Things I've Said

Thoughts I've had from time to time

Gun Laws and Gun Violence

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You’ve probably seen the 2014 map of the US from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (LCPGV) claiming that the highest gun death rates are in the states with the loosest gun laws, and vice versa.

I’ve taken it upon myself to transfer their grades to the chart below, along with the reported gun murder and gun death rates as listed in Wikipedia.

Of the ten states with the lowest gun murder rate, 6 are rated “F” for gun laws by the LCPGV (A = strict guns laws, F = loose gun laws). Of the ten states with the highest gun murder rate, 6 are rated “F”. Maryland has the third highest gun murder rate in the country, and is one of five states with an “A-” (no states are rated “A” or “A+”).

Gun murder rate and gun death rate are different.  So sorting the data by Gun Deaths per 100,000, we see that Washington, South Dakota, and Maryland are are ranked 12, 13, and 14.  Similar gun death rates, yet the grades from the Law center are C, F, and A- respectively.  Yes, Maryland, with the highest gun death rate of the three, gets scored as A-.

Now it is true that the states with the highest gun death rates are all given Fs.  Well, except for Alabama, which pulled off a D-, despite being the third highest in the country for gun deaths.  Meanwhile New Hampshire, with the 7th lowest rate of gun deaths, is also graded D-.  As previously mentioned, South Dakota gets an F at postion 13, while 11 states  with higher gun death rates are graded higher by the Law Center.

And it’s hard not to notice California.  California is rated A-, yet it has a higher gun death rate than 32 states, and a higher gun murder rate than 37 sates.

Here’s the wikipedia article

Here’s a link to the data in a spreadsheet, so you can sort it however you like

Here’s the WCPGV graphic

Are Guns the Cause of Violence?

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The US, with its fairly liberal gun laws, has a fairly high rate of intentional homicide (4.8/100,000).  But higher on the list are some countries with much more restrictive gun laws, including Bermuda (7.7) and Greenland (19.4).  We can’t make a one to one correlation of the prevalence of guns to the homicide rate.

Take a look at this chart and sort by the “rate of ownership”.  The US is at the top, by a wide margin.  Next sort by “homicide by guns per 100,000 people”.  Now the US falls just about the middle.  If there were a correlation of “gun ownership” to “gun homicide”, we would expect that the second column (rate of gun ownership) and the sixth column (homicides per 100,00 people) to be in nearly the same order.  But there is no discernable correlation at all.  South Korea, 149th in gun ownership is right next to Norway, 11th in gun ownership, when sorted by homicides per 100,000 people.  Algeria and France have the same gun homicide rates, while the former is 78th in gun ownership, and the later 12th.  Algeria has 7.6 guns per 100 people, France has 31.2

This chart, which shows both murder rates and gun ownership rates by state in the US.  The lack of correlation is even more staggering. Washington DC has the lowest rate of gun ownership by a wide margin, at 3.6%, and the highest murder rate in the country.  The next lowest rate of gun ownership level is Hawaii, at 6.7%.  Washington DC has a murder rate of 21.8 per 100,000, which is more than double the next highest murder rate, Louisiana, at 9.6 per 100,000.

Why We Need Guns

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We are bombarded with anti-gun propaganda in our schools, on TV, in newspapers.  I don’t blame people for their fear of guns – propaganda works.  But the fear we are taught to have is a terrible cowardice that is beaten into us.

There should be a snub-nose revolver in every purse in America.  Every would-be rapist should tremble, knowing that he is more likely to get a .38 in his chest, than to impose his will on a woman.  There should be a rifle in every closet in America.  Every man should be ready and willing to defend himself, his family, his community, and his country.

No rational rapist will target a woman known to have a revolver.  No rational robber will target a house known to have a rifle.

Every nation in the world should quake at the thought of invading the United States, not because of the might of our military, but because of the will of the people, ready to defend their own freedom.  If every nation in the world were thus prepared, the risk of defeat for any invading force would be grave indeed.

No rational nation would risk war with another nation so well armed.

And no rational government would dare even a single step towards tyranny – the people would quickly remind the government that it derives its just power from the consent of the governed.

I do not make the silly assumption that a well armed nation is some sort of utopia.  Evil people will still attempt to force their will on others.  Nations will indeed invade one another.  There is evil, and there is crazy in us.  And each individual should have the ability to defend themselves against it.