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A Few Thoughts On Gun Control
Oct. 6th, 2015 09:20 amThought 1 - It's The Violence
Per Wikipedia, the murder rate in Great Britain is 1 per 100,000 people. Per the CDC, the US murder rate is 5.1 per 100,000 people. From the CDC data, the non-gun murder rate is 1.6 per 100,000. In short, if you waved your magic wand and all the guns in the USA evaporated, and none of the people who would have been killed by guns were harmed, the USA would still have an abnormally high murder rate.
Thought 2 - Income Disparity
Go back to that Wikipedia link and sort it by murder rate. You'll see that we're in the same league as Mauritania, Kenya, Albania or Latvia. Mexico has a murder rate 4 times ours. What do all these spots have in common? Huge income disparities and less-than-trustworthy police. I'll just leave that for your consideration.
Thought 3 - Mass Shootings as Terrorism
This article has an interesting point, to wit: You don’t just show up with a 140-page manifesto and a large stockpile of weapons one day. You work at it for a long time. And you plan not only the violence, but the presentation for the audience, the performance — what they will see from you, what they will hear from you, the reasons why, the message. It’s all very conscious and deliberate.
Thought 4 - "Problem Shooters"
A final interesting thought - there are problem shooters - people who probably shouldn't be given a gun. Yet we have no real mechanism to deny them a weapon. I'll submit that, under one interpretation of what the Founding Fathers wanted, anybody too nutty to be in the militia wouldn't have a gun. Again, I'll just leave that for your consideration.
Per Wikipedia, the murder rate in Great Britain is 1 per 100,000 people. Per the CDC, the US murder rate is 5.1 per 100,000 people. From the CDC data, the non-gun murder rate is 1.6 per 100,000. In short, if you waved your magic wand and all the guns in the USA evaporated, and none of the people who would have been killed by guns were harmed, the USA would still have an abnormally high murder rate.
Thought 2 - Income Disparity
Go back to that Wikipedia link and sort it by murder rate. You'll see that we're in the same league as Mauritania, Kenya, Albania or Latvia. Mexico has a murder rate 4 times ours. What do all these spots have in common? Huge income disparities and less-than-trustworthy police. I'll just leave that for your consideration.
Thought 3 - Mass Shootings as Terrorism
This article has an interesting point, to wit: You don’t just show up with a 140-page manifesto and a large stockpile of weapons one day. You work at it for a long time. And you plan not only the violence, but the presentation for the audience, the performance — what they will see from you, what they will hear from you, the reasons why, the message. It’s all very conscious and deliberate.
Thought 4 - "Problem Shooters"
A final interesting thought - there are problem shooters - people who probably shouldn't be given a gun. Yet we have no real mechanism to deny them a weapon. I'll submit that, under one interpretation of what the Founding Fathers wanted, anybody too nutty to be in the militia wouldn't have a gun. Again, I'll just leave that for your consideration.
