Wednesday, May 6, 2009

More Gun Control BS: Get Your Hip Waders

The Violence Policy Center issued a press release today attempting to get Mayberry's sheeple to bleat in indignation at the rates of gun ownership and the intimated rates of gun related deaths.

First off the press release simply quantifies everything as a "gun related death". It doesn't differentiate between accidental deaths, murders, cases of self defense where a victim offs the perp, or police engagements.

This alone should get people to whip out the old clothespin for closing off the nostrils.

VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “More guns means more gun death and injury. Fewer guns means less gun death and injury. It’s a simple equation.”

Perhaps that is true for the simple minded and stupid out there. Personally I'll qualify Ms. Rand's statement as, at best a result of sloth, and at worst a severe distortion of truth and reality.

We can easily make a similar statement such as, "Countries which have lower numbers of motor vehicles, have lower numbers of motor vehicle related deaths." Maybe this would work, "Cities without public transportation have fewer public transportation related deaths." Or how about, "People who do not see a doctor regularly are less likely to die due to mistakes made by the doctor."

The one I like best is "Uninhabited cities have a zero death rate."

It is simply asinine to make such statements, although they may be true on the face of it.

Let us just take the two extremes to illustrate how severe a distortion it actually is.


States with the Five Highest Gun Death Rates

States with the Five Lowest Gun Death Rates

Rank

State

Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate per 100,000 Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate per 100,000
1 Louisiana 45.6 percent 19.58 50 Hawaii 9.7 percent 2.58
2 Alabama 57.2 percent 16.99 49 Massachusetts 12.8 percent 3.28
3 (tie) Alaska 60.6 percent 16.38 48 Rhode Island 13.3 percent 4.43
3 (tie) Mississippi 54.3 percent 16.38 47 Connecticut 16.2 percent 4.95
5 Nevada 31.5 percent 16.25 46 New York 18.1 percent 5.20
http://www.vpc.org/press/0905gundeath.htm


If one takes a quick look at the Uniform Crime Report compiled for 2007 (latest I was able to find 2008 is still preliminary), one can see some glaring realities.

State Year Population Index Violent Property Murder Forcible Rape Robbery Aggravated assault Burglary Larceny- Theft Vehicle Theft
Louisiana 2007 4,293,204
4838.5
762.5
4076.0
14.2
32.4
141.7
541.2
1038.9
2683.5
353.6
Hawaii 2007 1,283,388
4497.2
272.8
4225.4
1.7
25.4
86.1
159.6
708.8
2993.3
523.9

One, Louisiana has over three times the population of Hawaii.

Two, the indices are nearly on par. The index indicates the number of reported crimes per 100,000 people. Louisiana had 4,838.5 crimes per 100,000 people. Hawaii with one third the population had nearly the same number of crimes reported!

There simply isn't enough information to make any kind of determination as to whether or not gun ownership affects crime and safety rates. This is a critical point when it comes to gun ownership.

If they really wanted to compare apples to apples, they'd break things down to similar sized cities, with demographically similar populations or states with similar populations.

What is even more ludicrous is the fact that states with higher rates of ownership than Louisiana (Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi) actually had lower rates of deaths per 100,000. Using these numbers, the claim can be made that higher rates of gun ownership equates to lower rates of gun related deaths.

On top of this, I wonder where they're getting their gun ownership numbers from. It could be that fewer households in Hawaii own guns, but how many guns per household? How many guns are in circulation in Hawaii?

For that fact, how many guns are in circulation in those fine southern states? I'm sure they used only the numbers that are officially on the books. If they were able to actually get an accurate count of the number of firearms in circulation, the folks over there at "The Violence Policy Center" might be in for a surprise.



4 comments:

Radio Bloger said...

Typical...

We know what is coming brother.

It is no longer a question of "IF" but "When".

"My respects to all friends, confusion to all enemies"
-William Barret Travis

Bitmap said...

How about "People with concealed carry permits are more likely to be arrested for a firearms related offense than people that don't own guns, therefore concealed carry permits cause crime."

How about "A city with a population of 1 will have a death rate of 100%."

The LWM has no interest in accuracy or truth in what they "report".

Maybe the current administration and majority party in congress will collapse under the sheer volume of illegal and unethical things they are doing.

Sunfighter said...

I saw this blatant propaganda this morning. These gun grabing freaks will never give up their anti-American quest. If we don't comply they might hit us their purses.

I hope if they ever do get their wish, that they do their civil duty and knock on doors demanding that us real Americans give up our guns, they'll get them alright, business end first...

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

just popped in, off my own hiat-ass...

i'm BACK...

We need updated word from YOU, Bro...

WOW US, Cat...

We'll play ya some 50's music in return fer gunnin' down sheeple and misaligned gub'mints...

Much love, brother Man...