Consider a 1998 study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery that found that “every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides.” Pistol owners’ fantasy of blowing away home-invading bad guys or street toughs holding up liquor stores is a myth debunked by the data showing that a gun is 22 times more likely to be used in a criminal assault, an accidental death or injury, a suicide attempt or a homicide than it is for selfdefense. I harbored this belief for the 20 years I owned a Ruger .357 Magnum with hollow-point bullets designed to shred the body of anyone who dared to break into my home, but when I learned about these statistics, I got rid of the gun.He seems to buy the scientific studies are correct, but isn't that the reason that federal funding has been held back because it might "advocate gun control"?
Anyway, unlike the parrots, he finds (as I do) that the pro-gun arguments just don't withstand scrutiny:
Another myth to fall to the facts is that gun-control laws disarm good people and leave the crooks with weapons. Not so, say the Johns Hopkins authors: “Strong regulation and oversight of licensed gun dealers—defined as having a state law that required state or local licensing of retail firearm sellers, mandatory record keeping by those sellers, law enforcement access to records for inspection, regular inspections of gun dealers, and mandated reporting of theft of loss of firearms—was associated with 64 percent less diversion of guns to criminals by in-state gun dealers.” Finally, before we concede civilization and arm everyone to the teeth pace the NRA, consider the primary cause of the centurieslong decline of violence as documented by Steven Pinker in his 2011 book The Better Angels of Our Nature: the rule of law by states that turned over settlement of disputes to judicial courts and curtailed private self-help justice through legitimate use of force by police and military trained in the proper use of weapons.the article can be found here.
We've dealt with this before. If you're impressed by the work of Kellermann, then by all means, don't have a gun. But stay out of my decision to have one.
ReplyDeleteSince you have stated that you will take the law into your own hands; no we can't leave you out, in fact you are one who should be disarmed for the good of public safety.
DeleteSo this guy was convinced by a study that he was likely to criminally assault someone if he kept his gun?
ReplyDelete"a gun is 22 times more likely to be used in a criminal assault, an accidental death or injury, a suicide attempt or a homicide than it is for selfdefense."
DeleteThat's covers a bit more than "criminally assault someone."
Mikeb, you have no business criticizing me for the studies and so forth that I cite when you quote that twenty-two times nonsense.
DeleteI will accept that giving a gun to a person adds a new element for an accident (yet easily mitigated). But all the other things? Na. Do you really believe that this guy is less likely to murder someone now that he got rid of his gun? That he was more likely to commit suicide before? And by such a big factor? This is what you honestly believe in your heart?
DeleteIn order to create a civilized society, where the mighty are not free to exploit the weak, as well as maintain the rule of law, we have traded individual self-defense for the benefit of a professional police force. To guarantee life, liberty, and property for all citizens of a nation, there must be to some degree a collectivization of resources in order to protect the fundamental liberties of the persons subject to the rule of the State from infringement by their fellow citizen. Without the government there would be no rights. The twenty-first century American is very much a creation of the state, as without police officers, firefighters, social workers, and soldiers, there would be no quality of life, no liberty and no property worth defending. We must at all times consider ourselves a creation of the State, which has (directly or indirectly) endowed the ordinary subject, with their very lives, property and the freedoms that we take for granted. The collectivization of some rights in inherent to the formation of a civilized society. Police are endowed with coercive power, while mere citizens are not. The mere subject of a State (in this case the U.S.) has no reasonable claim of a "right" to "keep and bear" certain arms, the form of arms which may be lawfully possessed or the manner or place in which such arms are may lawfully used, dependent on the current prevailing interpretation of the (falsely) perceived right. Such a right (as it is claimed) being endowed to the mere person, by the current U.S. constitution, would contradict a (rather fundamental) right to civilian disarmament, which may be derived from the provisions of the preamble which specifically establish the obligation of the State to "ensure domestic tranquility" (therefore requiring a disarmed citizenry) and to "provide for the common defense" which requires State actors to have a monopoly on the lawful use of coercive power (such as the lawful use of arms)
DeleteTherefore, although a "right to keep and bear arms" exists, it does not belong to you.
Also...................
The practice of maintaining a firearm inside the confines of the domicile requires the belief that speeding bullets will be halted by flimsy drywall, and not enter adjacent rooms and structures, inflicting death upon the occupants of such.
"Not so, say the Johns Hopkins author"
ReplyDeleteThey meant to not say, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. I'm sure there's no possibility of bias in this research.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/texas-legalize-marijuana_n_4064808.html
ReplyDeleteWhat's that have to do with anything? Please send me off-topic suggestions by e-mail.
Deletehttp://www.politicsplus.org/blog/2013/10/08/republicans-on-parade1082013/#comments
ReplyDeleteI gotta chuckle at Pooch's silly post and nursery school logic.
ReplyDeleteSuggested reading for the pooch: Mencken's "A Neglected Anniversary"
orlin sellers