In other words, when we speculate as to a shooter's affiliations it's bad but when they do it, it's OK.
What's your opinion? What images come to your mind that might have led to this incident? Do you picture a couple of ghetto crack addicts doing it? How about a gang related confrontation that went bad?Federal authorities are investigating the shooting of a gray seal that was spotted on a Cape Cod beach earlier this month.
Authorities say the adult male seal was spotted Oct. 2 and euthanized two days later. A necropsy showed that the animal had been shot several times in the head.
What I picture is a few NRA types out on a boat drinkinig beer and having a good old time. Solid members of the 10% gang.
Please leave a comment.
Wow. I wonder if, when reading a crime report, you automatically assume is was a person of a certain ethnicity as well. This sounds very bigoted. And I think you need to get your head out of the sand and study the difference between correlation and causation and the impact on prejudices.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it WAS some yahoo who happened to be in the NRA, but WTF does it matter? EVERY group is going to have someone in it that you wish wasn't. I'm sure whatever groups you're involved with, some people in it wish you weren't on 'their side'.
Regardless of whether the person was in the NRA/PETA/Christian/Muslim/Jewish/pagan/Zoroastrian/hetero/homo/Democrat/Republican/Libertarian/Brady Bunch/etc., the act is horrible and should be punished if they're ever caught.
Anon: Your comment doesn't make sense on several levels.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it makes no sense to equate gun ownership with ethnicity or sexual preference--and to some degree, religion. In the latter cases, it's not a choice.
Second, despite all the talk of "law-abiding citizens"--we find it's usually hard-core NRA types that are committing these kinds of crimes. They have a gun, believe it's their God-given right, and they use them.
BTW, I really wish you and yours would understand correlation and causation before suggesting others need to study it.
ReplyDeleteAs I've sagely noted previously, correlation can be just as powerful as causation. For instance, cigarette smoking--I think most reasonable people wouldn't disagree smoking is dangerous to your health. Yet, there is no scientific or medical evidence that proves smoking causes cancer or diseases. What we do have, howver, is a strong correlation that smoking is responsible for a large number of health hazards.
90 Million gun owners and 5 million NRA members. You have about a 5% chance it was an NRA member. Less when you consider that some NRA members don't own a firearm but support the work that the NRA does. So yeah, I would agree that it is a bigoted stance that every event with a firearm is pointed toward the NRA when only 5% of the gun owning population are NRA members.
ReplyDeletePatrick: I seriously question whether there are 3M NRA members. That aside, NRA members tend to be more militant about their guns and tend to carry them.
ReplyDeleteWhile 80M may own guns, many never remove them from home or use them only for hunting or sportshooting purposes.
BTW, Patrick, I noticed a quote at your site--allegedly from George Washington:
ReplyDelete"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference they deserve a place of honor with all that is good. "
Since I'm a bit of a Washington buff, I researched this and found it's a bogus quote. It seems to have first surfaced in the early 1980s.
What I picture is a few NRA types out on a boat drinkinig beer and having a good old time. Solid members of the 10% gang.
ReplyDeleteI picture members of MikeB's family out on a boat drinking beer and having a good old time. Of course I only have as much evidence as you do that it was an NRA member.
Ruffy, ruffy, Ruffy..
ReplyDeleteActually, you have much less evidence that it was Mikeb.
I have zero evidence that it was MikeB or his family. You have zero evidence that it was an NRA member. That's kinda the point. And no, guesses, theories, and things you pull out of your ass don't count as evidence.
ReplyDeletePoor Ruffy. Logic isn't your strong point. Consider what you just said.
ReplyDeleteYou stated you have zero evidence it is mikeb. OTOH, the probability it was an NRA member is something greater than zero.
Mathematically:
P(mikeb)=0
P(NRA)>0
Thus P(NRA)>P(mikeb)
the probability it was an NRA member is something greater than zero.
ReplyDeleteProbability is not evidence.
Court of law evidence? Probably not. But probability is used as evidence all the time.
ReplyDeleteAhh, Jade, an ego as well as prejudice (citing yourself as sage)?
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention correlation vs. causation in smoking, because that's exactly the example used in this primer on the topic, including various other hypotheses examined.
http://stats.org/in_depth/faq/causation_correlation.htm
Unlike the smoking causation, accepted by knowledgeable professionals, you have no strong evidence besides your personal opinion (and admittedly the opinion of a minority of others) of any causation of NRA members and crime...and an n of 1 does not constitute a scientific analysis as you seem to with for each individual article you point to. Summarize some data without having to skew it (e.g. calling 20 year olds 'children'), and I'd be happy to look at it. (Note: A good place to start is the CDC's death and mortality numbers.)
RuffRidr, You're the one who brought up evidence. Don't you know by now I don't need evidence to use my brain and make logical deductions?
ReplyDeleteI wrote, "What I picture is..."
If you'd bring a little honesty to the discussion instead of your blind loyalty to the cause, you'd admit I was right. It's more likely this was done by irresponsible gun owners than by drug dealers or gang members.
RuffRidr, You're the one who brought up evidence. Don't you know by now I don't need evidence to use my brain and make logical deductions?
ReplyDeleteYes, we are all well aware of your lack of evidence for just about everything you put on here. Without the evidence though, it doesn't mean squat. I'm certainly not going to condemn the NRA for what a member of their organization may or may not have done.
It's more likely this was done by irresponsible gun owners than by drug dealers or gang members.
See this is your problem. In your mind irresponsible gun owner equates to NRA. I would agree with you that this likely was the result of an irresponsible gun owner. I would not agree that that makes it likely to be an NRA member.
Mike did said NRA “types”. That is a good way of defaming the NRA without having to make a Jadegold faith based assumption.
ReplyDeleteThat's right RuffRidr, you're confusing me with Jadegold, which I take as a compliment, by the way.
ReplyDeleteI say "NRA type" which as TS pointed out is a slick way to say the same thing. I prefer my way because it allows for a full 10 or 20 million of you "types," rather than the measley 4 million registered members.