high recidivism rate, is it because prison time insufficient deterent, or is the percentage of perpetrators actually punished too low to matter? Could it be that prison (other than keeping violent criminals separated from the population) doesn't actually deter? I don't know. 7. How much of the homicide rate is caused by the "war on drugs" making narco-trafficing so lucrative? Well, it would appear that the majority of homicides are related to drugs. Look at this graph:
UPDATE, 1/27: Reader Earl Harding notes in a comment that the graph above is not saying what I'm attributing to it. He's quite correct. My error. However, a little additional research and I found this: In an analysis of New York City's homicides in 1988, Paul Goldstein and his colleagues concluded that 74 percent of drug-related homicides were related to the black market drug trade and not drug use. For instance, the leading crack-related homicide cause was shown to be territorial disputes between rival dealers, and not crack-induced violence or violence (predatory thieving) to obtain money for crack purchases.Small data point, but I think one that could be easily extrapolated. A Columbia University report stated: In New York City, drug-related violence contributed to sharp increase in homicides beginning in 1985, peaking at a record rate in 1991. Estimates from police and injury surveillance systems suggest that over half the homicides in these years were drug related, often associated with drug market transactions. These record homicide rates led to intensive street-level law enforcement efforts beginning in 1987, resulting in unprecedented rates of drug arrests and sharp increases in the state prison population.Still, that's only New York. The normally reliable GunCite reports: Draw your own conclusions. End of Update. 8. What are the demographics of homicide victims and perpetrators; do we have an urban, suburban or rural problem; do we have a poverty problem; or is it a wide spread social problem; or is it predominately racial/predjudical problem; or is it largely caused by the drug war? And here's the question the gun-grabber organizations stay as far away from as they can possibly manage: who's killing, and who's dying? Look at these graphs, and pay particular attention to the scales:
As I detailed in a post from 2003: I have found the Centers for Disease Control WISQARS Fatal Injury Report tool quite helpful, so I'll use it again. The latest data is for 2000, so let's see what it says.(Hopefully, all those links still work.) What I've never understood is that we know that the majority of homicide is concentrated in a very small, easily identifiable population, why are we trying to attack it by regulating guns? Instead, I've come to the conclusion that "gun control" isn't about reducing crime. It's about disarming the law-abiding populace. I hope that helped answer your questions. Now, go and do some research for yourself. (All graphs with the exception of the VPC one are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics web page.) UPDATE: This post generated some commentary. A related post, with links, is here: Culture Labels: gun control, miscellaneous | | |
